Thread: Making an English Comb-back Windsor Chair

Was chatting to Blue-Devilled about Babbage. It does show the dangers of being rigid about a period. Babbage was 29 in 1820 and was physically living in that period. Mentally however, he belongs to a later date. He seems to have first devised the idea of his 'calculating engine' in 1822.
Cheers,
Jim

Originally Posted by jimbur

He seems to have first devised the idea of his 'calculating engine' in 1822.
Cheers,
Jim

Two years too late as far as I'm concerned!

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Two years too late as far as I'm concerned!

Didn't make furniture either

"Outsourcing components for Windsor chairs has been recorded since the early part of the 18th century (although the bodgers' heyday wasn't until much later), so who knows, maybe there's a flying staircase in a manor house in Buckinghamshire with balusters of the same profile as these chair legs!"

Now that would be something to see. Although these days a few Lovejoy types may have crept in, leaving gaps of four balusters halfway up!

The leg spigots were turned to size with a small chamfer at their ends to assist with entry into the mortices in the seat. With the legs tapped into the seat, the mortices for the side stretchers were carefully bored.

The measurements for the side stretchers were established using two 6mm (1/4in) dowels, held side-by-side, with one end of each dowel touching the bottom of the mortices and a pencil mark made on one of the dowels alongside the free end of its neighbour. About 6mm (1/4in) is added to this measurement to ensure the stretchers stretch the legs apart slightly, keeping the whole structure taut.

The side stretchers were turned to shape, parted off at the predetermined length and fitted to the legs.


Side stretcher tennoned into front leg.

The legs were again fitted to the seat and the mortices for the centre stretcher were bored into the side stretchers. The centre stretcher was similarly measured and turned.


The undercarriage assembled to check the fit.

Before withdrawing the legs from the seat, I made a saw cut across the top of each leg, perpendicular to the grain of the seat. The saw marks are guides for sawing the cuts for the wedges which will jam the legs tight in their mortices come glue-up time.


Saw mark indicates orientation of wedge kerf.

No longer possessing the physical attributes to swing a 'toe hoe' (though in truth, it's a fairly gentle art); I resorted to an 'electric adze' for the initial roughing-out of the seat. The Arbortech and Saburr Tooth discs are uncouth, messy tools and the angry grinder they attach to makes an unholy racket, but wood removal is swift and controllable.


After four minutes with the Arbortech disc.


After another eleven minutes with the Saburr Tooth disc.

As with my usual regime, I won't let a machine within two processes of any finished surface, so with this seat, I finished the shaping with a travisher.


After a further eighteen minutes with the travisher.

The front edges of the scallops still have to be eased so they don't dig into the back of the sitter's thighs. Daylight was failing, so I'll tackle that little job with a spokeshave another day and I'll give the seat a final scrape once the legs are glued in and trimmed.

Very nice. How do you make it all so crisp?

And what's a travisher?

Nice WW!

You think a grinder is uncouth? Try a chainsaw!

In simple terms (because that's all I know), a Travisher is a curved spokeshave. You can just see it partially hidden behind the seat in the last pic. Damn expensive and damn hard to find at the markets. Some people modify the older Stanley 51 spokeshave by using a belt sander to round off the sole, shorten the handles and then modify the blade to suit.

HTH

This bloke is demonstrating the use of a travisher. Note: He mentions that he's been at it for over an hour, but not many chair makers would use a travisher for the entire seat-hollowing procedure. Most would begin with an adze and possibly move on to a scorp before finishing it off with a travisher.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5jNiYMdPko&feature=related"]Travisher[/ame].

Originally Posted by artme

You think a grinder is uncouth? Try a chainsaw!

A chainsaw for hollowing out a seat? It's been done on rustic furniture, but I don't think I'd be game to try it on a seat like this.

Still watching and reading.

Inspirational work WW

Cheers
Michael

Originally Posted by derekh

In simple terms (because that's all I know), a Travisher is a curved spokeshave. You can just see it partially hidden behind the seat in the last pic. Damn expensive and damn hard to find at the markets. Some people modify the older Stanley 51 spokeshave by using a belt sander to round off the sole, shorten the handles and then modify the blade to suit.

HTH

dat'll be one like dis.

I'm impressed by your seat-carving routine, WW!

It looks like you've done it all with nothing more than the outer chalk line as a guide, too. After doing about 40 seat bottoms I still can't get the depth consistent without drilling a couple of guide holes to just above the depth of the deepest parts. Otherwise I carve too shallow, & it looks wimpy. I put it down to making chairs on a very irregular basis, but your carving is deep & bold & looks splendid, & you say you haven't done one in a long while.

P'raps it's just plain talent I lack, not practice.

This thread is giving me an urge to make some more chairs. Maybe it's time to tackle that continuous-arm rocker I've been getting around to.....
Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

I'm impressed by your seat-carving routine, WW!

It looks like you've done it all with nothing more than the outer chalk line as a guide, too. After doing about 40 seat bottoms I still can't get the depth consistent without drilling a couple of guide holes to just above the depth of the deepest parts. Otherwise I carve too shallow, & it looks wimpy. I put it down to making chairs on a very irregular basis, but your carving is deep & bold & looks splendid, & you say you haven't done one in a long while.

P'raps it's just plain talent I lack, not practice.

This thread is giving me an urge to make some more chairs. Maybe it's time to tackle that continuous-arm rocker I've been getting around to.....
Cheers,

Thanks for the kudos Ian! However, I don't know that I'm talented; belligerant would probably better describe my approach!

I have made dozens of Windsors too, but this is the first for probably ten years. The method I use to check the progress of the hollowing procedure is to stand in front of the seat and, looking elsewhere, I feel the shape with both hands. I then quickly spin the seat around (you can see where I have spun the seat around in one of the images above) and feel the shape again.

In my early seat hollowing days, incremental measurements using a ruler perpendicular to a straight edge laid across the seat proved this to be an extremely accurate technique. I unreservedly trust my hands now and don't bother measuring the depth or profile. If it feels right and looks right, it is right.