Plans for making Windsor Chairs

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danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
http://www.curtisbuchananchairmaker.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html


Many of you have heard or seen Curtis Buchanan making a Windsor Chair. The above address is the one Curtis sent to me to consider if I would like to make a chair in his style. I have seen his plans, watched him work and closely examined chairs he has built. You can not go wrong if you follow his plans. Let's say you're just not sure about a task like that.

Curtis has posted around 30 videos on Youtube as he builds one of his chairs.

Building a windsor chair from the ground up is a big task. Take a look at his free videos and you might want to tackle the project.

Chair building has been a great experience for me --one I encourage others to try.

regards
Dan

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Mark Gottesman

New User
Mark
Thanks for posting this info. Windsor chairs have started to interest me as of late. Right now my reading has centered on the style of chair that Drew Langsner makes so it is great to have other sources to explore. Seat carving looks rather complicated.
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Mark
Seat carving is not the tough part, boring the legs and stretchers correctly the first time takes some adult supervision to simplify the process. Lots of ways to do it.

Dan
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
I bought Galbert's book from Lost Art Press. Skimmed through it a couple times but have no time for all that this year.

Future plans...
 

Danagawa

New User
D
I watched Galbert work on making a chair one day. I bought his book and seat in a few of his chairs. I never really knew what a chair was suppose to be like before then. That being said chair making seems more difficult than I would have thought and if I try it, it would be in the distant future. Mark if u want to borrow the book let me know.
 

walnutjerry

Jerry
Senior User
Drew Langsner also publishes a chair making book and full size plans. The chair making from log to finished product is a labor intensive project. It also requires a lot of different tools modern day woodworkers do not usually have. You do not have to have all the most expensive versions of the tools though. My advice is to take a class or workshop with someone who can furnish all the tools needed and build the chair under their supervision. Then if you want to continue chair making start building your tool collection for the trade.

I have taken 5 workshops ---------3 at John C Campbell folk school, 1 with Michael Dunbar and 1 with Curtis Buchanan. I learned from all of them.

Jerry
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Drew Langsner also publishes a chair making book and full size plans. The chair making from log to finished product is a labor intensive project. It also requires a lot of different tools modern day woodworkers do not usually have. You do not have to have all the most expensive versions of the tools though. My advice is to take a class or workshop with someone who can furnish all the tools needed and build the chair under their supervision. Then if you want to continue chair making start building your tool collection for the trade.

I have taken 5 workshops ---------3 at John C Campbell folk school, 1 with Michael Dunbar and 1 with Curtis Buchanan. I learned from all of them.

Jerry

Jerry that is a solid piece of info. If you look at some of the aforementioned builders, I don't think you can do it for less than 1000 tuition and then there's hotel, travel and maybe some tools?

What's a fair price to ask a man to pay for the instruction one-on-one -with the tools for a 6-8 hour day? I like to hear your thoughts.

Dan
 

walnutjerry

Jerry
Senior User
Jerry that is a solid piece of info. If you look at some of the aforementioned builders, I don't think you can do it for less than 1000 tuition and then there's hotel, travel and maybe some tools?

What's a fair price to ask a man to pay for the instruction one-on-one -with the tools for a 6-8 hour day? I like to hear your thoughts.

Dan

Dan, that is a hard question to answer. I think the Folk School tuition and R&B was around 600. for a week long course (5 days) in 1996 plus the cost of materials. The class size then was limited to 6 students. In 2000, The Dunbar workshop was 650.00 for 5 days with 12 students, that was also a 5 day deal plus materials. Buchanans workshop was the only 1 on 1 I had and that was 1000.00 for 5 days and included the material if I remember correctly. I think that was around 2003. There is a younger guy in Pittsboro (Elija something) that studied with Buchanan but I do not know what his fee is.

Personally, I think it depends on how bad someone wants to take the class, how well known the craftsman is, and what depth of instruction you receive. I was able to gain insight from the 1 on 1 that they did not have time for in the larger groups. So------in answer to your question, I think 150 t0 250 a day would be in line for todays prices, depending on materials being furnished or not. That is just a guess----I have not researched it recently.

Are you considering teaching classes or want to take classes?

BTW---some instructors base the price of the workshop on their selling price of the chair you want to build. If the chair sells for 1500 that is what they charge to teach that chair class.

Jerry
 
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danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Hey Jerry
I have built around 100 arm chairs and 150 bowbacks. I have taught classes one on one that lead to a chair going home but that takes more than a day. I have tried to fit in between Curtis and Dunbar for the most part. How do I do that?

When a student shows up, I have bows bent, spindles shaped(turned or whittled) and the seat blank for shaping. To my way of thinking, "de-mystifying" how the chair is built is the price of admission. Years ago, I used to bore the seat, leg and stretcher holes with a brace and spoon bits with bevel squares and mirrors. I just don't trouble myself with that these days. I have devised a way of doing all the boring with the drill press and forstner bits. The angles are spot on with a couple holders and a tilt table in place.

Knowing how to bore all the compound angles scares many away from the project and brings a few to my door.

I try to have a chair in the "dry assemble" stage to help envision the process and I think this works well. I can give a man the confidence to build a bowback in a day. In my thinking, I don't see the value in spending 200/day to learn how to split oak with a froe on the first go around. Back in the 70's I saw what straight grain wood was and how to bend curves with steam and the rest was really building bending forms to match your chair dimensions. That's just me.

I have a steambox and the tooling to heat and bend if the man wants to experience that but there enough videos on Youtube to make that clear to most woodworkers.

Shaping the seat is nice to see an example and get to use the unique tools that make the process fun to do. Travisher, drawknife, compass plane and in-shave to mention a few. Unlike Mike, I don't have 12 sets of these tools but I am willing to let the builder get his hands going.

The discouraging part of becoming a windsor builder is turning crisp and finely detailed undercarriages. I think this is where you have the chance to make your chair "pop" as they say. This does not happen in a couple days at the lathe with adult supervision. It takes a looooong time working with the skew and then you still have to work up to it if you haven't been turning for 6 months. So for a first chair look see, I like to show all the various styles and pull out some ready to go turnings I have on hand and get back to the how to bore and size the pieces in chapter one of this effort.




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bamboo leg, NY leg, RI leg to show contrasting styles. some might say the turnings are too bulby but I don't like insipid turnings with little character. just taste

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travisher for finer shaping



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compass plane that I use sparingly-- bottom ain't too worn is it?

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This is the chair I believe first timers are best served by building. Curved seat, bamboo legs they can go home and duplicate, spindles all ready. Over the years I have grown to like the more serpentine edge on the seat sides and front. Feedback from owners tells me they are more comfortable than the straighter front edge. I think I like it for the looks really.

Anyway that's Windsor chair ramblin' in 10 minutes. See ya
Dan



 

walnutjerry

Jerry
Senior User
You make a nice looking chair Dan. My first chair was a side chair (bow back) off the pattern Dana Hathaway had at John C Campbell. We split the log, shaped the bow and bent it, shaped spindles, turned undercarriage parts, carved the seat and assembled the chair in 5 days. It was long days-----from about 6 in the morning to 11 at night-----but that is what I was there for. Now they do a 7 day workshop to build the chair.

I have taught only 1 person in my shop, the project was the same style chair I started on. He was a young local guy that furnished his own material (his dad was in the scout troop I helped with many years ago). Very much the same chair you show for first timers except I modified the legs because I did not like the bamboo style.

I did the comb back with volutes carved in the ears of the crest and knuckles w/ volutes on the handpieces in the class with Buchanan. Later on I did a few writing arm chairs on the same style. The sack back is what Dunbar was teaching the week I did that one.

Would like to visit you sometime and rehash chairmaking a little. Each person seems to establish their own methods and routine.

Later, Jerry
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Any time Jeremy you want to come by just let me know. I'm in the shop most days. Currently working a cabinet project and a left hand rifle. I'm wrestling a small milling machine in the door today. That bad boy is heavy. Will post a photo when I have that thing in place.

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