Probably the most fun day of the 5. It had a bit of everything- working rungs on the shave horse with drawknife and spokeshave, steambending extra slats, fine tuning the slat tenons, packing up our kits, assembling the chair, and the unexpected pleasure of hickory bark weaving.
Friday was a bit of a whirlwind, Andy opened the shop at 7 am (normal opening was 8 am with a 9 am class start time) so anyone who wanted could have some extra time to work on whatever they wanted. I still needed to put the taper on my side rungs and rails so was there for opening.
(More) Side Rungs and Rails
This chair has 4 hickory rails and 9 red oak rungs so plenty of time on the shave horse with the drawknife and spokeshave. I’m okay with that. The first rungs I worked with the drawknife on Day 1 of the class were pretty bad. Never a great feeling but that’s just how it is with anything for the first time. More time on the horse meant more practice. By Day 5, my rungs weren’t anywhere near ladder back perfect but I was very happy with the progress. I can’t remember if I’ve already written out the process for tapering them so I’ll put it again here:
- Start with your octagonal rung.
- Put pencil marks all the way around at the half-way point of the rung.
- Sub-divide each half into thirds with pencil marks.
- Using the drawknife only, first take a shaving from the first mark to the tenon shoulder.
- Now take a shaving starting just before your line at the second mark, this shaving should come all the way to the tenon shoulder.
- Repeat 4 and 5 until you have just a hair of material left at the tenon shoulder.
- Go all the way around the rung with steps 4-6.
- Using the spokeshave, start at the centerline removing material all the way to the tenon shoulder.
The goal is to end up with a straight taper from center of the rung to the tenon shoulder, blending it seamlessly. Some things I also do to help me achieve a symmetrical rung: try to have the lines on each facet running straight along the facet, try to maintain consistent widths on each facet (although the width should decrease as you move from center to shoulder), and use a routine when shaving these.
For my routine, I would start on the radial face then flip the part 180 degrees to work the other radial face. Next, flip the part 90 degrees to work one of the tangential faces, this is harder work but I like being able to look at the symmetry of the radial faces I just cut. After the tangential faces are cut, just finish up the remaining faces flipping as you work to keep everything symmetrical as you look down from above.
By the time I got to my 8th and 9th rungs, I was pretty happy with how they turned out.
Fine Tuning the Slat Tenons
Even with all the care we took to measure the mortise size and cut the slat tenons to size, there was still some fussing to get them to fit. After a few attempts, I found a routine that seemed to work well.
- Mark a line on the top and bottom of the tenon (on the thin faces) where the “shoulder” would be. This will help us see when the mortise hits full depth.
- Work each tenon one at a time. Once you have one fully seated, trust that it will fit when you go for the dry-fit.
- Use a spokeshave set to take a light cut or card scraper to slowly remove material as you work.
- In some cases, you may have to cut some length off one of the corners to get the tenon to fit if it won’t bottom out.
After you get everything to fit on its own, do a dry-run with the dummy tenons.
Once you know it will all fit, make preparations for the rear-assembly glue-up. You’ll need, glue, brushes, a dead-blow hammer (or other way to drive home the tenons without marring the posts), your rear rung, rear rail, and slats.
Working in pairs we fully seated all the tenons in one of the rear posts before working the second one. Partner A applied glue to the tenons while Partner B applied glue to the mortises. After glue was applied, A would hold the post steady while B drove the rail and rung into place first. Hammer until the rail/rung won’t move a millimeter. Next, drive your slats in one by one, these should seat with little more than hand pressure.
After one side of the chair has all its mortises filled, set up for the other side. Using the same approach as before, A applies glue to the tenons, B applies glue to the mortises. Once ready, A holds the post with all the mortises filled steady on the bench while B lines up the empty post from above. Once you have them lined up, gently tap on the post from above until all the tenons have a good hold of the mortises. Now drive everything home hard. Be careful not to blunt any of your crisp facets. In many cases, we went with the pipe clamps to pull everything tight. We used pads to prevent damaging the posts and made sure to line the clamps parallel to the rail and rung. Sometimes the slats needed a clamp as well if the action of clamping below forced a slat out of its mortise.
Boring the Side Rung/Rail Mortises
The front assembly is wider than the rear, so the rails/rungs that run from front to back can’t come out of the rear assembly and into the front assembly at 90 degree angles. The angle between the side rail/rung and rear rail/rung has to be slightly larger than 90 degrees and the angle between the side rail/rung and the front rail/rung has to be slightly smaller than 90 degrees by the same amount (because math).
To accomplish this we placed a block under certain parts of the post while boring a mortise on the drill press (the pictures will make it make sense). ***I believe the block was 1.25″ square***. Locate the mortise location with the story-stick.
Front post mortises:
Rear post mortises:
Assembling the Chair
After boring the remaining mortises, assembly was a breeze. Working in partners we worked similar to how we assembled the rear. Apply glue to tenons and mortises, hammer rails/rungs home, apply glue to remaining tenons and mortises, hammer everything home, and clamp if needed to pull everything fully seated. Given the green wood method of building this chair, keeping the chair clamped while the glue dries is not necessary.
Pin the Slats
Before weaving, we pinned the slats with bamboo skewers. We drilled a pilot hole 1/4′ – 3/8″ in and centered on the slat over each tenon deep enough to just go through the slat without coming out the back. Dab a little glue on the skewer and hammer home. After the glue dries, you can cut flush or leave slightly proud and dome.
Weaving the Hickory Bark
Weaving this hickory seat was a lot of fun but frustrating. While I didn’t think it would be, keeping the pattern without making a mistake was difficult. There must have been at least 5 times I got to a point where I realized I had made a mistake 1 or 2 rows ago. Given the how obvious a mistake here would have been, the only choice was to undo everything back to the mistake and start over.
I can’t really remember the process so I’m just going to say Google this part and post some pictures of the tool kit, Andy working, and my finished seat.
A Reluctant Departure
Despite really missing my family, I had a hard time saying goodbye to everyone. Getting to know everyone on top of everything we learned was such an unexpected pleasure. Evan, Jonathan, George, Nathan, and Andy were such a great group of people to be around. I can only hope we cross paths again someday.
