Green Wood Chair Making
Teaching myself how to make a spindle back green wood chair
I set about trying to teach myself how to make a greenwood chair, with the aid of the wonders of the internet, and a book by chair making legend, Mike Abbot. I decided to make a simple spindle back chair, with a woven seat. Since not being able to travel anywhere, I reached out to the community immediately surrounding me and found Dave, a tree surgeon who lives down the road. Dave was kind enough to give me lots of lovely pieces of wood that I could work with, in exchange for a handmade spoon or two. Starting with a knotty piece of Oak, which I quickly gave up on (sometimes a piece of wood just doesn't want to become a chair) I settled on a nice piece of large hazel. I cleaved it down the length of the log, into 2, then 4, then sawed rough lengths for the legs, choosing two pieces with a slight curve for the back legs. I cleaved the remainder down smaller, into pieces that would become rungs and seat rails. Working with my trusty steed, my shave horse, a draw knife, and a saw, very basic tools, I could shave down all the pieces and let them dry a little before starting to drill the holes and do some dry fits.
Using a knife to whittle the tenon ends to fit snugly, and a brace and bit to drill the 1 '' deep mortices needed, the chair started to come together, with a bit of swearing, lots of bashing and many cups of tea. The video below shows the harsh reality of teaching yourself how to make chairs…
Please enjoy this blooper reel of all the failed attempts I had during this process…
After the dry fit was successful, I glued it all up and levelled the legs, then the chair was oiled and sat waiting patiently for it’s seat to be woven. I choose to use Danish cord to weave the seat, as I could easily get hold of some online and it is relatively easy to work and creates a strong seat. This slightly went against my desire to make a chair just from material around me, but it was either this or spend the rest of my life braiding nettle cordage into a seat, so I took the easy way out.
I was so happy with this first attempt and was yearning for more! Since I had struggled a lot with the pieces of wood I had chosen to use, I decided to strip it back and make a simple, straight foot stool, this eliminated the difficulties I encountered with the bend of the back legs, and meant I could hone my skills a little, before attempting another more complicated chair in the future. I had a lovely log of cherry and some more danish cord, and a few days later, a little foot stool was born.
You can read the next blog post to learn a bit more about the footstool project…
Have a watch of the video below to follow my process, please bare in mind this was the first chair I’ve ever made so by no means is this a tutorial!
