Life's Bone

Wanna sit down? Make a chair! Here's an assortment of photos of a chair I recently made...I call it 'The Not-So-Easy Chair. First of all, I looked through my woodpile... This looks like the back of a chair.... You have to have a seat, and a back... But, you need a way to make it stand up...like some tree limbs... I remove the bark with a draw knife, or what is often called a spoke-shave since it harks back to those days of wooden wagon wheels with hand formed wooden spokes. I like crooked limbs! I have to attach the seat and back. I use 3" lag-bolts under the seat to attach the top to it. I also apply glue to the joint. I apply a first coat of oil finish to the seat and back. In this case, Teak Oil. Sometimes I use Danish Oil, or Boiled Linseed Oil. These are not stains. They simply deepen the color that is already there. I rough out arms and legs, and cross-bracing. Usually I keep these unassembled until I get a feel of how they can all come together. In assembling legs and arms, I spend some time shaping the point of contact so that they sit well together. Again, I attach with long screws or lag bolts by countersinking these. I then plug the countersunk hole. Sometimes I cut these plugs smooth with the surface, but in this case, let the plugs extend out and add to the overall gnarly sense of the structure. So, I wind up with this, as my finished chair: