My first Windsor chair

[JustinTyson]

I've been wanting to make a Windsor chair for several years. It's such a change of pace from the chests and tables that I'm accustomed to. I've made several ladderbacks as well, but those are nowhere near as complex as a good Windsor. I bought Peter Galbert's book as soon as it came out, and finally got started on the build last October. I just finished the chair last weekend, and I'm thrilled with the way it turned out.

I spent at least half of my time building the tools to build the chair. I had to make an adze, a travisher, a tapered reamer, a rounding plane, a shaving horse, a small kiln, a steam rig with the accompanying bending forms, and a drilling jig to get this chair built. It was intense, but so much fun! I have a ton of posts about it on my blog if you're interested. Right now I'll just leave you with some pictures of the finished product:

[Dave Diaman]

The chair turned out great. You should get some photos of it in the sun to show off all the work you put into the distressed paint. I have been wanting to build a small set of Windsor chairs for myself for a long time but have not for one of the reasons you stated. I just don’t have the proper tools to make them and like you I know I would spend as much time making the tools as I would making the chairs. In the end I will probably end up trading someone or getting a friend to make them for me. Too many projects and just not enough time.

[JustinTyson]

Thanks, Dave. A compliment from a craftsman as fine as you are is high praise indeed

Sorry the pictures are so crummy. I will try to get some better ones when I have a chance. I was using my wife's SLR, which I am completely unfamiliar with, so I was just using the "Auto" setting, which does a crap job with a black chair on a white background. Ah well, it shows off the silhouette well enough, even if you can't see much of the finish.

[Rob Young]

That is great!

[Dave Diaman]

JustinTyson said:

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Thanks, Dave. A compliment from a craftsman as fine as you are is high praise indeed

Sorry the pictures are so crummy. I will try to get some better ones when I have a chance. I was using my wife's SLR, which I am completely unfamiliar with, so I was just using the "Auto" setting, which does a crap job with a black chair on a white background. Ah well, it shows off the silhouette well enough, even if you can't see much of the finish.

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I can see that a lot of work went into the finish and black is a really hard color to photograph. At least it is hard to photograph for me because I am a crap photographer. I point and shoot. Anything beyond that and it is time to call in the professionals.

A convincing aged finish is a lot harder than most people realize which I am sure you know. It will be great if you can get some photos to highlight all the work that went into the finish. I know I have done quite a few pieces that had to have a true antique look and I spent as much time finishing the piece as I did building it. I kind of feel like a mad scientist when I am working on a piece like that. There is just so little information out there about how this is done and the people who know how to create the authentic crusty finish guard their secrets. I can’t blame them though. I’m guessing a lot of them learned the same way I am learning. Trial and error until you get what looks right.

[GNP]

Could you make 5 more, and send them to me. Nice work.

[David G]

Lots of nice crisp details there. Great work.

[JustinTyson]

Dave Diaman said:

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[blockquote]JustinTyson said:

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Thanks, Dave. A compliment from a craftsman as fine as you are is high praise indeed

Sorry the pictures are so crummy. I will try to get some better ones when I have a chance. I was using my wife's SLR, which I am completely unfamiliar with, so I was just using the "Auto" setting, which does a crap job with a black chair on a white background. Ah well, it shows off the silhouette well enough, even if you can't see much of the finish.

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I can see that a lot of work went into the finish and black is a really hard color to photograph. At least it is hard to photograph for me because I am a crap photographer. I point and shoot. Anything beyond that and it is time to call in the professionals.

A convincing aged finish is a lot harder than most people realize which I am sure you know. It will be great if you can get some photos to highlight all the work that went into the finish. I know I have done quite a few pieces that had to have a true antique look and I spent as much time finishing the piece as I did building it. I kind of feel like a mad scientist when I am working on a piece like that. There is just so little information out there about how this is done and the people who know how to create the authentic crusty finish guard their secrets. I can’t blame them though. I’m guessing a lot of them learned the same way I am learning. Trial and error until you get what looks right.

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[/blockquote]

You're right about one thing - the finish was labor-intensive and time-consuming. But to be honest, I wasn't exactly going for a 'convincing' aged finish in this chair - the black-over-red with a bit of red showing through just adds a bit of visual interest, but it wouldn't fool anybody into thinking the chair was old. A couple of years ago, I bought a cheap, wobbly old factory-made Windsor, took the whole thing apart, reshaped the whole thing (including re-turning the legs and posts, shaving down the spindles, and completely re-shaping the seat and crest rail), then glued it back up and painted it. On that one, I did do some actual distressing, rubbing off the finish in some typical wear spots, some places even down to the bare wood.

It turned out to be a nice chair and looks convincingly old, but the form is still a bit lacking in comparison to Peter Galbert's design. I could only do so much with the wood that the factory left! Most annoyingly, the seat is just over an inch thick, so I couldn't scoop it out the way I did with the chair I built.

[John Mihich]

Nicely done. I want to be able to make them but they are not my style. Chair making is a mystery to me right now.

[Scoony]

Nice job.

I hope to get started soon on finishing a set to go with the one I made.