sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bevel, Chair, Compass (architecture), Groove (joinery), Heat bending of wood, Shaving horse

16 Revolving Windsor

A few years ago it fell to me to write a story about Thomas Jefferson in a chess match with his slave Jupiter. This venture led to a play on the same subject, as well as research into the physical objects used as metaphorical vehicles for the ideas. In this regard, Jefferson makes it easy for us. One of the more obvious physical items is the revolving used by Jefferson when he was working to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Having seen a picture of the chair in its surviving form and an- other picture of a re-creation of it, I undertook to make a similar one to use on stage. My version differs from the original in the use of a steam-bent arm rail rather than a sawn and carved one, because I could make a bent arm faster than a sawn one. Making this swivel Windsor is in some ways easier than making a normal one, in that the is circular rather than a sculpted outline. There are a lot of parts and processes to a Windsor chair, but with the exception of hollowing the seat, you have already seen how to do them all. Windsor , as the name suggests, are of English design. Windsor chair-making in England centered around the town of , but the chairmaking did not begin in town. Out in the , workers called chair bodgers felled, split, and turned the legs on their springpole , then sold these legs to chairmakers in town. There, craftsmen would join the legs and spindles to the carved seat planks to make completed chairs. Begin this chair as the bodgers would, splitting the , roughing it down, and turning it on the . This is not just a random sequence. By

Opposite. making the legs first, you ensure that they are completely dry and that Adapted from the chair Thomas Jefferson they will not shrink and come loose from the seat. You can use , used while composing the Declaration of beech, , ash, , or white for the legs and spindles, but Independence, this Windsor chair swivels hickory is the wood of choice for me. If you work from green, wet wood, on rollers inset between the two seat boards. don't hesitate to turn it to a rough, oversized cylinder while it is still fresh. REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR I 137

Let it dry about a month, however, before you do the final turning. Work- Begin by turning the spindles so that they ing overly green wood in the lathe will result in a rough surface, and the will be thoroughly dry (and fully shrunk) by piece may shrink excessively, giving you an ovoid cross section. the time y ou join them to the rest of the The arm rail on this version of the chair is also split, not just because it chair. is faster to split a piece but also because the grain must be absolutely con- tinuous for the Vs-by-Vi-inch arm to bend evenly and retain sufficient strength. Shave it down on the and reject it if the shaving reveals any knots or excessive waves in the grain. Because this piece must bend in the same as its thicker dimension, it will have a tendency to flop over and take the path of least resistance when you bend it. To pre- vent this you can either make it 7/s inch and then shave it down af- ter bending or make a bending with a around its perimeter to hold it in the proper plane. In either case, steam the strip for about an hour and bend it around a 22 inches in diameter. Leave the ends sticking out straight and let it set up for a few days. Both the heat and the moisture make the wood easy to bend, so it must be reasonably dry in or- der to hold the shape. When it dries, give it a final for smoothness and glue on extra pieces of oak for the hands. Once the extra pieces have dried, cut them to their final shape with a .

REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR 139 The arm rail may be steam-bent around a mold as seen here. The slot in the perimeter of the mold keeps the rectangular oak rail from flopping over as you bend it. If you have access to hickory trees, an easier way to make the rail is to split and shave a three- quarter-inch-diameter length of hickory, then bend it cold. Even with the added thick- ness, it is easier to bend a uniformly round stick (and then shave it down) than to bend a rectangular piece in the same plane as its thicker dimension.

Much of the comfort of the Windsor chair is in the springiness of the hickory back spindles. Like the legs, the spindles must be split to shape and then shaved, or turned on the lathe, to their final shape, as you prefer. If you are making shaved spindles, you will need to make a (a board with holes in it) to fit to the diameter at four critical points. These four points are: (1) the base where the fits into the seat, (2) the largest diameter of the spindle, (3) the diameter at the intersection with the arm rail, and (4) the diameter of the top end that fits into the crest. Thus, make your four-holed spindle gauge using the three augers that you will use to bore the holes in the seat, the arm rail, and the crest, plus a 3A-inch auger for the largest diameter. Rough out the spindles with a and let them dry lor a few days before you bring them down the rest of the way with a . The final fit for the top and bottom of each spindle should be pretty snug, so just the very ends should fit in the holes in the gauge. What really makes a Windsor a Windsor is the sculpted plank seat that takes the legs and spindles like an archery target. Because this is a revolv- ing chair, there are two seats, each a -edged disc 13A inches thick. Traditional English Windsors use a single plank of unsplittable for seats. I used yellow that I joined up with and glue to the nec- essary width. Lay out the discs with a , both to their larger diam-

140 I REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR After the arm rail dries for four or five days, it will hold the bend and may be shaved to the final dimension. Glue blocks on the ends to add the extra width for the hands, and cut them to shape with a .

eters, and then to their smaller diameters by subtracting an inch from the radius. Saw out the disc and then trim down all the way around to the smaller diameter with a hatchet, bringing it all smooth with a spokeshave. up a chair was a separate specialty task among the English workers, and you could recognize a by his socketed breast bib, which acted as a pad for his brace and bit. Because boring the holes to frame up the chair could make or break the work of the previous crafts- men, the framer's bib was a respected badge of office. Again, the round seat of the swivel chair makes the task somewhat simpler, if more re- stricted. The outward splay of the legs, which lowers the center of gravity and resists racking, must, on this chair, be even all the way around, rather than sticking out more on the back legs, because this chair has no back legs as such. The splay for all four legs may be guided by your bevel, set to cross the square at f and 4 inches. A Windsor gains further strength in the legs by using a tapered hole for the similarly tapered legs. Whereas a hole and shaft joint with parallel

REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR 141 The four holes in the spindle gauge give the diameters of the base, the thickest point, and the intersections with the arm mil and the crest rail. With it y ou can quickly shave the spindles to their proper size.

Lay out the seat planks in two concentric circles, ana chop and shave them down to create (he .

142 REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR sides becomes loose if the leg shrinks, the tapered hole and matching Use the bevel to guide the auger as you tenon are always being forced tighter as soon as you sit down. The taper bore the initial inch-diameter holes for the on the leg is shaped when you turn it on the lathe, but the hole must be legs. If you have a tapered reamer, making shaped with a tapered reamer. Such reamers were commonly used to bore these holes conical (with the legs turned to tapered holes in wooden casks and are generally available as antiques. You match) will create a joint that works tighter can also make a reamer of any size by turning a tapered shaft of as you sit on the chair. and inserting a scraper made from a hacksaw blade radially into one side. When all four legs are in place and the splay is even and sufficient all the way around, tap the legs almost all the way into place so you can bore the holes to insert the stretchers. By sighting between the two legs, you can bore the holes for the stretcher at precisely the right angle. The prob- lem is that you need either a very short brace and bit or a very long brace and bit in order to have room to work. If you have an extension for your auger bit, you can shoot right past one leg into the other without causing so much angular deviation that the stretcher won't fit. Otherwise, pull out the opposing leg and eyeball the brace parallel to the bottom of the chair and bore away. Cut the two side stretchers to length, drive them into their holes between the legs, and then tap all four legs and the two stretchers back into the seat. Now bore holes for the middle stretcher and cut it to fit in just as you did for the side stretchers. Before you drive the legs in for the final time, saw a kerf into their top ends that runs at right angles to the grain of the seat where each leg fits. After you tap the legs fully into their holes, drive in a finely tapered wedge to lock them into place. In a normal Windsor, we would have sculpted out the seat before join- ing the legs. Here, because the seat is in two separate pieces, we can wait until all the bottom work is done. The upper seat swivels around a central iron axle fixed to the center of its underside, while riding on six rollers in- set into the top of the lower seat. A circular tin wear plate keeps the rollers

REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR I 143 Drive the legs into place, and bore between them to make the holes to take the side stretchers.

Set in the side stretchers and bore between them to insert the middle stretcher. Cut each stretcher to length and pare down the ends to slightly bulbous tenons to fit tightly within the holes.

from eating into the upper seat. I made the rollers from boxwood and set them on axles cut from nails, chiseling a pocket for each axle on a radius of the circular seat and a pocket for the wheels on a tangent to the circum- ference. Finish these, and the lower half of the chair is complete. Now we move on to the top. Because of the way we laid out the seats, there is no center mark on the upper surface where we need it. You can use a square to locate the center of an existing circle such as this. Set the square so that its corner touches the circumference and the two arms cross the circumference at equal lengths. Mark the places where the arms cross the circumference and draw a line through these two points. Now turn the square and repeat the process at approximate right angles to the first line. The intersections of the two lines should be dead on center.

144 REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR The seat swivels around a central axis, riding on six wooden rollers inset into the upper surface of the base. A tin wear plate tacked to the underside of the seat prevents the rollers from digging in.

Rough in the contours of the seat with a curved . A large gouge and a will do the same job in short order.

REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR I 145 Various shaves will help you smooth the interior contours of the seat. I made this one from an old spokeshave iron that I reforged into a curve and mounted in an applewood stock.

Use a large compass to define the circle of spindles around the seat, then use a pair of dividers to pace off the locations for the two arm posts and the thirteen spindles. Before boring the holes, hold the arm rail in position and sight down to establish the angles.

146 REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR From this center, you now need two new circles. The outer circle is one With the arm rail in place on its posts, inch in from the rim and defines the locations for the spindles. The inner pace off equal divisions for the spindles circle, two inches in from the rim, defines the scooped-out area of the seat. along its length and bore through at the Seat scooping is the part of Windsor work that 1 enjoy most. I work angle required to make a straight line mostly down across the grain of the wood, so 1 begin by drawing a line down to the corresponding hole in the from the center across the grain to what will be the center front of the seat. chair. This line will remain as I scoop out and back to a depth of an inch or so at the deepest point. So far we have worked with relatively available , but here you may be put off by thinking you must have a curved adze and the sorts of specialized planes and shaves that I use. These tools do make the hollowing easier and faster, but you can do just as good a job with a gouge, a mallet, and a curved scraper. I'll just go through some of the variety of tools because they are interesting, and worth having if you plan to do a lot of this sort of work. I start with a bowl adze, working from the outside toward the middle from all around, and then scooping out across the grain. A bowl adze is just like a heavy gouge on the end of a stick that you swing into the wood, chopping out the hollow. I follow this with a broad gouge and even out any irregularities left by the adze. Following the gouge, I have curved inshaves and scorps that are the convex equivalents of , and a variety of convex to follow the knives. Finally, I use a plane that has a convex bed that smooths the hollows, and the finishing touches

REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR 1 147 After bending the crest rail, saw its outline and sketch the volute on the ears. Strike down on the lines with a señes of gouges of varying radiuses. Then, using the gouges at a low angle, carve up to the vertical cuts with a series of rocking motions.

go in with a curved scraper. The common denominator with all of these tools is that they need to travel down the grain or across it, not up from the bottom. The thirteen spindles of the back surround half of the perimeter of the seat, with two arm posts at either end, making a total of fifteen equal divi- sions to pace off with your dividers. Keep trying and resetting the dividers until you make it halfway around the circle in fourteen paces. When you get it right, mark in deeply to show where to bore the spindle holes. The position and diameter of the arm rail determines the angle of the arm posts and establishes much of the shape of the chair. Mark the arm rail with a corresponding fifteen equally spaced points around its length, just as you did on the seat. Prop the arm rail at the desired height above the seat, positioned exactly as you want it. From here on, starting with the two arm posts, and continuing around the back, you need to bore the holes through the arm and into the seat at the same angle that the spindles will take. Bore the holes for the arm posts, set them in position, and then bore the holes for the backmost spindle. Work your way around, setting in spindles as you bore the holes through the arm and into the seat. The crest rail sits atop the center seven spindles, and if you want the spindles to remain straight, the crest must be sized to match their spread. When you split out and steam-bend the crest, leave it a little longer than you think you need, and don't cut the ears on the ends until you confirm the spread of the seven central spindles. This spread determines the outer- most holes within which you pace off equal divisions for the five inner spindles. Bore all these holes, then take the crest off to the bench to carve the volutes on the ears. The volute is easy and quick to carve. Sketch it out with a pencil and then strike down into the line with a series of more tightly curved gouges.

148 REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR Finally, pace off equal divisions on the underside of the crest rail, and bore the holes to take the tops of the spindles. As with most Windsors, the finish of black or green will unify the look of the different woods used in its construction.

Now come back with the gouges to roll out the wood up to this sharp shoulder. Finally, you will note that I have not said anything about gluing as we went. I would rather you see the whole thing complete before you glue any part of it. If you got everything perfectly proportioned on the first at- tempt, then forgive me—we should have glued and wedged everything as we went along. I need to wait and glue only after I have had a chance to go back and replace parts that don't seem to work with the whole. After a design has settled down, and I know I can get it like I want it right off, then it goes together once and final, as you might expect.

REVOLVING WINDSOR CHAIR 149