Phillip Spencer

Wheel Back Double Bow Windsor Chair

I have always wanted to build a Windsor chair and, after reading the book 'Windsor Chair Making' by James Mursell and being given a Windsor Chair flat pack kit by my good friend Jack (https://pegsandtails.wordpress.com/), it was now or never.

Making the chair presented several challenges for me, things that I had either not tried before or a level of work that put me outside my comfort zone, like steam bending wood and drilling all the compound angled holes in the seat and bows. It would be a change from working with straight lines and right angles.

Figure 1 The Windsor chair flat pack chair kit

Did I want to build an American style chair or an English style chair? After a lot of research and thought I decided on the English style; they look more solid and traditional than the highly stylised American versions and besides that there are several schools around offering courses in making an American style chair.

I went back to my book by James Mursell and visited his web site ( http://windsorchairplans.com ) and ordered a plan for his new Wheel Back Double Bow Windsor chair and I also ordered a Travisher from his shop. A travisher is used to carve out the seat. James was also very helpful answering my emailed questions.

Figure 2 The Wheel Back Double Bow Windsor chair by James Mursell, this is the chair I have chosen to build.

To read about the history of Windsor chairs The design sponge site is a good place to start (http://www.designsponge.com/2010/09/past-present-windsor-chair-history-resources.html)

Timber Typically English Elm is used for the seats of a Windsor chair because the grain is cross linked and offers superior strength; other timbers can be used successfully but there may be a risk of splitting so the shaping of the seat usually has to be left thicker. I used American Ash for the bows and the spindles on the chair and American Ash for the legs.

Phillip Spencer

Tooling Before I was able to start on making the chair I had to make the templates, formers to steam bend wood on, compression bands to support the wood when bending it, a steam box and steam generator and also finish off some tooling like the Travisher kit. I also needed (which I already had) low angle spoke shaves to shape the bows and spindles and a lathe to turn the legs and I purchased a ⅝ inch rounding plane to help with the spindles in the arms and back, and a range of drill bits.

Steam bending Kit Twenty years ago I found an old electric pressure cooker on the hard rubbish, I always thought that it would come in handy one day, it was this that I used for the steam generator. At Bunning's I purchased some 15mm Brass Threaded Hexagon Nipples and 15 mm nuts to fit. If you don't have an electric pressure cooker handy or it would be missed from the kitchen, wall paper steamers would work just as well make sure that it has at least a 5.5ltr capacity and will steam for about two hours.

Figure 3 The modified pressure cooker

The steam generator seemed to generate plenty of steam. I connected this using 15mm PVC hose to a steam box which I made up out of some pine, I used an article available from Rockler to build it.

Figure 4 The steam box a PDF outlining details on making the steam box can be found here http://www.rockler.com/steam-bending-kit-w- free-bentwood-carryall-plan-download

Phillip Spencer

Figure 5 My steam box and steam generator, about to be tested.

Formers Figure 8Former for the Bow I made up the formers to bend the bows out of 19mm I made the compression bands using 1.5mm x 30mm form ply, two pieces thick to make the formers up to stainless steel, the band for the arm and bow is 1.5m 38mm and screwed them onto a base that I could clamp to the bench when I bent the wood. I also made long and band for the arm posts is 1m long I fitted up some 30mm wide stainless steel compression wooden handled to the ends to make them easier to strips to prevent the wood from splintering when I hold. carried out the bending. The holes in the formers are to fit clamps to hold the wood in shape as the wood is bent and dried.

Figure 6 Former for the arm

Figure 9 The compression bands

The other tooling I needed was a Scorp and a Travisher.

The Scorp, Travisher and Spoke Shaves To hollow out the seat I needed a Scorp and to smooth and fine tune the seat I needed a Travisher. The Scorp was purchased from Carbitec and I ordered the Travisher in line from the Windsor Workshop, to reduce costs a bit I ordered the Travisher as an Figure 7 Former for the arm posts unfinished kit, I needed to finish it off and fettle it to my preferences.

Phillip Spencer

Not having used a Scorp or a Draw Knife before I had to undergo a learning process to be able to use it effectively. The Travisher is like a large curved spoke shave so I was able to use this without much trouble The travisher is an essential item when carving out the seat, it will allowed me to get a smooth finish and also to refine the shape of the seat definitely a recommended purchase . I also found a rounding plane useful.

Figure 13 Rounding plane

Figure 10 The Scorp.

Figure 14 Spoke shaves are also required, I made these several years ago.

Making the chair I started out making the seat, I milled the Elm to thickness on my Woodwork clubs thicknesser (it was larger than mine and able to handle the width). Marked out the shape of the base with the template I had made up from the drawings from the Windsor Workshop. and then proceeded to mark up the holes Figure 11 The Travisher kit and tenon for the splat at the back of the chair.

Figure 15 The seat cut and shaped with the holes marked for the Figure 12 Completed Travisher legs and arm post.

It was at this stage I realised that I had one more tool to make up to help drill the compound angled holes in the seat, I needed to make up a tilting table for my

Phillip Spencer drill. This is a simple device, two pieces of scrap MDF were hinged together, the bottom piece was bolted to the table on the drill and blocks used as a sliding packing to get the top table to the required angle.

Figure 16 The tilting Table.

This allowed me to set the angle of the hole I needed to drill and also move to seat around to line up the sight lines to get the angle accurate.

Note: The leg holes were drilled from one side of the seat whilst the arm hole was drilled from the other side. Figure 17 All the compound angled holes that can be pre drilled, these holes hold the spindles that hold the arm up they have The only holes left to drill were the holes for the arm been pre-drilled because the holes in the arm are blind. Also the mortise for the back splat has been cut at 14 deg. spindles, these had to be drilled because the holes in the underside of the arm are blind so there is no way Carving the seat to get them lined up using line of sight like the holes Before starting to carve out the seat I suggest that you for the back spindles. do a few push-ups and have a good breakfast, pulling the Scorp is hard work and your shoulders will be sore The mortise for the splat is cut at 14ᵒ this is the slope for a few days after. of the back of the seat, the arm bow will be clamped to it when the holes for the back spindles are drilled by line of sight.

Figure 18 The carved seat

Phillip Spencer

After a consultation with my friend Jack it was decided to try just over double the time in the steam box. I left a new piece of wood for the arm in the steam box (did I mention it is worthwhile to cut extra pieces when about to steam?) and steamed it for one hour forty minutes and it was then quickly placed in the compression band and into the former to bend, time is of the essence here as the is only about a one minute window to get the wood into the former and bent.

I thought carving the seat might be a challenge, the scorp took a little getting used to whilst the Travisher worked brilliantly, before I started to hog out the waste from the seat I drilled a series of blind holes to indicate the depth I wanted the seat to be, so I would not inadvertently go through the bottom of seat and, also to leave sufficient wood for strength.

The shaping of the seat was straight forward, I suggest that to help with the carving process imagining your Figure 20 Succuss favourite bottom to help to get the right shape!

Bending the arm and bow

Steam bending can best be described as a black art, you can read copious amounts of information and think that you have a good understanding of the process and then after your first bend fails you realise that the books are not always right.

My first effort ended in complete failure of the wood, I wanted to bend the arm first, the cross section for the arm is ⅞ of an inch by 1⅛ inch so according to all Also with my first attempts, the compression band did the literature I had read my piece of wood would need around 45 minutes steaming, this was wrong! not work as expected so it was back to the drawing board and a complete re-jig, I modified the handles so that the wood would fit snugly against stops, this allowed the wood to be held securely in place and the compression band to tighten around the back of the piece being bent and hold the fibres in compression helping to prevent splitting.

Figure 19 Failure!

The wood failed because it had not been steamed long enough, it can also fail if it has been steamed too long so I had to find the right length of time to steam the wood.

Phillip Spencer

Figure 21 The re-jigged compression band

Figure 24 One of the arms drying in the bending former.

Figure 22 view of the bent arm, look closely and you can see how the compression band holds the wood in compression whilst it is bent.

Once bent the wood has to be left to dry out completely otherwise it will try and return to its Figure 25 The Bow and Arm original shape, I left it clamped up in the former for I tied the bow and arm to help keep the shape and four to five days to allow the wood to completely dry. brought them into the house to allow them to dry completely and also let the wood normalise.

The undercarriage Turning the legs and stretchers was straight forward, attention needs to be payed to getting the spindle size right, because tight fitting stretcher spindles and leg to seat spindles are important to hold the seat together these pats will be subjected to a lot of force over the years whit people sitting on them. Some chare makers use a tapered spindle for the leg to seat joint as it will self tighten over time, to keep authenticity, I chose to use straight spigots with a wedge hammered in to tighten the joint and lock it all Figure 23 The bow in the fending former, waiting to completely dry before being removed. in place. Before cutting the slots for the wedges I lined the legs up to show the best grain when looking at the chair from the front.

Phillip Spencer

sized hole. This is a quick and accurate way of sizing spigots whilst leaving your work on the lathe.

Figure 26 Some lovely legs, I have used masking tape to write numbers on so as I can put the legs back in the same position.

Figure 29 The stretchers and spreader.

Normally I would drill the holes for the stretchers in the drill press, but as the legs splayed out at Figure 27 The wedges in the spigot compound angles I decided to drill them in-situ. This When fitting the wedges in the spigots on the legs it is was a stressful operation one slip and I would be important to make the cut and fit the wedge so that it turning another set of legs! is perpendicular to the grain in the seat, hammering in a wedge puts a lot of force on the joint to tighten it up, if the wedge is parallel to the grain in the seat there is a real risk that the seat will split.

Figure 30 To help my keep the drill aligned at the correct angle I tied some string between the legs.

To help keep the drill at the correct angle and aligned I tied some string between the legs and held the drill between the loop of string, this allowed me to keep

Figure 28 Simple disposable gauge to aid id sizing spigots an eye on what I was doing and ensure that I held the drill correctly. A handy disposable gauge can be quickly made by drilling the required sized hole in a piece of scrap and then cutting the scrap in half leaving a half spigot

Phillip Spencer

Figure 31 Finding the centre of the leg Figure 33 The completed base of the chair, if I don't go any further at least I will have a Windsor stool! To find the centre of the leg I sighted over the The spigots on the legs came though the seat these opposite leg and made a mark with a pencil. had to be wedged to make the fit really tight and then trimmed and sanded flush to the top of the seat, another way this could have been done is to use a tapered fit drill and ream the hole to a taper and make a matching tapered spigot one theory about doing this is that as the chair is used and is sat on the legs would tighten up, I chose to do this chair the traditional way and drive a wedge into the spigot to keep everything tight.

Figure 32 The string allowing me to guide the drill at the correct angle.

I drilled all the holes for the spigots 20mm deep.

I measured the lengths of the stretchers and cut them to length plus 5mm, by adding 5mm to the lengths of the stretchers when the legs were hammered into the seat everything is kept extra tight, if the glue should fail down the track the stretchers will still be tight. Figure 34 The through spigot wedged

Once the legs and stretchers were all fitted and glued up the legs had to be trimmed to size, all sorts of thoughts went through my mind as I approached this task, would I end up with a seat only 10mm off the floor as I kept trimming! The solution was surprisingly simple to get an accurate mark to cut the bottoms off the legs.

Phillip Spencer

Figure 35 The gauge used to mark the cut line for the legs.

I taped a pencil to a piece of scrap wood this was worked out so I would be left with the chair at the height I wanted, I was able to then mark a line around the base of the leg leaving a line to guide me at the angle I needed to cut. I then simply cut the legs following the line and cleaned the edges up with a Figure 37 The finished splat piece of sandpaper.

The Superstructure I started with the wheel back splat when I started to build the top portion of the chair, I used a piece of 12mm thick Mahogany, I cut the splat using my scroll saw and then relief carved around the wheel to give a little of definition, this carving is not necessary the splat looks just as good flat.

Figure 38 Holes drilled in the underside of the arm note that they are all drilled at compound angles.

Figure 39 The arm clamped to the splat and laying on top of the arm posts to find the correct location to drill the holes for the Figure 36 The splat half cut arm spindles.

To find the position for the blind holes for the arm spindles I clamped the arm to the splat and then laid

Phillip Spencer the arm on top of the temporary arm spindles to find the correct location to drill. The tilting table made earlier is handy as the holes for the arm spindles are drilled at compound angles. I then and shaped the curved arm posts, to shape the first thing I needed to do was to shape the spigot end to fit in the holes drilled to take the arm posts, I had to shape the end of the post to ¾ of an inch, I did this by using a compass to draw a circle on the end of the post and then shave away the excess wood with a low angle spoke-shave testing the fit in the hole frequently. Figure 41 Finally shaved to the right diameter and length To help with fitting the splat and arm posts I cut some lengths of ½ inch dowel to use as the arm spindles while I carried out a dry fit up so as I could work out the positioning of the arm posts and the positioning of the splat, ( I recommend that you put off cutting the notch for the splat until the arm is dry fitted in position otherwise you may end up having to remake the arm if things do not line up) When cutting the notch in the arm for the splat the back face will have to be angled at 14ᵒ to allow the splat to be correctly angled, if you cut the notch square the splat will sit to upright and the chair will be uncomfortable and the geometry for the bow will be different and the chair Figure 42 The arm posts after shaping will not look right.

Figure 40 The marked diameter for the spigot on the arm post

Figure 43 Dry fit up

To make up the arm spindles I used a ⅝ inch rounding plane available at The Old Tool Store

Phillip Spencer http://www.oldtools.free- online.co.uk/shop/index.html they sell a range of tools that are used in chair making including a range of rounding planes.

Figure 46 Spigot sizing gauge.

To ensure that I did not overshoot the mark when shaving the arm spindles I used a purpose built gauge to check the spigot sizing as I went along, this gauge has all the hols drilled to size all the spigots that I will need to make.

Figure 44 Rounding the arm spindles

After I had made up the round arm spindles I cut them to length and then, to give a handmade look, using a Figure 47 The completed arm spindles drill gauge I marked a ½ inch diameter circle on the end of the short arm spindles and then shaved the After making the short arm spindles and shaping the ends to the diameter needed using low angle spoke arm posts, I glued the short arm spindles in place and shaves. fitted the arm, I then fitted and glued the arm posts in place, gluing and screwing (from underneath) the arm post to the arm, At the other end of the arm where it passes through the seat I glued the arm post and drove a wedge in from underneath the seat to make the arm post nice and tight.

Figure 45 Marked up ready to shave

Figure 48 The short arm spindles glued in place Phillip Spencer

drill square and gradually pull the drill over to the required angle once the hole has started. It is also a good idea to clamp a piece of scrap under the arm to stop splitting when the drill bit breaks through.

Figure 49 View of the completed arm with the short spindles and arm post glued in place

Figure 51 Holes drilled all neat and correctly angled

I referenced the angle for the long spindles using the wheel back splat mounted in the arm, I was able to eyeball the angle as well as sight hole in the seat to get an approximate angle. To get the correct angle for the holes for the bow I set my bevel gauge to 20ᵒ and taped it to the arm of the chair, this gave me a sight line to line the drill up so the angle would be right.

Figure 50 The chair completed up to the arms, next step is to fit Figure 52 Using the bevel gauge to give a sight line for drilling the the bow and long spindles. holes for the bow. To fit the bow a round tenon has to be made on the Fitting the Bow ends of the bow there is no easy way to do this, it has I approached fitting the bow with a little bit of to be shaved down to fit the ⅝ hole, also there is two trepidation, first I had to finish drilling the holes for ways to do this , one is to shave the end of the bow the long spindles and the holes to take the spigots for down to the right diameter and blend the round end the bow. The long spindle are ⅝ inch in diameter as into the bow, the other is to form the round tenons well as the hole to accommodate the spigot for the and then scribe around the bow so it sits flush and bow, the long spindle holes were drilled at 14ᵒ to match the angle of the wheel back splat whilst the "square" with the arm, I chose to do the latter. holes for the bow were drilled at 20ᵒ. The first thing to do is to mark the round tenon on the

There is a method of drilling these angled holes using end of the bow, it must be set out to the front of the a pistol drill and not having the drill bit wander off bow. mark, first centre pinch the mark just as would be done working with steel, then start drilling holding the Phillip Spencer

Figure 53 The tenon marked out ready to be shaped. Figure 55 Scribing the mark for the shoulders of the tenon Once the tenon has been marked the waste can be cut away and the tenon then made into a round shape After cutting the shoulders, all I had to do was to cut in my case because of the way I chose to have the mortises in the inside top of the bow to hold the bow sit on the arm I had to file it, otherwise it could wheel back splat, and dry fit up everything. be shaved with a spoke shave. Don' stress out too much if the tenon is a little loose in the hole, it will be wedged later to make it tight.

Figure 54 The tenon formed and sized using the handy tenon seizer made earlier

Because I wanted a neat fit with the bow where it joins the arm I scribed a line onto the bow, so I could cut shoulders.

Figure 56 The chair is finally taking shape.

The next task was to make up the long spindles and fit them and shape the back of the bow.

Using my Grandfathers Turner No 5 I planed the material for the long spindled to a hexagonal shape so it would fit in the rounding plane. It is important to cut your stock so that the grain is long and straight.

Phillip Spencer

After shaving and fitting all the long spindles I marked their position on the bow and drilled the blind holes to take them. All I had to do then was to shape the back of the bow to a quadrant shape and glue and assemble the chair. After fitting the bow, spindles and splat I used wedges to hold the bow tight in the arm.

Figure 57Planing the long spindle stock to fit the rounding plane with my Grandfathers Turner No 5

Using the rounding plane I made all the long spindles ⅝" round, when doing this I found that the rounding plane followed the grain in the wood (this is why it is important to use straight grained wood)

Figure 59 Finished at last, just have to let the glue dry. Finish I finished the chair few coats of glaze made from a thin wash of garnet shellac, I let the shellac dry overnight then lightly sanded the chair down in some places where there would be heavy wear I sanded a bit harder and where some joints were I left a thicker

layer, I wanted the chair to look as if it had been well Figure 58 Rounding the long spindles used and refinished at some point in its life, the only way to achieve this is to apply a finish and then sand it After rounding I had to shave the spindle to get the off. end diameters (there are three critical diameters the After sanding the chair ( I only sand down to 400 grit) bottom is 7/16" the middle where the spindle passed and rubbing it down with XXXX steel wool I applied through the arm is ⅝" while the top where the spindle three coats of wiping varnish (I had considered using meets the bow is ⅜" the spindle is shaved the same Sam Maloof's recipe of Tung oil, Turps and varnish in equal measure) but I had some wiping varnish on the way as the short arm spindles. I found that because of shelf so I used that. I applied a coat of wax to finish the long straight grain in the wood used for the long the chair off. spindles, they were surprisingly strong and there was The end result was a satin honey coloured finish enough give or spring in the wood to allow me to align which I am very partial to. them with the holes (I am glad that I didn't take a short cut and use commercial dowel that would not have been as strong!).

Phillip Spencer

Phillip Spencer

Phillip Spencer