Arts & Crafts Style Chair

WTAUNTON’S Arts & Crafts Style Chair A project plan for building a handsome chair

Build an Oak Bookcase From Getting Started in Woodworking, Season 2 Enjoy our entire site Simple, Sturdy Workbench By AsA ChristiA n A ou can thank Mike Pekovich, Fine Woodworking’s art direc- For more FREE A n A From Getting Startedtor, for designing in Woodworking,this simple but Season 2 Y A Christi stylish bookcase. He took a straightforA - Simple, Sturdy Workbench By A n As ward form--an oak bookcase with dado and rabbet joints--and added nice pro- A ChristiLisT From Getting Startedportions in and Woodworking, elegant curves. Season 2Lies By As D supp We agreed that screws would reinforceDware anLisT Mber, harLies the joints nicely, andLu that gave us a deD - supp 8-ft.-long 2x4s, kiln-dried be FREE for 14 days! inexpensivesign option on the sides.4 Dware Choose oak an plugs, and align the grain carefully, and n be versatile Mber, 2har 8-ft.-longln-dried 4x4s, kiln-dried his workbench is easy and the plugsLu disappear. Make them from a 1/2 in. longide. byFront 3 3/4in. jaw in. wide. cathick. Front jaw can The base is 4 8-ft.-long1 2x4s,4x8 ln-dried kisheet of MDF by 6 in. long to build, yet is sturdy and contrasting wood, like walnut, and the 3/4 in. thick. long T 8-ft.-long2 4x4s,Hardwood ki pieces 1/2for in. vise longthick jaws, by and 3 7 in.the w rear jaw is rows of plugs2 add a nice design feature ear -in.-thickjaw is plywood, 4 in. wide project plans from 4s and 2x4s), joined between 1 in. and 1 3/4 4 in. wide by 6 in. enough for any woodworker. to the broad1 sides,4x8 sheethinting of atces MDFthe for con vise- jaws, 7 hort dowels. The 1/2 in. thick and the r his workbenchconstruction is easy lumber and inexpensive (4x 1 Filler 1block for mounting3/4-in.-thick vise, plywood, struction in a2 subtleHardwood way. pie edium-density orking Vise aft.com)(www.woodcraft.com) to build,simply yet is sturdywith long and bolts versatile and s By design the betweenbookcase1 1 containsbottlein. andunting of a yellow vise, glue 450+ videos, 33-year archive, T sheet,number with of fundamental lessons for g Vise (www.woodcr top is two layers of MDF (m 1 Filler block1 7-in. for glue moGroz Rapid-Action⁄ -in.-dia. threadedWoodw rod enough for any woodworker. The base is would-be furniture-makers, and like the andy shelf. bottle of yellow6-ft. lengthstion Woodworkin of ed rod constructionfiberboard), lumber (4x4s cut andfrom 2x4s), a single joinedother projects 1in this video4 series, the this bench 7-in. Groz Rapid-Ac⁄ -in.⁄ -in.-dia.washers thread e simply withenough long bolts left and over short to makedowels. a Thehwhole thing can-1 be built with16 just a few ching front jaw of vise portable power tools:6-ft. a circularlengths⁄ saw,-in. of nutsa g fronthing jaw rear of vis jaw The only tools needed to saw,make and a hand 4 16 -20 bolts, nuts, washers for atta top is two layers of MDF (medium-density -in. washers 1/4 ar jaw drill, and a router ⁄ 2 2-in.-long . 16 1/4-20washers flathead for screws attachin for natingattac benchtop fiberboard),are cut a fromdrill/driver, a single a sheet,circular with The- shelves attach to⁄ -in. the nuts sides with-in.-long, small cast-16 2 11/2-20 bolts, nuts, ws for attachingting benchtopre for attaching vise simple dadoes, and the back and1/4 back- -in.-long drywall screws for lami enough leftheld over router to make or a router a handy table shelf. 2-in.-long 1/4 attaching vise 2 1 Box1/4 -20of 1flathead scre blogs, and more Fine Woodworking splash drop into rabbets. Screws rein- -in.-longlLumber screws lag for and screwslamina hardware and washers, List The only tools needed to make this benchh is an essential 1/2 There is room at one end for a 11/2-in.-long,⁄ -in.-dia., 2 and washers, for force the dado joints2 and also attach4 1/4-in.-long the drywal are a drill/driver,iron woodworking a circular saw,vise, andwhic op.a hand The vise is Part longQtY size materiaL lower stretcher, and 1woodBox plugs of16 1 coverS-clip-type1/2-in.-long tabletop lag screws fasteners denthe screwjaws, holes. and the Smaller ⁄wood-in.-dia., screws 2 top fasteners held routertool or ina routerany woodworking table. sh 4 16 ⁄ -in.-dia. dowels, roughly 3 in. are used to attach the plywood back. sides There isfitted room with at onenon-marring end for a woo smalldog cast- holes, sized S-clip-type table oughly 3 in. long Curves add life to rectangular16 pieces nch accessories. ⁄ -in.-dia. dowels, r iron woodworkingjaws and vise,benchtop which receive is an essential of furniture, and Pekovich16 worked in sheLVes tool in anyto woodworkingfit a variety of shop. handy The be visethree istypes, each irregular and organic 62 in. (as opposed to radius curves that can fitted with non-marring wooden jaws, and the11/2 in. 4 in. seem mechanical). At the top are gen- back 62sPL in.ash 4 in. jaws and benchtop receive dog holes,tle curves sized that speed up as they move in. to fit a variety of handy bench accessories.forward, each taken from a section of 3 ⁄ 24 in. 1/2 in. arched 3 ⁄ in. 1 ⁄ in. a French1 curve. At the bottom are two 1 ⁄ in. stretcher  long curves formed with a flexible wood click here now batten, one extending end to end on the try it now 24 in. lower stretcher,2 ⁄ in. and the other a short back ⁄ in.33⁄ in. Long stretchers 33 graceful arch at the bottom of the sides, in. 10 in. 1 ⁄ 1 ⁄ in. ending at a straight step at each end to screwsLong FO stretchersr 1 ⁄ in. in. suggest2 ⁄legs. sheLVes 10 in. Sidein. 1 ⁄stretchers--Asa Christiana, editor, Fine Woodworking screws FOr back 9 ⁄ in. 9 ⁄ in. Side stretchers VideOs

41 in. 9 in. 9 ⁄ in. 41 in. 1 ⁄ in. 48 in. 9 in. 48 in. to finish. 9 ⁄ in. 17 in. 1 ⁄ in. how to build this workbench from start startto watch a two-part video detailing how to build this workbench from start to finish. 31/2 in.17 in. Finewoodworking.com/ to watch a two-part video detailing Visit us online at start ViDe Os oodworking.com/ Finew 31/2 in. Visit us online at ViDe Os Building a Chair, Arts-and-Crafts Style Joinery details make this chair strong and handsome

by Rex Alexander

hen the curator of Dennos Mu- worth of books by or about Stickley (see had to agree on a final design, and it had to seum in Traverse City, Mich., the further reading box on p. 47), Greene be compatible with a reproduction Frank W asked me to design and build and Greene, Roycroft and others. These Lloyd Wright chandelier they had already some Arts-and-Crafts style furniture for an books gave me a feel for designs of this bought for the dining room. upcoming exhibit, I jumped at the chance. period. And they told me what type of I learned that Gustav Stickley, in design- We agreed that I'd look for a customer who wood to use and how it should be cut and ing his No. 384 chair, was influenced by would buy the furniture after the exhibit. I finished. I studied detailed drawings and Wright's work. I knew I had found the in- approached Jay and Sue Wisniewski, who proportions to help with the design. spiration to my design problems. It was have been steady clients on a number of The deal with the museum didn't work this chair (first built in 1905), with its rush projects. They were excited by the idea. out, but my clients gave me the go ahead seat and vertical slats on both the sides and I immediately ordered more than $100 for a dining table and some chairs. We still the back, that I drew upon to arrive at the A Stickley style dining chair The author based the design for this chair on a Stickley original. Stickley was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. Mortise-and-tenon joinery makes this chair sturdy enough to withstand the stresses of daily use. Routing back posts final design for these chairs. The chairs are shown in the photo on p. 42. Solve problems by building a prototype I developed a scale drawing of the chair to help determine a materials list (see the drawing on p. 43). For several reasons, I also decided to build a prototype: the joinery is complicated, I had to buy tooling and make jigs, and I wanted to be sure my clients were satisfied with the comfort of this chair. Also, I could use the prototype to verify the proportions and to resolve some of the details of the frame and the fit of the inset rush seat. A plywood jig for Building six chairs is a small production shaping the back posts. A little time run. A prototype helped me to organize invested in this jig each step and avoid many construction guaranteed that problems. I made the prototype with all back posts poplar scraps accumulated from other jobs would be the same and assembled it without glue so it could size and shape. A be taken apart. A mistake with poplar at shaper with a rub collar works as this stage would not be too costly. well as a router. Once I was happy with the prototype, I took it apart and measured each piece for a final materials list. Each chair was made from front and back posts, seat rails, side A jig for trimming the back posts to size and shape stretchers, a horizontal stretcher, curved This jig is sized to handle two legs at a time. After cutting the profile for the front of the leg, the author moves the leg to the back of the jig and finishes the profile. upper and lower back slats and vertical slats. There were 35 pans in all, including 1. Mount the first back post, 2. Trim the front edge by four oak dowels to pin the stretchers to the cut slightly oversized on the making several passes with the bandsaw, into the jig. The router, adjusting the depth of front and back posts. top of the jig is held cut for each pass. A template down with screws guide rubs against the Machining the parts and T-nuts. edge of the plywood jig. All the parts started out as quartersawn white oak. I could resaw the 2-in.-thick material into -in. seat rails, stretchers, and slats and still have plenty of material for the -in.-sq. front and back posts. For a table, six side chairs and two arm chairs, I ordered 400 bd. ft. I wanted heavily rayed pieces for the sides of the front and back posts, the bottom side stretchers and the curved upper and lower back slats. I chose lightly figured white oak for the seat rails. 3. Move the first back 4. Make a pass on Except for the back posts, I rough-cut all post to the back side of each leg, front and the jig, and insert the back, at each router the chair parts on a tablesaw and then second back post in depth setting. Clean cleaned them up with a jointer and a plan- its place. Reassemble up machined surfaces er. Later, after making tenons, I cut out the the jig. with sandpaper. curved upper and lower back slats on the bandsaw (see the top photo on the facing page), marked with a -in. plywood template made to a 36 in. radius. I cleaned up the bandsaw marks with a spokeshave and a compass plane. I made a special jig to clean up the back posts after they had been rough-cut to size on the bandsaw (see the photo and drawing at left). The jig is based on one in Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking: Furniture mak- Cutting curved back slats ing (The Taunton Press, 1985). Two legs are sandwiched between two pieces of birch plywood. One side of the jig is shaped for the outside cut and the other for the inside cut. Support blocks on each end and one in the middle of the jig register the pieces to be cut. Machine screws through one side thread into T-nuts in the other side and hold the legs firmly in place. I applied strips of self-adhesive sandpaper to the inside of each piece of the plywood jig to keep the legs from slipping. I trimmed the legs to size with a 3 hp router equipped with a -in. template guide and a 4-in. solid carbide up-cut spiral bit. I cut the front of each leg first and then moved it to the other side of the jig against the registration blocks. You can avoid too much stress on the bit and pre- vent tearout by making several passes with the router, adjusting the depth of cut a little at a time. Cutting the mortises All the chair parts except for the vertical Cutting the curved back slats—Convex and concave cuts slats are connected with -in. mortise-andfrom lumber yielded -in-thick slats, after the surfaces tenon joints. Years ago, I developed a sim- were scraped clean. These slats are the only curved pieces of the chair. ple jig to cut the mortises for a batch of screen doors, and I was able to use it again for this project (see photos 1-4 on pp. 46- 47). This jig is made of -in. plywood with sides that act as a carriage for the router. A Cutting angled tenons -in. slot runs down the middle of the jig, stopping 2 in. from each end. Two adjustable stop blocks sit square in the carriage and control the length of the mortise. I held the piece to be mortised in the jig by clamping it to the underside, below the -in. slot. I used my 3 hp router with a -in. by 4-in. solid carbide up-cut spiral bit, adjusting the depth of cut with stops on the router. Even with the jig, this was a time-consuming process. Router bits don't cut square-cornered mortises. Rather than cleaning out all the corners by hand, I devised a method that works really well. I chucked a Lie-Nielsen corner chisel into my drill press (make sure it's unplugged). I clamped an adjustable fence to the drill-press table to rest the stock against and squared the chisel to the fence. The rack-and-pinion force of the drill press pared a clean, sharp corner in the mortise.

Cut the tenons on the tablesaw Double-blade tenoning on the tablesaw—With a custom- All the Stickley chairs that I've seen are made jig, the author cut angled tenons for the side stretchers wider in front than in back. The side chair and side seat rails. Sawblades were set at a 4° pitch to the in Gustav Stickley's Making Authentic surface of the saw table and separated by a -in. spacer. A jig for routing mortises

1. Movable base supports make 2. Use chair part to set jig. After 3. Stop blocks for the router deter- adjustments easy. Built for mortising a securing one base piece, the author mine the length of the mortise cuts and set of doors, this jig can be adjusted to snugs the other one against a side keep them all consistent. Pencil lines cut mortises in stock of different widths. stretcher and screws it in place. help to align the stock.

Craftsman Furniture narrows toward the make the shoulder cuts on the other side. side with a Forstner bit in the drill press. back by in, I built these chairs to that Then I straightened the blade and adjust- Scraping and sanding removed all the dimension— in. wide at the front and ed the height for cutting the shoulders of milling marks and provided a smooth sur- 18 in. wide at the back, with a seat depth of the rest of the tenons, except the horizontal face for finishing. After a satisfactory dry- in. Because of this design detail, either stretcher. That piece has straight tenons, fit, I completely disassembled the chair and the mortises or the tenons have to be an- but the ends of the piece are cut to 86° to stained all the parts. gled on the seat rails and the stretchers. I follow the shape of the chair seat. So the You have to think through the order in decided it was easier to angle the tenons. shoulder cuts for the horizontal stretcher which the pieces of a chair go together, but I used the tenoning jig shown in the bot- are cut at 86° with the miter gauge. it's really pretty simple. Vertical slats went tom photo on p. 45. The tenons for all the -in.-sq. vertical in first, glued into both the back slats and By drawing the seat-plan view to fall size slats were simple to make. To get -in.-sq. the side-stretcher and seat-rail assemblies. on a scrap of plywood, I determined that tenons, I cut all four sides at each end with I assembled whole sides by adding the the front and back of the chair related to the a dado blade. A wooden backer board front and back posts and clamped them to sides by 4° off square, or 86°, so I set the mounted with double-faced tape held each dry overnight. The next day, I put two sides sawblade to that angle. To cut the cheeks of piece firmly against the miter gauge. I cut together with the horizontal stretcher, the the tenons on the seat rails and bottom each piece slowly to avoid tearout on the front and back seat rails, and the back-slat stretchers, I used two blades of a dado set corners of the slats. I used a sharp knife to assembly to make a complete chair frame. with a -in. spacer between them. You can carve the tenons down to a dowel shape to I let any glue squeeze-out around the joints adjust the height of the blades off the table fit -in. holes drilled in the back slats, the cure partially before removing the glue to account for tenons of different length. side stretchers and the seat rails. with a sharp chisel. After cutting all the angled tenons, I After the glue had cured, I removed the straightened the blade mechanism back to Fine-tune and dry-fit the parts clamps and glued and screwed -in.-thick 90° to cut all the cheeks for the horizontal Before final assembly with glue, I always corner blocks to the inside bottom of the stretcher, front and back seat rails, and the like to check the joinery by dry-fitting the chair. These add stability to the frame and upper and lower back slats. The tenons for parts (see the photo at right on the facing support the inset rush seat. I go over the all these pieces are straight—parallel to the page). It helps me avoid surprises when I chair completely with 400-grit wet-or-dry pieces themselves. can least afford them. I check the fit of sandpaper and follow that with a good Next I removed one of the dado blades every piece and make adjustments as nec- rubdown using #0000 steel wool. from the table and set the remaining blade essary with a chisel or a shoulder plane. at 4° to cut half the shoulders of the angled I marked the through-dowel pins for the A finish from Sam Maloof tenons. I used a miter gauge with a positive lower stretchers ( in. dia.) with a home- Oil on wood is really a beautiful finish, stop. I lowered the blade, still set at 4°, and made gauge at 4 in. up from the bottom of bringing out a depth that looks superior to moved the miter gauge to the other slot to each post. I drilled halfway in from either any film finish. But on furniture and cabi- 4. The depth of the mortise is con- trolled by the plunge mechanism on the router. The author secures stock to the jig with C-clamps.

nets that come into contact with water, I had been hesitant to use such a finish until I read about Sam Maloof's three-part for- mula. He mixes equal parts of raw rung oil, boiled linseed oil and polyurethane. The polyurethane prevents this finish from showing water spots. With the temperature about 50° to 60°F, I sprayed this concoction on the chairs and let it soak in for 10 to 20 minutes. After that, I wiped it off with a rag, using a circular motion. I repeated this procedure two times, letting each coat dry a few days. Then I Dry-assemble all the pieces. This dress rehearsal for the final assembly helps the gave all the surfaces a final buff with #0000 author avoid the costly mistake of glued joints that don't fit. steel wool. The Maloof technique also calls for an- ing the multiple alternating layers would other mixture: equal parts tung oil, boiled hold up better over time. A -in. piece of Further reading linseed oil and beeswax. To make this, I plywood, cut out in the middle to make a melted some beeswax in a double boiler -in.-wide frame, worked best. Gustav Stickley built many fine on the stove. While that was still in liquid To learn how to weave a rush fiber seat, I examples of Arts-and-Crafts furniture in his factory. He also left a wealth of form, I added the tung and linseed oils, consulted an article in FWW #85 (p. 51). As information in his monthly magazine mixing them together. When this mixture a source book for materials, The Carter's The Craftsman (1901-1916). Much of cools to a paste, it's easy to apply with a Handbook by Bruce W. Miller and Jim this information has been republished cotton cloth, rubbing in a circular motion. Widess came in handy. It is published by in two books: Craftsman Homes, I applied three coats to the chairs. The Lark Books, 50 College St., Asheville, NC Architecture and Furnishings of the beeswax gave this finish a nice, satiny glow. 28801, and it's available from Woodcraft American Arts and Crafts Movement Supply (800) 542-9115 or The Woodwork- and Making Authentic Craftsman The frame and fiber rush seat ers' Store (800) 279-4441. The weaving Furniture, both published by Dover Unlike most chairs made with a rush seat, process was time-consuming. Each seat Publications, 31 E. 2nd St., Mineola, this one has a separate frame screwed into took about a day to complete. NY 11501. These books are available place after it was woven. Fiber rush exerts a through Manny's Woodworkers Place tremendous amount of pressure on a Rex Alexander builds furniture, cabinetry (800) 243-0713. frame, so I decided to use plywood, figur- and millwork in Brethren, Mich.