Bill Minnick
Well-known member
Society of American Period Furniture Makers
Ohio River Valley Chapter
2010 Spring 1 Meeting
Brian Neeley's Farm, Lancaster, OH
On March 20 & 21, the Ohio River Valley Chapter held in Lancaster, Ohio a very fascinating and informative 2-day meeting. Approximately 46 people attended from OH, MI, WV, IN, KY, TN and PA. The chapter is most grateful to Brian Neeley and his family for being such wonderful hosts and allowing the chapter to use their shop for the meeting. And a big thanks goes out to Brian's family for preparing a delicious home-cooked dinner and two lunches for the group.
The chapter was very fortunate to have SAPFM member David Wright, Master-Artist-in-Residence at the Appalachian Artisan Center of Kentucky in Hindman, Kentucky, teach a 2-day class on making a Windsor chair. During the past 20 years, David has made and sold over 1,400 Windsor chairs.
Surprisingly, you can make a Windsor chair using mostly hand tools, and a lot of equipment isn't necessary. And when you're finished, you end up with a piece of furniture that you can actually use.
As usual, the meeting started with our customary Show & Tell. We had seven very interesting presentations, and everyone learned at least one new technique or woodworking tip.
Starting off the Show & Tell, David Conley discussed and displayed photos of the bed that he built for his young son. Basing the design on a Sheraton bed, David added his own design elements including cannonball legs. One of his biggest challenges was finding 16/4 air-dried cherry for the leg posts.
As an excellent introduction to David Wright's class, Ray Scarton brought seven antique Windsor chairs. An avid antique collector, Ray discussed their history and features. He explained to the group that the start of the U.S. Industrial Revolution in 1840 and the ensuing chair factories drastically reduced the overall quality and design of mass-produced Windsor chairs.
Dave Neeley, Brian's father, described how in the early 1960s his father repaired and refinished an early 19th century Federal Hepplewhite Chest that he brought to the meeting. The main challenge in the restoration was replacing the corner pieces that had split off. Dave showed and explained the jig that was made to hold the inlay banding during glue up.
Tod Herrli brought several wooden planes to discuss and sell. To make a custom molding, he explained how he designed and built an astragal, stepped, cove plane including making a mother plane that was used to cut the plane's sole. He showed and described a dedicated drawer bottom plane that plows a 1/4" groove, 5/16" off the bottom edge of drawer sides, a skewed thumbnail for lipped drawers, a sash plane and a coping plane. He also explained how to sharpen a molding plane blade, and how a buffing wheel can help keep your blades sharp.
John Goyer brought photos of a 5-ft. diameter dining room table that he built for his son. It features chrome-plated legs and opens up to 17 ft.
Using photos, Brooke Smith discussed his recently completed Chippendale Secretary. Over the past 8-1/2 years, Brooke built this personal project during his spare time. Close-up photos of the fine details, which were executed by hand, clearly demonstrate Brooke's superb skill level.
Dan Reahard used photos to describe a highboy that he had been working on for a number of years. The design was based on several different museum pieces that Dan scaled down to fit his 8-ft. high ceiling. When designing the highboy, Dan solved several problems by applying some of the design principles presented by George Walker in a previous chapter meeting. Dan was amazed when everything started to fall logically into place. Currently, he is working on the cartouche.
David Wright's presentation began outside and started with splitting an Ash log from Brian Neeley's farm. This was the first time he used Ash for chair stock. David's wood of choice for chairs is white oak. The group quickly discovered that wrestling with logs is hard work, but it's also a lot of fun.
David demonstrated how to split a log into blanks for spindles and other chair parts. Because the wood for the parts will be worked with hand tools, it must be split with the grain. Using wedges and a sledgehammer, David split both the log and resulting pieces in half. Once the log was reduced to manageable size sections, he switched to a froe and continued splitting the wood in half. By levering the froe's handle in or out, he controlled how the wood split. For leg stock, David saws the blanks from straight grain logs, carefully following the grain.
After the session in the yard, the group returned to the shop, and David demonstrated on a shave horse how to use a drawknife and hand plane to shape the chair parts. In Windsor chair making, a drawknife and hand plane does the work of a power jointer and planer.
Making a spindle is an easy three-step process, and with practice can take only five minutes. Using a drawknife, David worked the wood down to a 13/16" square cross section, shaped it and made it round by knocking off the corners. He then used a spokeshave for final shaping. When using a normal drawknife with the handles and knife in a straight line, David recommends placing the bevel edge down. This provides better control and allows the user to take 1/16" to 3/8" thick cuts without the blade digging into the wood. The spokeshave requires a very sharp blade, and should be used with a light setting and slightly skewed to the grain direction. Six shave horses provided everyone with the opportunity to make a spindle.
Next, David demonstrated how to steam and bend the bow and arm/handle parts. Because hand tools are used, parts might not be perfectly flat. Fortunately, the steamer and bending form will straighten out the hot, wet wood. Using an industrial, electric teapot, drain tube, and radiator hose, a steamer can be easily built. After a part is steamed for 40 minutes, it is shaped on a bending form using pins and wedges to hold the part in place. Surprisingly, wood can be over steamed resulting in wood that's too dry to bend.
When making your first Windsor chair, David suggests making the seat from either 2" white pine or air-dried poplar. The seat blank is sawn to shape, planed and then the post and spindle holes are drilled. Using a traditional brace and auger bits, these holes are drilled at the appropriate angle using a bevel gauge for guidance.
When shaping the seat, David used a scorp, which cuts best when skewed between 45 degree to 90 degree to the grain. If used with the grain, the cut may run, and you can take off too much wood. The seat is finished with a spokeshave, a travisher and a special wooden round bottom plane. For maximum comfort, the deepest section of the seat should be 1-1/16" to 1-1/8" below the top surface. By holding the seat in a vise, a drawknife followed by a spokeshave can round over the edge. Finally, tapered holes are drilled and reamed for the legs.
When making a leg, the tricky part is not the actual turning, but it's properly preparing the leg for the upcoming joinery. Because the joint for the seat and leg is tapered, and the wood is wet, both factors must be taken into account. David uses a lathe and just four tools (roughing gouge, skew, parting tool and small 1/4" gouge) to turn the bamboo legs. When turning legs, David highly recommends using story sticks.
On Sunday morning, David started the day by explaining the theory behind using wet and dry wood to construct a chair, so that it doesn't fail. He referred to this as wet/dry joinery -- a bone-dry tenon going into a wet mortise. For green wood, he recommends a moisture content of no more than 20%.
To dry the tenon, David uses a hot box. A hot box can be made out of 1/2" silver-sided insulation board. By scoring the board with a knife, you can form the box sides (silver side inside), add a top & bottom, drill tenon-size holes into the box and enclose a light socket and bulb. With the light on, the temperature inside the box can reach 150 degrees within 30 minutes.
For a super tight joint, David makes the dry tenon .004 to .005 larger than the corresponding hole. He uses a micrometer to accurately check the tenon diameter. With a wet/dry joint, wood shrinkage must be carefully taken into account. The rate of shrinkage for each wood species varies and must be considered. He suggests checking a wood reference book for the shrinkage information.
Using finished parts from his shop, David explained in detail and performed the steps required to assemble a Windsor chair. To make a stretcher, he partly assembled the chair by dry fitting the legs and seat then measured to determine the length of the stretcher. Surprisingly, each stretcher can be slightly different in size. A chair must be assembled in steps. Because several angled holes need to be drilled, they can only be determined by measuring the angle between parts during each step. David prefers to drill the leg/stretcher holes on a drill press with the table tilted to the appropriate angle.
During assembly, David applied hot hide glue to both surfaces. He finished each through joint by inserting an oak wedge.
David did a wonderful job demonstrating and explaining the process of making a Windsor chair. He was most willing to share his knowledge and experience acquired during 20 years of building Windsor chairs. As David said, "This isn't cabinetmaking, but an entirely different branch of woodworking." And, thanks to David Wright, the group left with a real appreciation for Windsor chair making.
Ohio River Valley Chapter
2010 Spring 1 Meeting
Brian Neeley's Farm, Lancaster, OH
On March 20 & 21, the Ohio River Valley Chapter held in Lancaster, Ohio a very fascinating and informative 2-day meeting. Approximately 46 people attended from OH, MI, WV, IN, KY, TN and PA. The chapter is most grateful to Brian Neeley and his family for being such wonderful hosts and allowing the chapter to use their shop for the meeting. And a big thanks goes out to Brian's family for preparing a delicious home-cooked dinner and two lunches for the group.
The chapter was very fortunate to have SAPFM member David Wright, Master-Artist-in-Residence at the Appalachian Artisan Center of Kentucky in Hindman, Kentucky, teach a 2-day class on making a Windsor chair. During the past 20 years, David has made and sold over 1,400 Windsor chairs.
Surprisingly, you can make a Windsor chair using mostly hand tools, and a lot of equipment isn't necessary. And when you're finished, you end up with a piece of furniture that you can actually use.
As usual, the meeting started with our customary Show & Tell. We had seven very interesting presentations, and everyone learned at least one new technique or woodworking tip.
Starting off the Show & Tell, David Conley discussed and displayed photos of the bed that he built for his young son. Basing the design on a Sheraton bed, David added his own design elements including cannonball legs. One of his biggest challenges was finding 16/4 air-dried cherry for the leg posts.
As an excellent introduction to David Wright's class, Ray Scarton brought seven antique Windsor chairs. An avid antique collector, Ray discussed their history and features. He explained to the group that the start of the U.S. Industrial Revolution in 1840 and the ensuing chair factories drastically reduced the overall quality and design of mass-produced Windsor chairs.
Dave Neeley, Brian's father, described how in the early 1960s his father repaired and refinished an early 19th century Federal Hepplewhite Chest that he brought to the meeting. The main challenge in the restoration was replacing the corner pieces that had split off. Dave showed and explained the jig that was made to hold the inlay banding during glue up.
Tod Herrli brought several wooden planes to discuss and sell. To make a custom molding, he explained how he designed and built an astragal, stepped, cove plane including making a mother plane that was used to cut the plane's sole. He showed and described a dedicated drawer bottom plane that plows a 1/4" groove, 5/16" off the bottom edge of drawer sides, a skewed thumbnail for lipped drawers, a sash plane and a coping plane. He also explained how to sharpen a molding plane blade, and how a buffing wheel can help keep your blades sharp.
John Goyer brought photos of a 5-ft. diameter dining room table that he built for his son. It features chrome-plated legs and opens up to 17 ft.
Using photos, Brooke Smith discussed his recently completed Chippendale Secretary. Over the past 8-1/2 years, Brooke built this personal project during his spare time. Close-up photos of the fine details, which were executed by hand, clearly demonstrate Brooke's superb skill level.
Dan Reahard used photos to describe a highboy that he had been working on for a number of years. The design was based on several different museum pieces that Dan scaled down to fit his 8-ft. high ceiling. When designing the highboy, Dan solved several problems by applying some of the design principles presented by George Walker in a previous chapter meeting. Dan was amazed when everything started to fall logically into place. Currently, he is working on the cartouche.
David Wright's presentation began outside and started with splitting an Ash log from Brian Neeley's farm. This was the first time he used Ash for chair stock. David's wood of choice for chairs is white oak. The group quickly discovered that wrestling with logs is hard work, but it's also a lot of fun.
David demonstrated how to split a log into blanks for spindles and other chair parts. Because the wood for the parts will be worked with hand tools, it must be split with the grain. Using wedges and a sledgehammer, David split both the log and resulting pieces in half. Once the log was reduced to manageable size sections, he switched to a froe and continued splitting the wood in half. By levering the froe's handle in or out, he controlled how the wood split. For leg stock, David saws the blanks from straight grain logs, carefully following the grain.
After the session in the yard, the group returned to the shop, and David demonstrated on a shave horse how to use a drawknife and hand plane to shape the chair parts. In Windsor chair making, a drawknife and hand plane does the work of a power jointer and planer.
Making a spindle is an easy three-step process, and with practice can take only five minutes. Using a drawknife, David worked the wood down to a 13/16" square cross section, shaped it and made it round by knocking off the corners. He then used a spokeshave for final shaping. When using a normal drawknife with the handles and knife in a straight line, David recommends placing the bevel edge down. This provides better control and allows the user to take 1/16" to 3/8" thick cuts without the blade digging into the wood. The spokeshave requires a very sharp blade, and should be used with a light setting and slightly skewed to the grain direction. Six shave horses provided everyone with the opportunity to make a spindle.
Next, David demonstrated how to steam and bend the bow and arm/handle parts. Because hand tools are used, parts might not be perfectly flat. Fortunately, the steamer and bending form will straighten out the hot, wet wood. Using an industrial, electric teapot, drain tube, and radiator hose, a steamer can be easily built. After a part is steamed for 40 minutes, it is shaped on a bending form using pins and wedges to hold the part in place. Surprisingly, wood can be over steamed resulting in wood that's too dry to bend.
When making your first Windsor chair, David suggests making the seat from either 2" white pine or air-dried poplar. The seat blank is sawn to shape, planed and then the post and spindle holes are drilled. Using a traditional brace and auger bits, these holes are drilled at the appropriate angle using a bevel gauge for guidance.
When shaping the seat, David used a scorp, which cuts best when skewed between 45 degree to 90 degree to the grain. If used with the grain, the cut may run, and you can take off too much wood. The seat is finished with a spokeshave, a travisher and a special wooden round bottom plane. For maximum comfort, the deepest section of the seat should be 1-1/16" to 1-1/8" below the top surface. By holding the seat in a vise, a drawknife followed by a spokeshave can round over the edge. Finally, tapered holes are drilled and reamed for the legs.
When making a leg, the tricky part is not the actual turning, but it's properly preparing the leg for the upcoming joinery. Because the joint for the seat and leg is tapered, and the wood is wet, both factors must be taken into account. David uses a lathe and just four tools (roughing gouge, skew, parting tool and small 1/4" gouge) to turn the bamboo legs. When turning legs, David highly recommends using story sticks.
On Sunday morning, David started the day by explaining the theory behind using wet and dry wood to construct a chair, so that it doesn't fail. He referred to this as wet/dry joinery -- a bone-dry tenon going into a wet mortise. For green wood, he recommends a moisture content of no more than 20%.
To dry the tenon, David uses a hot box. A hot box can be made out of 1/2" silver-sided insulation board. By scoring the board with a knife, you can form the box sides (silver side inside), add a top & bottom, drill tenon-size holes into the box and enclose a light socket and bulb. With the light on, the temperature inside the box can reach 150 degrees within 30 minutes.
For a super tight joint, David makes the dry tenon .004 to .005 larger than the corresponding hole. He uses a micrometer to accurately check the tenon diameter. With a wet/dry joint, wood shrinkage must be carefully taken into account. The rate of shrinkage for each wood species varies and must be considered. He suggests checking a wood reference book for the shrinkage information.
Using finished parts from his shop, David explained in detail and performed the steps required to assemble a Windsor chair. To make a stretcher, he partly assembled the chair by dry fitting the legs and seat then measured to determine the length of the stretcher. Surprisingly, each stretcher can be slightly different in size. A chair must be assembled in steps. Because several angled holes need to be drilled, they can only be determined by measuring the angle between parts during each step. David prefers to drill the leg/stretcher holes on a drill press with the table tilted to the appropriate angle.
During assembly, David applied hot hide glue to both surfaces. He finished each through joint by inserting an oak wedge.
David did a wonderful job demonstrating and explaining the process of making a Windsor chair. He was most willing to share his knowledge and experience acquired during 20 years of building Windsor chairs. As David said, "This isn't cabinetmaking, but an entirely different branch of woodworking." And, thanks to David Wright, the group left with a real appreciation for Windsor chair making.