If you’re a vernacular furniture fanatic, or you live in Tasmania, you may already know what a Jimmy Possum chair is. If you’re one of the other 7.4 billion people on earth, buckle up and read on about my journey to Jimmy Possum: an unbroken tradition. With international borders reopened, wanderlust took my wife, Kathy,…
Read moreThis seven-stick comb-back chair was built using red oak during my most recent chairmaking class. It is being offered at a discount because of a couple small cosmetic issues (which most people will not notice). This chair is one of my newer designs, which uses a four-piece arm (for stability) and a thin shoe, which…
Read moreIf you are looking for a travisher, here is another fantastic option: Allan Williams, a chairmaker and toolmaker who makes three kinds of travishers. Recently I ordered two travishers from Allan, a standard one with a 4-1/2″-radius blade and a tighter-radius tool (3″) for fixing student mistakes and doing some work at the back edge…
Read moreSmall cross-peen hammers are incredibly useful in furniture making. I’ve had one in my chest for almost 20 years. “Wait,” you might be thinking. “Chris didn’t list this hammer in his recent inventory of his chest.” You are correct. That’s because we’ve been reverse-engineering my favorite Warrington to make our own version. It’s now in…
Read moreThe first writing class I took at Northwestern’s journalism school – “B-01 Basic Writing” – was intended to weed out about one-third of the students. You had to make a “B” in the course or you were thrown out. The class was intentionally boot camp-ish. And there were a variety of infractions that would result…
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