Don’t let an unfamiliarity with chairmaking keep you building a chair. This Irish-y armchair, with a curved back rest and lightly saddled seat, is a gateway chair into building a full-on Kentucky stick chair (or Welsh stick chair, or Scottish stick chair, or Insertplacenamehere stick chair). And the plan for this chair is free. Click…
Read moreBecause I have written books on workbenches and chairs, I am regularly asked what sort of workbench is best for making chairs. Here’s my answer: the same bench you use to make cabinets, boxes and snake toys. Unless you are a professional chairmaker who makes chairs and only chairs in a tiny space, there is…
Read moreWhen it comes to making chairs or any other complex piece of furniture, it’s easy to become paralyzed by the advice of others, even when the advice is well-meaning. It is possible to be well-meaning and all-clueless. When you hear the following rules or dictums or whatever, just blow a silent and internal raspberry back…
Read moreI never planned on trying to drag a bunch of readers into my Stick Chair Lair, but it sure looks that way in our store. We now have four titles devoted to these chairs, plus plans, a sliding bevel, a calculator for designing your own chairs, a bevel-setting tool and a card scraper specially ground…
Read moreThis 15-stick comb-back armchair is inspired by the famous Scottish Darvel chairs; it is one of the most technically difficult chairs I make. This particular example is set up as a chair for dining or working at a desk, with a fairly upright back at 13° off the seat. The chair has a poplar seat….
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