The Official Random Video Thread!

The second step in shaping a wooden chair seat after adzing (my earlier video post). You can get the idea after about one minute.... I picked up these tools from a second hand tool dealer in Great Britain, and they are quite ancient. The one I most use isn't original, it has a handle that I made and has gone through a couple of spare irons (blades) that I also found, the other is still as I purchased it. They evolved specifically for this purpose within the trade of chair making in that country. Efficient to use, but some physical effort required. Cherry wood.....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/so-ZU526hEI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
This looks handy.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QpIQ_nu_9Yw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Once I saw a wood chair like that in an Amish furniture store. It was boring and uncomfortable looking. When I sat down I couldn't believe it. So comfortable I didn't want to get up. How do they do that?
 
Wood seats can be surprisingly comfortable. I have made some office chairs for people that sit down most of the day, and they prefer them over upholstered seating. There are some points to be mindful of when shaping the seat contours, that will make a big difference. Most of the cheap wooden chairs could be more comfortable if the manufacturers had a concern about it and improved the shaping, but it seems that the majority of them get sold based upon price rather than how comfortable they are. Angle of the seat and back are important factors too, and affect the purpose. A proper dining chair likely isn't the best one for reading or watching TV, some things need to be done differently depending on use. A neutral position is the best, not where you are supporting your weight with your legs or leaning back too far. It differs with the people that will be using the chairs...different body types. It isn't bad to aim for what works best for most people.
 
I noticed the same with wood slat park benches. Some are hard on your butt and some are super comfortable. Seems to me, most stuff nowadays is designed for looks first, and to be cheap, second. If it works well and holds up. . .

It's nice to see a real craftsman. How did you learn to make chairs?
 
My biggest influence was spending a couple years working in two of the very few remaining traditional chair workshops in Great Britain. Chair making there was a separate trade from other types of furniture making, and even within the specific trade, it was divided between some different types. A guy that made all wooden chairs like Windsors, wouldn't likely be making the type of chairs that had upholstered seats, and the upholstered type makers were generally ranked as a higher order of craftsman. I wanted to learn both types of work, and was lucky to find some great places to do it after a lot of searching. A rich history for that profession there, and I worked in a town that once had been the center of the trade. On the surface it appeared like any small light industry town surrounded by farmlands and woods, but those woods were Beech, and they fueled a trade that produced more chairs than any other place in the world, on up to the early 20th century. I walked down the alleys of the old brick buildings that had once been chair shops, mostly that had become vacant by then, but the atmosphere was still there, and the great old chairs could still be seen in the pubs, etc. It was very inspirational for me as a young person wanting to learn the trade, and the places where i worked still employed a few very highly skilled people, sadly then a dying breed. There are lots of depths to the work, so many methods and techniques, and it stretches back for over three hundred years as the designs changed to suit a vast market through the various periods. I have much respect for the history of the trade, and the blokes that were a part of it.
 
I am curious if you are a mentor now J, passing along the art to the next generation, if not, maybe you should get to writing a good book or 2?
 
Paul, I had one very good apprentice when my shop was in the California, that is currently still in the trade, I believe. I was very busy then. Other than that, now I work by my lonely. It isn't easy to learn such work these days, to find an individual such as myself, that can pay a livable wage while you are learning. There are no large concerns approaching the work in a traditional fashion, most everything has become the more modern way. Having an interest, I do other furniture making besides chairs, but it would be cool to just specialize in seating. Since I do mostly chair work, sometimes someone will say to me, "Oh, you only make chairs?". They don't understand that it is really enough in terms of the challenges, if you have an expanded range. Writing a book.....it has crossed my mind. Seems like a huge effort, however.

I completed the shaping vid series yesterday, with some verbal description, as Butch suggested.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_98ANEr6SvQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NBG5WdqKX38" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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