Chair Pictures

[Jeff]

Eliot said, "Good poets borrow, great poets steal" or something like that. I stole this design from Hans Wegner and defaced it to suit my American sensibilities. The front legs are attached with a rabbetted dado. Key tenons are pinned with wenge dowels. And if you look closely, you'll see a Federal period curve between the arm rest and the seat rail. I positioned the arms wide on the front legs in order to create the illusion of embrace. I want the chair to beckon you to have a seat. The wood's not finished yet but my wife already took some pics so I thought I'd share:

is the design I stole from Wegner:

[Robatoy]

Very clean. Very nice. My kinda style.. form following function and all that.

r

[Jeff]

Thanks. The arms are higher than I would have placed them for aesthetic appeal, but when they sit right at the sweet spot of comfort, well, there's something to be said for that.. I never sat in that Wegner chair - they go for almost $3000.00 - but it seems like he erred on the side of comfort, too.

[marc rosen]

Very nice chairs Jeff. No pun intended but I'd be more inclined to sit in one of yours than in Wegner's original. Are you going to do the upholstery? Let us know how you'll do that. Marc

[Jeff]

I did that upholstery and thanks to the wonders of photography, some of the imperfections are obscured. I found an upholstery shop nearby and I'm going to talk to them. The final version will be in leather and I'd rather not cut into material that expensive if I don't have to. Let's just say I've got nothing but respect for upholsterers.

I have two others in the works. One is curly pecan and pecan. The other one is black walnut.

Jeff

[marc rosen]

[SonomaProducts.com]

Really nice and some excellent details.

I like yours far better than the inspiration.

The way the arms die into the back is a really nice detail.

Is the seat side rail\back leg made from one piece?

What material is this chair?

[Jeff]

Yes, the side rail / back leg is all one piece. They require a board that is 8" wide (at least 9" rough cut). You can grab the back rails from the space underneath the side rail for a perfect wood match.

I used Pennsylvania sugar maple for this one. It's hard to see in the picture (coupled by the fact that it's only sanded to 150 grit at that moment) but the maple is nicely figured. The arms were selected from different stock. They're much whiter and that causes them to stand out.

Due to it's odd shape, I was unable to fit some portions into my mortising jig. It was necessary to make tools. I hate that. Some guys post pictures of these brilliant jigs they make. I'll never post pictures of my jigs. They look like they were made by Homer Simpson. I slap a couple scraps together for a single purpose jig. (I keep my jig count low by designing things to fit the jig. That chair has a 2-3/8" seat rail because I had an existing jig for the rabbetted dado).

Jeff

[toolman946 via CraftKB.com]

It looks great Jeff. Your attention to detail is impressive. Post back with a picture when you've applied the finish so we can see that figured grain.

Michael