Arms on a morris chair?

Question

I have been interested in building a Morris chair and there are a couple of methods to making the arms. One is to cut an angled slice out of the front of the arm and glue it underneath to create the downward slope. The other is to bend several thin strips of oak while gluing around a form to curve the arm. Does anyone have advice as to which is easier. I am also wonder how you really create the angled cut so that you can have a nice join? Any help would be appreciated.

Andy Dingley · Accepted Answer

Bavaro and Mossman's book "The Furniture of Gustav Stickley" describes this in some detail. If you're building Stickley repro, this is certainly a book worth having.

Their technique is to glue a short piece of arm stock underneath the front of the arm, then to make two angled bandsaw cuts to form the horizontal surfaces. The join becomes trivially easy, and all you have to do is to plane and finish the angled surface nicely without tearout.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Thomas Satrom · Answer

You've described two different styles, not two ways of making the samestyle.  You have to decide if you want a curved arm chair or an bent armchair.

Arms on a morris chair?

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