Thursday, August 15, 2024

Making a Schwarz "Short Back" Chair, Part 1

I have Chris Schwarz' "The Stick Chair Book" and particularly like the Comb-back chair.  A few months ago, he showed a variation of his chair in a blog post that he (unofficially) called a "short-back" chair.  It's very similar to the Comb-back, but with a shorter back section.  I've wanted to build one since then, and I'm finally taking the time.

As always, I'm trying to make this with materials I have on hand.  Because of that, some parts might not have the dimensions of Schwarz' chair, but I think that'll be OK.  For instance, I'm using some table legs that I got from Freecycle.  They're not tapered octagonal, but tapered round.  And the diameter at the large end is a little smaller than called for in the plans.

The legs, one has had its finish shaved off

I don't know what type of wood these legs are made of.  It could be a softwood, not sure.  But the grain is reasonably straight and I'm sure they'll be up to the task.  I'll get back to the legs later.

The seat is taken from the top of a table someone was getting rid of.  It's softwood laminated together and there are several knots.  The tabletop was about 1 3/8" thick, a little thinner after I planed away the finish.  I wanted it to be closer to 1 3/4", so I glued on some 3/8" strips to the bottom.  These strips will be hidden nicely later when I chamfer the lower edge of the seat.

When laying out the seat, I ran into some potential issues with knots.

Bottom of seat with initial layout sketched

But look where this knot ended up!  I don't want to have to bore through
that for a long or short stick, so I reoriented the seat and started again.

Here's the seat top after reconsidering the orientation.
That big-ass knot is now near the eraser end of the pencil
and the spindle deck is clear of knots.  No doubt it will be a pain when
hollowing the seat, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

Bottom of seat - here's that big knot now.

Gluing on 3/8" strips to the bottom to thicken the seat

I'll get to more on the seat and legs later.  Next up is making the short and long sticks.

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