Hi guys,
i've just finished making a watchmans type chair. A very simple packable wooden chair that is suprisingly comfortable and makes those long bushmoot evenings round the fire easier on the old saddle.
I used some well seasoned eucelyptus that i took down a while ago, but i reckon most other timber will work, as long as it has a reasonable strength.
All you need are two planks, the same width. Mine were 90cm long, 25cm wide and 2.5cm thick.
I then measured just over a third of the length on one board, which is to be the seat.
From that point, i needed to thin the rest of the board down, removing about one third of the planks width from each side.
I used an axe for the roughing out, then a draw knife to clean up the edges and get the width i wanted.
Next, on the other board, i decided how high i wanted the seat of the ground and marked down the centre of the board along its long axis. Now, using the narrow part of the first board, hold it in position on the back piece, where you will want the seat to be and scribe round it. You are effectivly making a through mortice and tenon joint, so the closer fitting the tenon is to the mortice, the more stable the chair will be.
It's a bit difficult to see the marks on the picture above, but when your happy that your mortice will be in the right place, start cutting it out. I used a drill first, keeping all the holes inside lines, then chiseled out the rest. The mortice wants to go through the back board at 90 degrees.
Now you can see how well the two fit together, i still had to shave down the seat part using a draw knife until the seat fits neatly up to the back board.
There you have it, one easy seat. You can adjust the rake of the seat for comfort by removing a bit of the rear tenon which increases the angle you sit at.
I've left mine a bit rough as the euceluptus is so hard, it'd take me forever to sand it down, so i've just treated it with boiled linseed oil.
Hope this is of some use to folks, and it's a nice little project to do on site as well.
Cheers
Baggins
(thats me in the first picture)
i've just finished making a watchmans type chair. A very simple packable wooden chair that is suprisingly comfortable and makes those long bushmoot evenings round the fire easier on the old saddle.
I used some well seasoned eucelyptus that i took down a while ago, but i reckon most other timber will work, as long as it has a reasonable strength.
All you need are two planks, the same width. Mine were 90cm long, 25cm wide and 2.5cm thick.
I then measured just over a third of the length on one board, which is to be the seat.
From that point, i needed to thin the rest of the board down, removing about one third of the planks width from each side.
I used an axe for the roughing out, then a draw knife to clean up the edges and get the width i wanted.
Next, on the other board, i decided how high i wanted the seat of the ground and marked down the centre of the board along its long axis. Now, using the narrow part of the first board, hold it in position on the back piece, where you will want the seat to be and scribe round it. You are effectivly making a through mortice and tenon joint, so the closer fitting the tenon is to the mortice, the more stable the chair will be.
It's a bit difficult to see the marks on the picture above, but when your happy that your mortice will be in the right place, start cutting it out. I used a drill first, keeping all the holes inside lines, then chiseled out the rest. The mortice wants to go through the back board at 90 degrees.
Now you can see how well the two fit together, i still had to shave down the seat part using a draw knife until the seat fits neatly up to the back board.
There you have it, one easy seat. You can adjust the rake of the seat for comfort by removing a bit of the rear tenon which increases the angle you sit at.
I've left mine a bit rough as the euceluptus is so hard, it'd take me forever to sand it down, so i've just treated it with boiled linseed oil.
Hope this is of some use to folks, and it's a nice little project to do on site as well.
Cheers
Baggins
(thats me in the first picture)
