2 X new 3 leg chair's

[mr dazzler]

A few pictures of 2 chairs I did recently.

The smaller one I did for my little lad it is made from one single ash log about 18 inches long and 13 inch diameter. The seat was split out of the centre of the log with wedge's and froe, effectively "1/4 sawn". It is influenced by the welsh spinning stools. Its the first chair I've made with a tail support for the comb, it was a bit tricky and a challenge to get all the hole angles right, especially as I did all the holes in the comb blind and not through morticed. I only fuked up right on the last tiny hole for the little oak fixing peg's on the comb, right at the end of the build didnt I, wrong angle almost ruined it got away with it though No glue or any other fastening other than wedged through tennons and tiny pegs on the comb. Some of the tennons were formed very quick and acurrate with a hollow auger, fantastic tool I just got one after looking around for a long while to get one.
The bigger chair is made of various bits of "roadside kill", coppice hazel, fire wood, butt end's, hedge trimming's, floor joists etc, I like the title for it crapp chair or rubbisch chair. I used square tennon's and mortice's in the seat for the first time on this one. It is an extremely stable and unbelievably comfortable chair. I am thinking of experimenting with a total black linseed painted finish on both chair's I rubbed down the bigger chair with wood ash and water, it makes a good prep for the linseed paint's. I sure enjoyed building them both.
If any one is interested I could do a series of photo's of the next chair as its made, I'm about ready to start making some of my own design's up.
cheers Jonathan

 

[JonnyP]

They are great...Nice work...
Why 3 legs though, rather than 4..?

 

[jojo]

Nice chairs! Only one problem with them for me : you can't balance on the two back legs, like on a real chair I like them though, well done.

 

[Eric_Methven]

They are great...Nice work...
Why 3 legs though, rather than 4..?

Stability on uneven floor. 3 legs will always be stable.

Eric

 

[TheGreenMan]

Very nice work indeed, Mr D.

And I didn't know about the uneven ground and the three legs thing, Eric. Thank you for that.

Best regards,
Paul.

 

[weaver]

Jonathan,

You are really improving since your last chairs I saw. These have a strong character, nice balance and artistic design. I can't wait to see where you go next with your work!

Keep at it.

I keep putting off starting mine, I have too many other projects going.

 

[jon r]

Those chairs are fab! looks like you've done a grand job! I will have to have a go at one of these some day.:You_Rock_

 

[JonnyP]

Stability on uneven floor. 3 legs will always be stable.

Eric

I understand that.. But 4 legs are stronger than 3 and with a bit of shuffling will find stability...

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks for your remark's lads much apeciated
3 leg's 4 leg's makes no difference to the strength. Quality of material's and construction is far more important. Modern floors are flat (usually unless wimpies or some such laid them?? ) But the original welsh 3 leg version's (please excuse my poor grasp of the welsh langusge but I cannot remember the term for "3 legged stool" ) were used in farm house's with rough stone flag floors or beat earthe floor's, generally not "flat". If you use a 4 leg chair on that type of floor it gets strained and twisted up if the persons weight is being taken only by 3/4 of the chair structure and bend's when your weight tries to flatten all 4 leg's down onto an uneven surface. Which will cause the joints to fail earlier than they should. Plenty of 200+ year old 3 leg "back stools" still survive in tact. I think the secret of a good 3 leg chair or stool form is the splay of the legs and the way it relates to the slope of the back rest spindle's.

 

[Eric_Methven]

I've seen many with a single leg at the front though. That's the way I favour them myself. I find the greatest weight is toward the back of the chair and two legs take the strain, and balance better.

Did you use fox wedges for the little one?

Eric

 

[mr dazzler]

I used wedged through mortise's on the 3 seat to leg joints, and on the comb I had the spindles just a little drier than the comb so they will shrink tight fit, hopefully without splitting, with 2 1/4 inch little oak pegs as you can se in the pic's to secure the side spindle's (I like making and using trenail's trunnels however they call them). I didnt fox them, I might use that on the next stool/chair if it has blind tennon hole's? If the seat moves as it dries over the next year, as we've said before, it wont upset the level as would a 4 leg chair First time I used the shrink fit method my spindles were too dry and the comb too wet....you can imagine the result as the wood behaved as it generally does
I think with the large chir in the pic about 60% of my weight is taken on the seat, 25% on the arms, and 15% my shoulder blades resting on the comb. Its had its first glaze today-bright mustard yellow
I have ben looking over old fuked up reject seat's (you'd be shocked how many-half a dozen or more ) to see if I cant re-ream the angles and so on to get some use out of an otherwise useless seat I like that aspect of traditional country/vernacular furniture, they used whatever was there and tried to get the best out of it quite often you see mistakes/paqtches/repairs etc all part of its history and character. I also want to use component's with squarish faces not round sticks, but still ssembled with through wedge's etc