first rustic ladder back chaiyre

[mr dazzler]

I assembled the first one yesterday, heres a few pictures.

I used hazel coppice, and joined the parts with the dry tennon/wet mortice method. I prepared the rung's first and dried them near the stove. I used a router jig to form the tennons (first and lat time, not such a good way) Then fettled them with a knife when dry so that they were oval no longer round, with the wide part of the oval going with the length of the post grain and the narrow part of the oval going with the width of the grain so that when the post's dry and shrink they will (hopefully) close evenly around the rung's. Just gotta leave it to dry out, stain/paint/oil/wax, woven seat maybe leather or found lorry straps??

 

[Matt Weir]

Nice work Dazzler,

I trust your QA man gave it his seal of approval

 

[Arth]

Excellent work there.

 

[Tadpole]

I used hazel coppice, and joined the parts with the dry tennon/wet mortice method. I prepared the rung's first and dried them near the stove. I used a router jig to form the tennons (first and lat time, not such a good way) Then fettled them with a knife when dry so that they were oval no longer round, with the wide part of the oval going with the length of the post grain and the narrow part of the oval going with the width of the grain so that when the post's dry and shrink they will (hopefully) close evenly around the rung's. Just gotta leave it to dry out, stain/paint/oil/wax, woven seat maybe leather or found lorry straps??

fantastic looking chair, one point, ladder back chairs have the spindles or slats running horizontal, like a ladder, ‘plain back’ or ‘spindle back’ chairs have the spindles running pretty much as you have them set up

 

[dwardo]

Lovely work

 

[fred gordon]

Superb work. What are you going to use to weave the seat?:Wow:

 

[hedgepig]

Very nice! Looking forward to seeing the finished chair

 

[SOAR]

Really nice work, how about a woven willow seat?

 

[swyn]

Looks like it may be comfy too. Very nice.

Swyn.

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks for the encouraging comments

Your right tadpole, it is a spindle back chair, even though my first idea was a ladderback, only I havent any suitable slat material at the mo.
Even on the first attempt, theres things I would do different on the next chair. I would temporily fix the posts on a plywood base or bench top adjusted and held in place with thin laths and pins to hold it there while I mark out mortise positions, mortise angles (they vary slighty from rung to rung) and also rung length's, each one is differrent as the posts are uneven and not perfectly straight. I might also serously consider investing in a proper tennon former for the rung's
I will be leaving it at least for several months to dry in the air, I want to observe closely how it changes as the posts dry out if they crack or split-did I make the rung's oval enough?? I will eventually paint it with one of my home made paint stain's which I build up in thin layers like glazes. This particular chair is quite conservative, a more or less regular symetric form, but I want to experimemnt with looser forms, asymetric features etc. I think a woven leather seat is the most likely alternative, you can get subtle effects by slightly varying the widths of the strips instead of machine regular like shaker tape. Another possibility is woven rawhide they use that for seat's in argentina, same sort of thing as snow shoes. Might even be able to stain rawhide?
cheers Jonathan

 

[Singeblister]

Very nice look forward to seeing the seat done I bet that lasts longer than the ones we bought from Ikea need new ones , wonder if the wife would let me make some four the dining room

 

[mr dazzler]

PS I should of mentioned theres no glue nails or screws or even the trusty wedge used its held together just by wet mortices shrinking around dry tennons. I had to persuade the joints together with a maul and a sash cramp, it makes a dreadful cracking sound as it is set home, BUT it is a very strong construction method if done correctly. Only downside is its zen like, you get one go as its near impossible to dis assemble when the joints are "home" without damaging the post's, so you cant do a "test fit" as you would with regular joinery, hence why I would temporily fix the post's in the esired spatial arrangement while I fixed the precise rung sizes and locations and angles for mortces.