• Solid hardwood lumber, hand selected.

• Machine tools for thicknessing and cutting of components.

• Hand tools for final shaping and surfacing of components.

• Wedged mortise and tenon joinery with reversible hide glue.

• Oil and wax finish that is easily reapplied in the future by anyone if needed.

• Special thanks to Christopher Schwarz at Lost Art Press.

Wood

• Chairs are made with hand-selected, solid hardwood lumber, generally from red and white oaks, cherry, or mahogany which I can find relatively easily at my local lumberyard. Many chairs are made from a single board. My preference is to use recycled wood destined for the land fill or burn pile, but this is more difficult to find.

• The lumber for the straight components of the chairs (legs, sticks, and stretchers) is straight grained to provide strength and resist splitting. The arm assemblies are generally cut out of one piece of lumber and then glued together. I have also used “compressed wood” a few times for the arms and combs. This wood can be bent around a form so that the entire arm is one continuous piece of wood. This lumber is sold by Pure Timber LLC.

Tools

• I use machines for the grunt work of thicknessing and cutting all of the components into their major shapes and sizes.

• I use hand tools to shape the seats, arms, and tapers to the sticks and stretchers. Hand tools or 220 grit sandpaper provide the final surfaces to all the components.

Joinery

• The sticks and stretchers all have tenons cut on the ends which fit into through or blind mortises. I drive white oak wedges through the ends of the through tenons.

• All joints are glued with Old Brown Hide Glue. Hide glue is reversible with water in the event the chair needs to be repaired in the future.

• I glue and drive pegs through two or more of the long sticks where they enter the comb.

Finish

• I use an oil and wax finish made by Osmo on most of the chairs. This finish allows the beautiful grain and figure of the wood to be seen and felt. This finish can be easily rejuvenated by anyone by simply wiping on another coat. It doesn't provide much protection to the wood though. But I think fine furniture looks better as it ages and is allowed to show signs of wear.

• I have painted a few chairs using two coats of General Finishes Milk Paint, and then a light coat of black wax.

Special Thanks

• While I have been woodworking for over three decades, building chairs recently became an obsession after buying and reading ‘The Stick Chair Book,’ by Christopher Schwarz over at Lost Art Press. My chairs and construction very closely follow his methods of construction. If you are interested in making your own chair, buy his book, or download it for free. Yes, free. Just go to his website and Chris very generously offers the PDF version for no cost, no obligation, and no questions.