Chair

Thursday April 28, 2022

The fourth semester at VWS is a chair. The focus for the chair class is compound angle joinery. This project takes the least amount of build time (many people make two) but requires thoughful design and excellent joinery to be successful. Sloppy tenons make weak joints. While you might get away with it on an end table, the constant and dynamic forces being exerted on a chair don’t bode well for “good enough” woodworking.

The Design

As I mentioned in my cabinet article, I find that drawing by hand lends better results than CAD. My thoughts on this will make it into another article someday. It’s no coincidence that Thomas Chippendale (one of the most successful cabinet makers of all time) began his book with an overview of the Classical Orders.

My aim was to create a modern shield back chair that incorporated more of the straight lines and hard edges of Federal Period furniture. The design was developed on paper using traditional drafting techniques. I found the true lengths and angles for the compound angle joinery using stereotomy. “Practical Descriptive Geometry” by William Griswold Smith had a permanent place on my bench this semester.

The Renders

Certainly not as cool as my chest of drawers animation but I’m happy with how close it was to the final product. Just a couple slight proportional changes.

A Modern Sheild Back Chair

Tags: wood