A Walnut Windsor Chair
– Introduction
- The Log
- Transport
- Rough Lumber
- Seat Blanks
- Legs
- Arm Posts and Tapered Holes
- Carve the Seat
- Turn the Undercarriage
- Assembling the Seat and Undercarriage
- Spindles
- Arms
- Assembling the Spindles and Arms
- Crest Version 1 — The Form Bent Laminated Crest
- Crest Version 2 — The Steam Bent Crest
- Final Assembly
- Detailing
- Finishing a Walnut Windsor Chair
- Final Notes
Entry 2
The Log – 12/28/2007
Here is the trunk of the walnut tree. Based on rings, it was over 100 years old. The black stains on the bottom are from rusting steel. This is a yard tree and yard trees are often used to hang cloths lines, bird feeders, hammocks, etc. So, the trees often contain hidden metal which makes the milling process slow and expensive.
This was a big tree. After it was felled, Bill contacted a local “sawyer”. The guy had a portable band saw mill. He sawed some of the smaller branches then tackled the trunk. Getting the trunk onto the mill required using a tractor that had a forklift attachment. This picture shows some of the boards as they came off the log. In spite of using a metal detector to locate embedded hazards, the sawyer ran into metal a couple of times. Every time he hit metal, he had to stop and change the blade. This added sharpening charges to the cost of milling the lumber. When it started to rain, they stopped. The entire trunk has not yet been milled, but a lot of boards were generated. Bill and family stickered and stacked them in their barn to air dry. (June, 2005)
Spare Time 