04 – Rough Lumber

  1. A Walnut Windsor Chair – Introduction
  2. The Log
  3. Transport
  4. Rough Lumber
  5. Seat Blanks
  6. Legs
  7. Arm Posts and Tapered Holes
  8. Carve the Seat
  9. Turn the Undercarriage
  10. Assembling the Seat and Undercarriage
  11. Spindles
  12. Arms
  13. Assembling the Spindles and Arms
  14. Crest Version 1 — The Form Bent Laminated Crest
  15. Crest Version 2 — The Steam Bent Crest
  16. Final Assembly
  17. Detailing
  18. Finishing a Walnut Windsor Chair
  19. Final Notes

Entry 4

Rough Lumber  –  12/28/2007

At the end of 2006, I checked the walnut lumber for moisture content.  By that point, it had been air drying for 18 months.  All of the boards measured 9.5 percent or less.  Time to start (wood)working.

The photo at top shows some 2 inch stock from the walnut tree.  From this stock, I will get the boards for the seats, the undercarriage (legs and cross-bracing), and the two arm posts for two chairs – maybe.  The maybe is that there may be metal in some of the boards and there may be a knot or other defect that makes some of the wood unusable.

I used a metal detector to scan for metal.  I cross-cut the lumber to lengths and then ripped the lumber into rough blanks on the bandsaw.  As the picture at right shows, my metal detector did not find all of the metal.  This nail (or bolt, about one quarter inch diameter), was sliced by the bandsaw.  Time for a new blade.

Note the black staining around the metal – This is the other clue that I look for (besides the beep of the metal detector).  Sometimes it is buried.

After sawing around knots and checks and eliminating the wood with buried metal, I have the boards for two seats and turning blanks for the undercarriage and arm posts for two chairs.  This is about one third of the 2 inch thick lumber that I brought back from Michigan in the car.  I am either going to make lots of chairs or there will be other furniture projects in the future.  (December, 2006)