- 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 12
Arms – 1/11/2008
The arms of the comb back are one of the most elegant pieces. They are also the most time consuming to fabricate. Start with a board that is wide enough for the three pieces.
I have some very wide boards from the walnut tree. This one was 23 inches at its widest. However, it contained a large amount of sap wood (light cream color) and some metal (note the black stain to the left of the jig saw. So, only some of this board is useable. However, it was thick enough (just over 5/4) so that I could cut out an arm piece and then re-saw it to get two arm pieces. Because the arm pieces are curved, the board needs to be wide enough to properly orient the individual pieces to have the grain run along their length. If the grain runs out the side of the arm, this creates a weak spot and a likely point for the arm to break.
After removing the metal and thicknessing the board, I laid out the three arm pieces using my templates. The arms were cut out on the bandsaw and then re-sawed (sawn in half along their length to be one half as thick). I also cut out small blocks to create the knuckle (hand-hold) at the ends of the arms. The picture to the right shows the five pieces of one arm ready for glue-up. In front of them is a glued-up arm. For these arms, I was using epoxy, but PVA seems to work every bit as well.
Once the arm “blank” is glued-up, the shaping begins. The first step is to refine the edges to get rid of the saw marks, round over the knuckles, and establish the curves at the ends of the top piece of the back. I also drill the holes through the arm for the long spindles. The angles mirror those of the seat. I use the drill press for this. I have a jig that holds the arm square to a fence on a tilt-table.
At this point, I should note why the arms are made from three pieces and glued up in the way that they are. The three-piece assembly allows for a thicker back part of the arm which I find visually appealing. The grain in the top part runs along the length. The other two parts of the arm also have the grain oriented to run along their length. However, because of the curve in the arm, the back part of the two lower arm pieces has the grain running at an angle. This is weak and if the top piece were not present, the arm would break. Laminating the top piece to the lower pieces means that the grain is running along the arm, in at least one of the three pieces, over its entire length. This makes for an arm that is strong enough to take the strain of assembling the chair and the flexing of the back when someone sits in the chair.
A lot of hand work now goes into the arms. Using rasps and files, I round over the edges of the thick part of the back. I also establish the grooves that help to form the hand-hold area. This is followed by scraping and sanding to smooth the wood. I sand through 240 grit over the entire arm and areas with end grain get sanded through 400 grit. Again, this is probably overkill, but it leaves a smooth surface that will have a luster once finished and invites you to touch it.
The last step is to carve the fingernail at each end of the top part of the arm and the sides of the knuckles out front. This completes the basic fabrication of the arm. It still needs to have holes drilled for the short spindles (already done in the photo at right), but that is a part of the next step. (July to December, 2007)
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