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Building a Chair,

Arts-and-Crafts StyleJoinery details make this chair strong and handsomeby Rex Alexander

When the curator of Dennos Mu-seum in Traverse City, Mich.,asked me to design and buildsome Arts-and-Crafts style furniture for anupcoming exhibit, I jumped at the chance.

We agre ed tha t I'd look for a custome r w howo uld bu y the fur ni tur e afte r the ex hib it. Iapproached Jay and Sue Wisniewski, whohave been steady clients on a number ofprojects. They were excited by the idea.

I immediately ordered more than $100

wo rth of bo ok s by or ab out Sti ck le y (se ethe further reading box on p. 47), Greeneand Greene, Roycroft and others. Thesebooks gave me a feel for designs of thisperiod. And they told me what type of

wo od to use an d how it sho uld be cut an dfinished. I studied detailed drawings andproportions to help with the design.

The deal with the museum didn't workout, but my clients gave me the go ahead

for a dining table and some chairs. We still

had to agree on a final design, and it had tobe compatible with a reproduction FrankLloyd Wright chandelier they had alreadybought for the dining room.

I learned that Gustav Stickley, in design-ing his No. 384 chair, was influenced by

Wr igh t's wo rk. I knew I had fou nd the in-spiration to my design problems. It wasthis chair (first built in 1905), with its rushseat and vertical slats on both the sides and

the back, that I drew upon to arrive at the


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A Stickley style dining chair

The author based the design for this chair on a Stickley original. Stickleywas influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. Mortise-and-tenon joinery makesthis chair sturdy enough to withstand the stresses of daily use.


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Routing back posts

A plywood jig forshaping the back

posts. A little time

guaranteed thatall back posts

size and shape. Ashaper with a rubcollar works aswell as a router.

A jig for trimming the back posts to size and shape

This jig is sized to handle two legs at a time. After cutting the profile for the front of theleg, the author moves the leg to the back of the jig and finishes the profile.

1. Mount the first back post,cut slightly oversized on thebandsaw, into the jig. Thetop of the jig is helddown with screwsand T-nuts.

2. Trim the front edge bymaking several passes w ith therouter, adjusting the depth ofcut for each pass. A templateguide rubs against the

3. Move the first back

post to the back side ofthe jig, and insert thesecond back post inits place. R eassemblethejig.

4. Make a pass on

each leg, front andback, at each routerdepth setting. Cleanup machined surfaceswith sandpaper.

final design for these chairs. The chairs areshown in the photo on p. 42.

Solve problems by buildinga prototypeI developed a scale drawing of the chair tohelp determine a materials list (see thedrawing on p. 43). For several reasons, Ialso decided to build a prototype: the join-

ery is complicated, I had to buy toolingand make jigs, and I wanted to be sure myclients were satisfied with the comfort ofthis chair. Also, I could use the prototype to

ve rif y the prop ortio ns and to reso lve someof the details of the frame and the fit of theinset rush seat.

Building six chairs is a small productionrun. A prototype helped me to organizeeach step and avoid many constructionproblems. I made the prototype withpoplar scraps accumulated from other jobsand assembled it without glue so it could

be taken apart. A mistake with poplar atthis stage would not be too costly.

Once I was happy with the prototype, Itook it apart and measured each piece for afinal materials list. Each chair was madefrom front and back posts, seat rails, sidestretchers, a horizontal stretcher, curvedupper and lower back slats and verticalslats. There were 35 pans in all, includingfour oak dowels to pin the stretchers to thefront and back posts.

Machining the partsAl l the parts started out a s qua rter saw nwhite oak. I could resaw th e 2-in.-thick ma-terial into -in. seat rails, stretchers, andslats and still have plenty of material for the

-in.-sq. front and back posts. For a table,six side chairs and two arm chairs, I or-dered 400 bd. ft. I wanted heavily rayedpieces for the sides of the front and backposts, the bottom side stretchers and thecurved upper and lower back slats. I choselightly figured white oak for the seat rails.

Except for the back posts, I rough-cut all

the chair parts on a tablesaw and thencleaned them up with a jointer and a plan-er. Later, after making tenons, I cut out thecurved upper and lower back slats on thebandsaw (see the top photo on the facingpage), marked with a -in. plywood tem-plate made to a 36 in. radius. I cleaned upthe bandsaw marks with a spokeshave anda compass plane.

I made a special jig to clean up the backposts after they had been rough-cut to sizeon the bandsaw (see the photo and draw-

ing at left). The jig is based on one in Tage

invested in this jig

would be the same

edge of the plywood jig.


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FridTeaches Woodworking: Furniture mak-

Two legs are sandwiched between twopieces of birch plywood. One side of the jigis shaped for the outside cut and the otherfor the inside cut. Support blocks on eachend and one in the middle of the jig registerthe pieces to be cut. Machine screwsthrough one side thread into T-nuts in theother side and hold the legs firmly in place.I applied strips of self-adhesive sandpaperto the inside of each piece of the plywoodjig to keep the legs from slipping.

I trimmed the legs to size with a 3 hprouter equipped with a -in. templateguide and a 4-in. solid carbide up-cutspiral bit. I cut the front of each leg first andthen moved it to the other side of the jigagainst the registration blocks. You canavoid too much stress on the bit and pre-

ve nt te arou t b y m ak in g se ve ra l pa sse s w iththe router, adjusting the depth of cut a little

at a time.

Cutting the mortisesAl l the cha ir pa rts ex ce pt for the ve rtic alslats are connected with -in. mortise-and-tenon joints. Years ago, I developed a sim-ple jig to cut the mortises for a batch ofscreen doors, and I was able to use it againfor this project (see photos 1-4 on pp. 46-47). This jig is made of -in. plywoo d withsides that act as a carriage for the router. A

-in. slot runs down the middle of the jig,stopping 2 in. from each end. Two ad-justable stop blocks sit square in the car-riage and control the length of the mortise.

I held the piece to be mortised in the jigby clamping it to the underside, below the

-in. slot. I used my 3 hp router with a-in. by 4-in. solid carbide up-cut spiral

bit, ad justing the depth of cut with stops onthe router. Even with the jig, this was atime-consuming process.

Router bits don't cut square-corneredmortises. Rather than cleaning out all thecorners by hand, I devised a method that

works really well. I chucked a Lie-Nielsencorner chisel into my drill press (make sureit's unplugged). I clamped an adjustablefence to the drill-press table to rest thestock against and squared the chisel tothe fence. The rack-and-pinion force of thedrill press pared a clean, sharp corner inthe mortise.

Cut the tenons on the tablesaw

Al l the Stickle y cha irs tha t I've see n arewide r in fro nt than in bac k. The side chairin Gustav Stickley's Making Authentic

Cutting curved back slats

Cutting the curved back slatsConvex and concave cutsfrom lumber yielded -in-thick slats, after the surfaceswere scraped clean. These slats are the only curved piecesof the chair.

Cutting angled tenons

Double-blade tenoning on the tablesawWith a custom-

and side seat rails. Sawblades w ere set at a 4 pitch to the

surface of the saw table and separated by a -in. spacer.

ing(The Taunton Press, 1985).

made jig, the author cut angled tenons for the side stretchers


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A jig for routing mortises

1. M ovable base supports make

adjustments easy. Built for mortising acut mortises in stockofdifferent widths.

2. Use chair part to se t jig. After

securing one base piece, the authorsnugs the other one against a sidestretcher and screws it in place.

3. Stop blocks for the router deter-

mine the length of the mortise cuts andkeep them all consistent. Pencil lineshelp to align the stock.

Craftsman Furniture narrows toward theback by in, I built these chairs to thatdimension in. wide at the front and18 in. wide at the back, with a seat depth of

in. Because of this design detail, eitherthe mortises or the tenons have to be an-gled on the seat rails and the stretchers. I

decided it was easier to angle the tenons.I used the tenoning jig shown in the bot-tom photo on p. 45.

By drawing the seat-plan view to fall sizeon a scrap of plywood, I determined thatthe front and back of the chair related to thesides by 4 off square, or 86, so I set thesawblade to that angle. To cut the cheeks ofthe tenons on the seat rails and bottomstretchers, I used two blades of a dado set

with a -in. space r betwe en them. Y ou canadjust the height of the blades off the tableto account for tenons of different length.

A ft e r cu tt in g al l th e an gl ed te no ns , Istraightened the blade mechanism back to90 to cut all the cheeks for the horizontalstretcher, front and back seat rails, and theupper and lower back slats. The tenons forall these pieces are straightparallel to thepieces themselves.

Next I removed one of the dado bladesfrom the table and set the remaining bladeat 4 to cut half the shoulders of the angledtenons. I used a miter gauge with a positivestop. I lowered the blade, still set at 4, and

moved the miter gauge to the other slot to

make the shoulder cuts on the other side.Then I straightened the blade and adjust-

ed the height for cutting the shoulders ofthe rest of the tenons, except the horizontalstretcher. That piece has straight tenons,but the ends of the piece are cut to 86 tofollow the shape of the chair seat. So the

shoulder cuts for the horizontal stretcherare cut at 86 with the miter gauge.The tenons for all the -in.-sq. vertical

slats were simple to make. To get -in.-sq.tenons, I cut all four sides at each end witha dado blade. A wooden backer boardmounted with double-faced tape held eachpiece firmly against the miter gauge. I cuteach piece slowly to avoid tearout on thecorners of the slats. I used a sharp knife tocarve the tenons down to a dowel shape tofit -in. holes drilled in the back slats, theside stretchers and the seat rails.

Fine-tune and dry-fit the partsBefore final assembly with glue, I alwayslike to check the joinery by dry-fitting theparts (see the photo at right on the facingpage). It helps me avoid surprises when Ican least afford them. I check the fit ofevery piece and make adjustments as nec-essary with a chisel or a shoulder plane.

I marked the through-dowel pins for thelower stretchers ( in. dia.) with a home-made gauge at 4 in. up from the bottom of

each post. I drilled halfway in from either

side with a Forstner bit in the drill press.Scraping and sanding removed all themilling marks and provided a smooth sur-face for finishing. After a satisfactory dry-fit, I completely disassembled the chair andstained all the parts.

You have to think thro ugh the orde r in

which the piece s of a ch air go togeth er, butit's really pretty simple. Vertical slats wentin first, glued into both the back slats andthe side-stretcher and seat-rail assemblies.I assembled whole sides by adding thefront and back posts and clamped them todry overnight. The next day, I put two sidestogether with the horizontal stretcher, thefront and back seat rails, and the back-slatassembly to make a complete chair frame.I let any glue squeeze-out around the jointscure partially before removing the glue

wi th a sha rp chis el.

Af te r th e gl ue ha d cu re d, I re m ov ed theclamps and glued and screwed -in.-thickcorner blocks to the inside bottom of thechair. These add stability to the frame andsupport the inset rush seat. I go over thechair completely with 400-grit wet-or-drysandpaper and follow that with a goodrubdown using #0000 steel wool.

A finish from Sam MaloofOil on wood is really a beautiful finish,bringing out a depth that looks superior to

any film finish. But on furniture and cabi-

set of doors, this jig can be adjusted to


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4. The depth of the mortise is con-

the router. The author secures stock

nets that come into contact with water, Ihad been hesitant to use such a finish untilI read about Sam Maloof's three-part for-mula. He mixes equal parts of raw rung oil,boiled linseed oil and polyurethane. Thepolyurethane prevents this finish fromshowing water spots.

With the tem pera ture abou t 50 to 60F, Isprayed this concoction on the chairs andlet it soak in for 10 to 20 minutes. Afte r that,I wipe d it off with a rag, using a circular mo-tion. I repeated this procedure two times,letting each coat dry a few days. Then Igave all the surfaces a final buff with #0000steel wool.

The Maloof technique also calls for an-other mixture: equal parts tung oil, boiledlinseed oil and beeswax. To make this, Imelted some beeswax in a double boileron the stove. While that was still in liquid

form, I added the tung and linseed oils,mixing them together. When this mixturecools to a paste, it's easy to apply with acotton cloth, rubbing in a circular motion.I applied three coats to the chairs. Thebeeswax gave this finish a nice, satiny glow.

The frame and fiber rush seatUnlike most chairs made with a rush seat,this one has a separate frame screwed intoplace after it was woven. Fiber rush exerts atremendous amount of pressure on aframe, so I decided to use plywood, figur-

Dry-assemble all the pieces. This dress rehearsal for the final assembly helps theauthor avoid the costly mistake of glued joints that don't fit.

ing the multiple alternating layers wouldhold up better over time. A -in. piece ofplywood, cut out in the middle to make a

-in.-wide frame, worked best.To learn how to weave a rush fiber seat, I

consulted an article in FWW #85(p. 51). Asa source book for materials, The Carter ' s Handbook by Bruce W. Miller and JimWid ess came in han dy . It is pub lishe d byLark Books, 50 College St., Asheville, NC28801, and it's available from WoodcraftSupply (800) 542-9115 or The Woodwork-ers' Store (800) 279-4441. The weavingprocess was time-consuming. Each seattook about a day to complete.

Rex Alexander builds furniture, cabinetry

and millwork in Brethren, Mich.

Further readingGustav Stickley built many fineexamples of Arts-and-Crafts furniture

in his factory. He also left a wealth ofinformation in his monthly magazineThe Craftsman (1901-1916). Much ofthis information has been republishedin two books: Craftsman Homes,

Architecture and Furnishings of theAmerican Arts and Crafts Movementand Making Authentic CraftsmanFurniture, both published by DoverPublications, 31 E. 2nd St., Mineola,NY 11501. These books are availablethrough Manny's Woodworkers Place(800) 243-0713.

trolled by the plunge mechanism on

to the jig with C-clamps.

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