The Chair is finished

[Derek Cohen]

Pat, the finish was 5 or 6 coats of Livos Wood Oil and then polished with Howard's wax. The Livos oil is a wonderful alternative, and now much preferred, to Danish Oil. It leaves a silky, matt finish after 400 grit sandpaper. The sheen comes from the wax.

Brian, I was teasing you. I know you were complementing the work. I am most appreciative of this as well as all your comments, which have added knowledge and experience to the threads. I did consider using cane at one time, but it seemed a hard surface, and I liked the softness of the cord. It seems like a good contrast against the hard wood.

And Sean, thank you for the biggest compliment - of desiring the piece for your home.

Many thanks to all of you for your kind words. This was my first chair and it really helped being pushed along the way.

Regards from Perth


Derek

[Peter Widders]

Really nice job Derek ....congratulations. A quick question that may have been answered somewhere else..... what finish did you use?
Peter
(Sydney , Australia - the dark side!)

[Kees Heiden]

Wow! I could see this one in my home too.

[Don Orr]

Magnificent in every way. Thanks for taking us along on the fantastic journey.

[Harold Burrell]

SUPER nice, Derek! Great job!

[Brian Holcombe]

Pat, the finish was 5 or 6 coats of Livos Wood Oil and then polished with Howard's wax. The Livos oil is a wonderful alternative, and now much preferred, to Danish Oil. It leaves a silky, matt finish after 400 grit sandpaper. The sheen comes from the wax.

Brian, I was teasing you. I know you were complementing the work. I am most appreciative of this as well as all your comments, which have added knowledge and experience to the threads. I did consider using cane at one time, but it seemed a hard surface, and I liked the softness of the cord. It seems like a good contrast against the hard wood.

And Sean, thank you for the biggest compliment - of desiring the piece for your home.

Many thanks to all of you for your kind words. This was my first chair and it really helped being pushed along the way.

Regards from Perth


Derek

Hah, it's not always easy to tell over the internet. Glad my obsession with Danish modern could come I handy, do you plan to tackle Finn Juhl next?

[Tom M King]

Very nice indeed! Did you keep up with the number of hours into it?

[Derek Cohen]

Very nice indeed! Did you keep up with the number of hours into it?

Hi Tom

I was asked about the number of hours on another forum. There is a issue here about how one works and how one uses time, especially as an amateur limited to the shop on weekends. So I am copying and pasting my reply here for your and others comments ..

About the time expended - I began working on the chair January 1st this year. Obviously I began thinking about it, planning my plan, obsessing and scheming long before this. How does one factor planning into build time?

I had leave from work in January. I specialise in the paediatric area and kids are on school holidays then, and no one wants to see me ... so I take off the time for vacation We do quite a bit of travelling and it was a pleasure to stay home, enjoy the beach and sun, and have a few hours every day in the shop. I was able to put in 3-4 hours every day for 4 weeks. That is why there was so much progress at the start.


Came the last week of January, and I was back in my practice, and once again left time on weekends for the build. Most weekends I can get about 4-5 hours each day (unless family arrangements are made first, which they were not in February).


Then came a long break until July, where I once again managed weekends.


I estimate that the build required about 175 working hours. I am not sure if that is long or short by the standards of others. What this does not take into account was the thinking (planning, scheming, obsessing ... ) that went on during the week, and so that on the weekend I was pretty focussed with what needed to be done. The time in the shop was not wasted.


This has been my most complex build to date. Woodwork is really about sawing or chiseling to a line. That is the easy part once the basics are mastered. The hard part has been figuring where the lines go. Even with a model in front of me the compound curves looked daunting to measure and reproduce. Learning to break down components, recognise where a line begins and ends, and how much waste to leave ... all that was a constant headache. I cannot say that this was a relaxing project as there were very few times where I was working within myself. Everything seemed a risk, especially the fact that I did not have any backup wood. Is that not what David Pye was referring to?


The end of the build was a race to finish to get it to the woodshow. It is really unimportant to me how it places in a competition. The judges cannot place the kind of value on this chair that you have done here.


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Tom M King]

Great effort, with great results!!