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Thread: Hans Wegner chair- trying to figure out plans- it's all Brian's fault

  1. #1
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    Hans Wegner chair- trying to figure out plans- it's all Brian's fault

    Hello all,

    Thanks to Brian Holcombe, I now have a need to build a Wegner Valet Chair or two. I am figuring out the lumber and can get local mahogany fairly thick for the legs, including the rear leg that continues up the back. Likely I would use the same for the hanger. I just purchased two pieces of flamed maple for the seat and "wings" on the splat. Hopefully I have not made my first mistake, but my thought is to cut a slight angle on the center strip so the wings glue on slightly angled prior to blending and shaping. I want to resaw one 2 1/8" thick board into a book-matched set that will also match a book-matched seat. The angled wings would be shaped to a curve after gluing. I hope 1" thick will get me there.

    Below is a screen grab from the eBay listing I just won for the maple, and the chair I intend to somewhat copy, along with a surfboard to give you the vision I have of a surfboard stripe up the middle. I have some Peruvian walnut to add a contrasting stripe between the center strip and the wings, or perhaps an abalone stripe. I love this chair for the function and style, and the stripe looks like a wood surfboard, so I intend to do it with that thought in mind, accenting the center stripe. I will probably inlay my logo that I do on my surfboards in abalone. The top rail, if you use your imagination, is like the nose of a surfboard.

    I also have have an affection for cuff links, so the one I build to keep will have little drawers for storing cuff links. I am thinking tiny drawers for each pair with tiny dovetails.

    Thanks Brian Holcombe for the inspiration and it's all your fault.
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    It's alive!!! It's alive!!!

    Looking forward to seeing the progress.....also, I think it only fair to send me one too
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

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    Just checked the tracking and the maple has arrived and hopefully at the right moisture content to get started soon. I will go buy the mahogany today when I pick up the maple. Beautiful stuff i get locally. I really have a lot going on but hope to do this in the evenings when Petra (17 month daughter) goes to bed. This is also a good cover for the wood-geared Mora clock I am building as a surprise for Amy. She knows about the chair, but not the clock, although I suspect she may have seen the plans in my shop. She probably thought they were just one of my many boat plans.

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    Cool, I'm definitely interesting in seeing how it progresses.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

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    Taking a seat.


    Frank.

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    12% moisture, which where I live is dry. We do not use A/C, so the house is as humid inside as outside. That said, this will likely go to the states as a gift for my sister-in-law so who knows what will happen when it arrives. Fortunately there are few joints and if the Maple and mahogany are the same moisture then hopefully they will expand and contract similarly enough.

    I stopped by and checked on my mahogany source yesterday but due to time constraints I will have to come back today to pick out a board. The local stuff I get has beautiful ribbon striping but often has unusual mineral streaks in it. I am hoping to get a nice figured piece. The seat and splat will be flamed maple and the rest mahogany. The maple also has grey mineral streaks. Picking the wood is one of my favorite parts of any project I do.

    By by the way, I am going to use this chair as a model for the curvature of the back, as I like the curve it has.
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  7. #7
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    Picking the wood is such a great part of this for me as well, I picked up a 10/4 AAA grade 8" x 8' piece of walnut yesterday, simply because I couldn't resist doing so. I plan to use it for table legs next year.

    the chair you picked is similar, but be mindful that the top seems to curve back to upright on the wegner chair.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

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    Project update: I was going to go with Mahogany and Flamed Maple, but then thought I might use some douglas fir that I salvaged from an old sailboat mast. I have a big chunk that is about 4" square and plenty long, but the wooden coat hanger that I am using as a guide for that part of the chair dictates that I need a bit more than 4". So now I am back to Mahogany that I can get in very wide widths, but not in thickness. UGH> so I think what is going to end up happening is the top rail, aka coat hanger, is going to be laminated curved out of mahogany with a center piece of thin flamed maple to end up with an accent stripe down the middle. The main goal is make the most of the wood, and laminating saves a lot more wood than if I try to carve it from one chunk. Wood is a very scarce resource here.

    The two chunks of maple I will split and book match to make the splat and seat. The seat is going to be done a bit different because I think the book matched maple will look better with grain running front to back. Wegner did his with grain running across. I am going to use a piece of mahogany for the pants hanger "wings" on the seat, and make it tie into the maple seat. Hard to explain. Ultimately the seat will be maple with a mahogany piece running across to make the wings for the pants hanger. My idea is they meet in a curve rather than a straight line so that it doesn't look like I just stuck a piece of mahogany on the end, but rather it will be an integrated piece and add to the visual contours of the overall piece.

    That's the best I can explain it. I have little time left. UGH, how did it get to be almost December already?

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    Looking forward to seeing progress. All the decisions above sound reasonable to me.

    Also having trouble conceiving that it's almost December!
    "You can observe a lot just by watching."
    --Yogi Berra

  10. #10
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    I am looking forward to seeing the progress!
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

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    image.jpgI get great mahogany deals locally, but I have to buy it as they have it, which is long rough milled boards. Here is a 2"x8.5"x14.5' piece of ribbon striped mahogany for your viewing pleasure. What I don't use for the chair I will use for accent strips on a kayak.

  12. #12
    Looking forward to seeing the progress on this. I'm wondering if you're underestimating thickness of the back wings. The leg is 2" at the seat joint up to at least where it meets the bottom of the wings. So, the wings will have to be at least 2" there.

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    Prashun, you are absolutely on point, and that's why I am open to thoughts on the design. I am set on the fact that I want to use this gorgeous flamed maple for the splat and seat. Contrasting and figured woods are kind of my signature. I could make it out of just mahogany very easily, but it just wouldn't be my style. I figure everyone here gets that, so on to my resources: The maple I have for the splat will yield two pieces just over 1" each fully dressed. When I look at images of the original chair, it seems that the rear leg, which I will call the "spine" because I feel he was mimicking a spine with this design, actually sticks out from the splat most of the way up, and then flattens out at the top. It does appear he used thicker wood for the splat, but I am hoping to slightly alter the design due to wood availability. I want to make the rear leg triangulated so that it angles each "wing" of the splat towards the front of the chair slightly. Then I would shape it to a curve using a spokeshave. Ultimately I will have a bit thinner splat, and a bit more "spine" in the back than the original, and I am okay with that. I am doing an interpretation and not an exact copy. I am going to try to make the legs more freeform in a triangulated shape rather than round.

    Now, as for the coat hanger/rail, it is very thick on the original, and I like that, but of course that takes a lot of wood. I initially had hoped to get a really thick piece, but the only one I can find locally is 3" thick, but 12" wide and 14' long, and I can't afford it. SO- I have two options for that: (1.) make it thinner, or (2) laminate it. I have enough flamed maple that I could make a thin center lamination of 1/4" maple, and the rest could be cut from the mahogany board. The center stripe will make it look more like a creative detail than just a bunch of mahogany laminated together. It will also go with the theme of contrasting woods. I normally hate laminations, but in this case I think it will look nice.

    The seat is hard to explain, but if you look at the original and how it has the wings to hold the pants, I want to do that in mahogany, which will mate to the flamed maple seat in a nice curve. So the seat will be maple with a mahogany piece at the back, but it will mate in a nice curve and not look so "stuck on."

    Hang on, let me switch to the iPhone so I can post a pic.

  14. #14
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    Okay, imagine we are sitting at a table having coffee and I am drawing on the sketch pad here since we can't do this face to face. Thumbnail shows my thought.

    Aaaaand of course it is going to upload crooked :-(.
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    Please keep in mind that this is an interpretation, not a copy. I had a second thought on the coat hanger/rail. I was looking at this wood hanger and thought, "Well that would be easier just to put a mitered joint in the middle, and I can cut two triangles from one piece of wood." Wood is a very scarce resource here, and also I believe as woodworkers we need to be mindful of our designs to use the least wood in the most efficient ways. I am realizing that Wegner's design as built is horribly wasteful of wood.
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