Green Wood Windsor Chairs,

[Mike Holbrook]

Does anyone know a site for people interested in the particulars of working green wood and or making Windsor Chairs? I have come to realize that interest in these subjects is limited on this site.

[David Weaver]

Have you seen the curtis buchanan video series on youtube where he makes a chair (it's several dozen videos long, and very thorough in discussion)?

[Mike Holbrook]

I meant to mention Curtis. Yes, I have watched all his videos many times and it is the best resource I have found. Still I have lots of questions about tools for particular work and how to use them, specific woods for specific projects, Kilns, steamers, wood splitting techniques.....Curtis starts at a sawmill and I have questions right from that point about how he finds and identifies a proper wood source, more about picking the wood, preserving it....Curtis demonstrates the tools he uses. Peter Galbert uses a somewhat different set tools which he frequently customizes, sharpens...in different ways.

[Prashun Patel]

I have dunbars book. Its a very good resource. Also, highly recommend the buchanan videos.

[ron david]

john d. alexander. make a chair from a tree: an introduction to working green wood. this one you have to read. taunton

http://www.greenwoodworking.com/
ron

[stevo wis]

Mike,
Here are a couple of great blogs. Both Pete and Greg are excellent chairmakers.

Stevo

http://www.petergalbertchairmaker.com/

http://greg-aroundtheshop.blogspot.com/

[Mike Holbrook]

I have Dunbar's original book and Drew Lagsner's book "The Chairmaker's Workshop" is probably the most complete work on the subject. I have a DVD from Drew "Carving Swedish Woodenware" by Jogge Sundqvist too. I am thinking about buying another video Curtis offers "How to Make a Comb-Back Windsor Chair". Curtis's DVD series is suppose to be 10 discs and 11 hours long so I imagine it is relatively complete. The Comb-Back Windsor is not one of the ones I was most interested in building but I imagine the techniques will all be helpful. The Comb-Back, without the tail or top area might be a design I am interested in. Lost Art Press is suppose to be publishing Peter Galbert's new book on Windsors soon. Peter is an artist and is drawing many of the illustrations which I believe has slowed the process down. Schwarz reviewed what he has seen of it in his blog and it sounds like it will be a good resource too.

The wife offered to send me to another Windsor Chair class for my BDay, so if I can work out the time to do it. Still I am looking for a forum, somewhere I can ask those every day questions that come up. A forum of people who do green woodworking regularly and have practical ideas concerning the various details of this work. I have found the tools and techniques to be substantially different than typically are of interest on the Neander site.

Typical Neander tools are hand saws or machines for stock prep, followed by planes and chisels for finishing the work. Green wood tools are more wedges and froes for making stock followed by drawknives and axes for rough shaping and inshaves, travishers and spokeshaves for finishing the surfaces. The tools that are common, like "chisels" are even different as Neander chisels typically have flat edges where green wood "chisels" typically have curved surfaces. The typical Neander card scraper has flat edges where again the green wood scrapers typically have curved surfaces. It might be safe to say that the edges of green wood tools are frequently curved where the Neander tools are typically straight or very close to it. The difference being that typical Neander project surfaces are straight/flat where green wood project surfaces are typically concave/convex/round/curved on the top bottom and sides.

Greg's site is new to me and I did not have Alexander's main site location so thanks for those links guys. Peter taught the class I took so I have his links and most of those for anyone who has worked with him on tools or chairs.

[Steve Voigt]

Hey Mike,
Completely by accident, I just ran across an actual forum for green woodworking. It's called "bodger's ask and answer" and is based in the UK. Can't vouch for whether it's any good, but it exists.

[John W Johnson]

I have Dunbar's original book and Drew Lagsner's book "The Chairmaker's Workshop" is probably the most complete work on the subject. I have a DVD from Drew "Carving Swedish Woodenware" by Jogge Sundqvist too. I am thinking about buying another video Curtis offers "How to Make a Comb-Back Windsor Chair". Curtis's DVD series is suppose to be 10 discs and 11 hours long so I imagine it is relatively complete. The Comb-Back Windsor is not one of the ones I was most interested in building but I imagine the techniques will all be helpful. The Comb-Back, without the tail or top area might be a design I am interested in. Lost Art Press is suppose to be publishing Peter Galbert's new book on Windsors soon. Peter is an artist and is drawing many of the illustrations which I believe has slowed the process down. Schwarz reviewed what he has seen of it in his blog and it sounds like it will be a good resource too.

The wife offered to send me to another Windsor Chair class for my BDay, so if I can work out the time to do it. Still I am looking for a forum, somewhere I can ask those every day questions that come up. A forum of people who do green woodworking regularly and have practical ideas concerning the various details of this work. I have found the tools and techniques to be substantially different than typically are of interest on the Neander site.

Typical Neander tools are hand saws or machines for stock prep, followed by planes and chisels for finishing the work. Green wood tools are more wedges and froes for making stock followed by drawknives and axes for rough shaping and inshaves, travishers and spokeshaves for finishing the surfaces. The tools that are common, like "chisels" are even different as Neander chisels typically have flat edges where green wood "chisels" typically have curved surfaces. The typical Neander card scraper has flat edges where again the green wood scrapers typically have curved surfaces. It might be safe to say that the edges of green wood tools are frequently curved where the Neander tools are typically straight or very close to it. The difference being that typical Neander project surfaces are straight/flat where green wood project surfaces are typically concave/convex/round/curved on the top bottom and sides.

Greg's site is new to me and I did not have Alexander's main site location so thanks for those links guys. Peter taught the class I took so I have his links and most of those for anyone who has worked with him on tools or chairs.

You have a lot of good advice in this thread. I think the Curtis Buchanan videos are the best I've seen. I do not claim to be any kind of expert. You probably know more than I do, but I have built several dozen chairs, all but a couple continuous arms. I have most of the tools, a kiln, a couple of jigs, steam setup, etc. In fact I bought several tools I've never used due to a having to shutter my shop for a couple of years after a move. Right now my tools and jigs are scattered between two shops in two states. I originally took a Woodcraft class that taught you how to build a chair from what was essentially a kit, but beyond that I've read the same books as you and have looked at Curtis' videos. I wanted to take the Galbert class but I had work obligations that week. Curtis' videos show you how to pick out a log, rive the oak, steam bend the arms and backs, turn the legs, etc. plus his plans are awesome.

I'm in the process of finishing a wedding present for my niece, but when I'm done with that I plan to get back to building Windsors. They are the most satisfying thing I've done in this hobby. When I finish that project in the next 3-4 weeks, I'll move the rest of my green woodworking stuff down here. I'm a couple of hours down I-85S from you and you're welcome to visit any time, at least after this wedding. I was on 400 last week looking at some property in N. Fulton County. I don't think we quite made it up to your area, but we saw a lot of nice houses out that way. Let me know if you'd like to come.

[Mike Holbrook]

Nice, a green wood neighbor. I live in the city of Milton, Alpharetta, Roswell area. We are at about the North Fulton county/Cherokee county border. I am trying to find the time to harvest some wood this fall, off our 12 acres, so I will have something to work with this winter. I am not great at figuring out what species and specimens to take, so I am now working on it.

Actually I have the wood for a bench build, if I could just get a couple or three things working on my bandsaw so I can rip it. Maybe we can get together sometime John. Would love to exchange ideas and methods.

[Tony Shea]

That is one benefit of my new found green woodworking interest, learning to identify trees especially in the winter when all the leaves are gone. I still struggle a little in the winter but have a nice grasp on the species I have interest in. I am currently in the process of building a Ladder Back chair but with a lot more Boggs aesthetics thrown in rather than typical Alexander chairs. I have learned a ton from Alexander but prefer the curvy back legs on a Boggs ladder back, is probably the most perfect chair I personally have witnessed. Something about this particular chair really interests me.

[Peter Pedisich]

Mike,

I took a class by this guy at a Woodcraft/Woodworker's Club in or near Rockville, MD about 10 years ago: Colonial Chair Company
He travels around to teach (or did) and I learned so much in 3 days.

-Pete

[Mike Holbrook]

Darn Peter, that class was at Woodcraft in Atlanta, near me, in September. Had I known!!!

Tony, do you have a picture or link to one? At this point I have no idea whether the Ladder Backs are more or less difficult to build than the Windsors. I want to make nice Windsor for the home and a little less complicated, tougher chairs for our business.

[Tony Shea]

kelly-mehler-brian-boggs-class-finished-chair-2-610x457.jpg
Here is a picture of the Boggs chair that I find so appealing for some reason. The curve of the back leg with the flats drawknifed in really sets off the look of this chair. And top it off with a beautiful hickory bark seat and I just can't imagine a better looking chair.

image.jpg

And just because this is what started me down the greenwood woodworking, spoon carving.

[john jesseph]

Hello all- popping in from lurk mode. Hi to Dave Anderson and anyone else here I have met in the past.

I would encourage anyone who has not done so already, read through the pages at windsorchairresources.com. It is a mostly static site with old content, but pretty good information.

Also, another source I had totally forgot about, and maybe ripe for resurrecting: the Yahoo group "windsorchairmaking".

I emailed the windsorchairresources site owners about 15 years ago and suggested they change their q and a section to a moderated forum, and I volunteered to moderate. As I recall, they basically said they don't give much of a crap about Windsor chairs, it was just a commercial website, and they told me I could just go start my own if I was that interested. I eventually started the Yahoo group, but it suffered a death from a thousand cuts from spam. I just went back to the site for the first time in years and logged in. Surprisingly everything is still there and it appears to work, so I may post and see what happens. Maybe Yahoo has gotten the spam under control over the last few years.