Making ladder back chairs

[Mark Gibney]

I just spent a week in San Diego learning how to make a 2-slat ladder back chair with Russ Filbeck.

It was a fantastic week, I can't say enough good about Russ and his wife Carol, and the whole chair making experience. Russ taught woodworking for over twenty years at Palomar College and you get all that experience in a one-on-one teaching process in his home workshop.

Russ has the beat up ladder back chair his family had back on the farm in Missouri when he was a kid, and it is interesting to see the changes in the way this type of chair is made nowadays, and there is also something right about learning chair making with someone who grew up with these actual chairs.

If any of you ever wanted to learn this process I highly recommend taking a class with Russ.

[Chuck Nickerson]

Thanks for the review. For three years I've been toying with the idea of taking a class from Russ. It's time for me to get moving on it.

[Prashun Patel]

Can you post some pictures. Eager to see.

[Mark Gibney]

Chuck, go for it, if you can find the time etc of course!

Prashun - I have yet to do most of the finishing, I'm having to catch up on what got neglected for that week, you know how that is, but I will post a pic soon.

[Mark Gibney]

Here is a picture of the chair with one coat of finish.

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The important aspect of construction in this chair is the rung to leg joint. The rungs are shaped to have a neck, and are taken from a small kiln right at assembly. A lot of glue is put in the mortise, and when the chair is assembled the rung swells, while the leg shrinks, making a super tight joint. Traditionally I believe these chairs were made without using glue.

Here's a bad drawing of what the joint looks like if you sliced the chair on a bandsaw. These chairs will not loosen through people tilting back in them, they are that strong.

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This chair is made of red oak, with a hickory bark woven seat. It's fairly rustic, and extremely comfortable. Russ makes his more complex arm chairs and rockers using spalted maple or Californian sycamore, and other woods. He has a stunning rocker in teak. They are all more beautiful in actuality than any photo he has can show. But if you want to see more, then google his name for his website.

(I tried to send this as a private message to Prashun, but I couldn't upload images from my computer there for some reason).