Morris Chair progress

[Marcus Ward]

I'm about 3/4 of the way finished with the Morris Chair I'm building for my wife. This is the first real piece of furniture I've ever built. I have to say, if I had understood what is involved I would have picked something easier to start with. This chair follows Stickley's original pretty closely. The arms and back slats are steam bent. I think if I did it over again I would build the legs up solid instead of 4 pieces with qs grain facing out. Solid would have made it easier to cut the mortises and build the little through-tenon for the arms. I've learned tons building this so far. I never do anything by halves, I guess.

Here are a couple of pics of progress:

[Mark Stutz]

Looks like a great start, Marcus. Were the originals built with the legs that way? I haven't tried it, though have seen articles that showed a thin shop sawn veneer glued to the side to achieve the same effect, and Mark Singer did the same on one of his furniture build threads, though I can't remember which one. (CRS disease!)

Mark

[Marcus Ward]

No, the originals were solid buildups with veneer on the non-quartersawn faces to hide the 'ugly' flatsawn grain. This is one way around that - all quartersawn faces. The problem with the veneer faces is that seasonal wood movement eventually will cause the veneer to separate.

[Jim Becker]

That's going to be a beautiful chair, Marcus! Nice work.

[Lewis Moon]

No, the originals were solid buildups with veneer on the non-quartersawn faces to hide the 'ugly' flatsawn grain. This is one way around that - all quartersawn faces. The problem with the veneer faces is that seasonal wood movement eventually will cause the veneer to separate.

There's something about veneer that has always seemed kind of "fake" to me (that's probably not the word I really want but my mental thesaurus is down). I've always been of the "it is what it is" school. Would carefully rift sawn (45 degrees) white oak be an alternative? The arms and back are really the focal points on this type of design.
Very nice piece Marcus. That is going to be an heirloom. How difficult was the steam bending?

[Marcus Ward]

The bending itself wasn't bad at all, remembering to bend things the proper direction - that was bad!!! I have an really powerful steam generator so that helps. Also cutting the mortises in the arms after they were bent and tenons in the back pieces after they were bent was a bit tough but not too bad. Stanley 78 is indispensable for those. Thanks for the kind words, guys.

[gary Zimmel]

Marcus

Looks like a winner to me. Can't wait to see the project finished.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Good job so far Marcus. You aren't kidding when you say you just jump into things. Chairs of any type and design are one of the most difficult of all woodworking projects because of their curves, odd joinery angles, and structural demands. If you are satisfied when you complete the chair, you will be ready to tackle almost anything successfully.

[Rod Sheridan]

I enjoy building Morris chairs, and your chairs are going to be very nice when completed.

The fun of cutting mortices for bent arms, or cutting tenons on steam bent back slats are challenging, yet rewarding.

If I remember correctly, Gustav Stickley did build chairs with legs made of quarter sawn white oak on all faces. The leg faces are joined together with a lock mitre cutter, and there is a central core in the leg.

regards, Rod.

[Jason Beam]

Marcus,

Absolutely great work. For the through tenons on the arms, will you just make a "plug" of sorts?

[Marcus Ward]

A sort of plug/cap to hide the joint a little. A couple of the mortises aren't perfect enough to just make a cap. I'll cut them off flush and cover them with a cap that fits down into the center. Thanks for the kind words.

[Eric Hartunian]

Great job so far. I really like morris chairs. I finished this one before I went to Iraq a couple years ago. I attempted the upholstery myself, but am unhappy with the results. One of these days, I will redo it in leather. Here is a pic...

Eric

[Phil Clark]

Marcus I too make Morris chairs for the family and recommend you stay with the quadralineal leg construction using a lock miter router bit. This was Stickley's method and it works great for me. I also make an A&C table lamp using the quadralinear method for the column, which gives me a hollow for the lamp cord.

[Marcus Ward]

Hmmmm... Phil, not to be contrary, but according to Robert Lang in "More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture" he indicated that stickley built the legs up solid and veneered the non qs faces. Over time the veneer separates from those faces due to seasonal wood movement, and so the quadrilinear leg is the best way to overcome that. Perhaps the current stickley furniture is built that way, but according to the references I've read, the originals (era ~1900) are solid.

Quadrilinear construction is fine but does present some issues. The tenons for the legs have less surface area to bear against, the legs are hollow so when cutting mortises you have to put something in there to prevent blowout when the chisel goes through, and the cap where the leg comes through the top of the arm has to be built as a separate piece. I think it adds some construction challenges. You could fill the leg with a piece but it'd have to fit pretty perfect and sliding something in there with glue squeezout dried on the inside of the leg is tough.

[Marcus Ward]

Actually if you look here:

http://www.stickley.com/features/index.html

it says that now they use quadrilinear posts, but that stickley originally used veneer to cover the non qs faces. They build theirs with a solid center post, something I probably should have done and gotten the best of both worlds. Next time I will include a solid center post during glue-up. My only concern would be making the centerpost the right size so that there are no gaps at the top where it shows through the arm.

Thanks again for the kind words, all.