Windsor Chair Kits @ Highland - Anyone Know Who Makes Them?

[Mike Henderson]

This kit gives you all the parts,hole location,angles,wood selection,you name it! All from the comfort of your shop.Its pretty cheap really,no plans to buy,no museum problems,(no you can't measure the furniture or take photos!). When I saw this post a light went off in my head,I'd buy a kit(they're all nice examples) and make six more! Duck Soup! Ed

If you decide to do this, let me give you a suggestion. One of the hardest things to do on a Windsor chair is to drill the holes in the seat for the spindles and legs in the right place and at the right angle. I've often thought that the way to fix that (compared to the traditional way of doing it) is to glue up some MDF until it's fairly thick, maybe 2", then clamp it to a seat that has the holes already drilled into it at the proper angles. The MDF will have to be a bit wider and longer than the seat. Using the proper sized drill bit, from the bottom of the seat, drill through the MDF. This will give you a jig to use for future seats of the same style Windsor chair. If the spindle holes in your seat don't go all the way through (they don't usually), just drill them through. You can plug them back to the proper depth afterwards if you don't want the holes in the bottom of your seat.

To get proper registration, find the center lines (length and width) of the seat before you drill the holes - and transfer these lines to the MDF. To use the jig, mark center lines on your seat blank and align the jig. Clamp and drill away.

You'l still have to drill the seat back loop and the legs and stretchers but you can probably figure those out. Follow one of the books on Windsor chairs for details.

AND, you have to bend the seat back, which takes special equipment. You could probably make a form and laminate bend those if you don't want to do the steam bending.

You'll also need a tapered reamer to taper the holes for the legs, and when you turn the legs, you'll need to put that same taper on the top of the legs.

Mike

[And let me add that even with a sample kit to go by, making a Windsor chair is not "Duck Soup". There's a lot to learn before you try to build one. Pick up one or more of the books that describe how to build one.

I'm actually not a fan of Windsor chairs. I don't care for the style. But I have a high appreciation of the skill of our ancestors in building them. Through trial and effort they discovered the best woods to use for each part and the proper angles for the legs and the back. For a chair without any padding, they are remarkably comfortable. Someone who goes through the learning to be able to build one, and then brings one to a successful completion, has accomplished quite a bit and deserves a certain amount of professional respect. Building one from a kit simply does not compare.]