Make A Windsor Chair

A complete treatise on building Windsor chairs, hand-illustrated by the author.

Windsor chairs are a beautiful and traditional feature in any home. Celebrate their history, and learn their heritage. Both novice and experienced woodworkers can learn how to make a Windsor chair that is both functional and beautifully shaped.

Supplies detailed instructions on making the turned legs, spindled back, and contour seat of two styles of Windsor chairs

With its turned legs, spindled back and angled, contoured seat, the Windsor chair has been a favorite for years. Now you can make your own with the help of this guide.

This work provides an insight into the history of Welsh stick chairs and includes instructions on how to make a chair, covering methods of bending the wood for chair construction. Illustrations show each stage in the building process.

"..."The Stick Chair Book" is divided into three sections. The first section, "Thinking About Chairs," introduces you to the world of common stick chairs, plus the tools and wood to build them. The second section - "Chairmaking Techniques" - covers every process involved in making a chair, from cutting stout legs, to making curved arms with straight wood, to carving the seat. Plus, you'll get a taste for the wide variety of shapes you can use. The chapter on seats shows you how to lay out 14 different seat shapes. The chapter on legs has 16 common forms that can be made with only a couple handplanes. Add those to the 11 different arm shapes, six arm-joinery options, 14 shapes for hands, seven stretcher shapes and 11 combs, and you could make stick chairs your entire life without ever making the same one twice. The final section offers detailed plans for five stick chairs, from a basic Irish armchair to a dramatic Scottish comb-back. These five chair designs are a great jumping-off point for making stick chairs of your own design. Additional chapters in the book cover chair comfort, finishing and sharpening the tools. From the author: "When I first wrote 'The Stick Chair Book' in 2021, I was also fighting cancer. So I hammered out the text with urgency and the desire to record every fragment of information I knew about chairmaking. "To be fair, that's usually how I go about writing all my books. But then I typically take a couple months off, put the manuscript aside, then revisit it with fresh eyes and a sharpened pen. My final revisions remove about 10-20 percent of the original material. The stuff I cut is usually chapters that don't match the tone of the rest of the text. Or I snip sections that aren't as relevant as when I first wrote them. I also smooth out the writing and add bits of information I'd forgotten during the first brain-to-fingers dump. "And that's exactly what I've done for this revised edition. As a result, the text is 10.1 percent shorter than the first edition. It's more to the point. And it's where the manuscript would have ended up under normal conditions..."--Publisher's website.

Definitive reference on classic American collectible. 744 pages, 1,000 illustrations, checklist of 2,400 chairmakers, more.

Country chairs is a general term used to describe those simple, sometimes sturdy, yet often quite elegant chairs made originally by village craftsmen during the 18th and 19th centuries. Made for use in cottage and farmhouse, they were the inspiration of a pre-factory age when individual interpretation and regional differences prevailed. Largely uninfluenced by the dictates of fashion and changing taste, they retained their traditional, functional form throughout. In later years some were made in urban as well as rural areas and, as demand increased, many were made in factories. Thus the term country chair may seem inappropriate, and alternative names are sometimes used to distinguish these plain, vernacular chairs from the more elaborate and stylish chairs which graced the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms of wealthier households.