Cutting Mortises for the Stern Chair

Here is how I cut the mortises on the back of the Stern chair.  

My Domino would not cut a mortise wide enough so I made a jig to accurately overlap two Domino slots.  It took quite a bit of trial and error to get the hole spacing on the jig just right.

The jig served as a reference fence for the Domino

The centre line on the jig marked the centre line for the mortise

The outside hole on the jig marked the location for Domino pin to cut the first slot

First mortise complete

The inside hole on the jig marked the location for the 2nd

 plunge cut

The mortise is now complete

The walnut tenon fits perfectly

Love at First Sight

When a client asked me to reproduce a Danish rosewood dining chair she bought decades ago in England, I was delighted.  This classic chair had me in its grips from the moment I first laid eyes on it.

The original chair with the walnut slab used to make the new chairs

 

Although the chair is seductive simplicity in its purest form, the joints for the chair were anything but simple to make.  Even the smallest error while cutting the curved components produced a sloppy looking joint.

The stretcher to leg joint was surprisingly difficult to cut

But the chairs were well worth the effort.  Beyond their beauty, the chairs are some of the most comfortable dining chairs I have ever sat in.

The completed chair

I always built a spare chair (the understudy, if you like) when making chairs.  This chair now sits in our dining room.  When I walk through the house late at night the chair still catches my gaze and stops me in my tracks.  I'll never tire of looking at it.

Chair detail

Bending Chair Backs

My latest commission for two Danish chairs required me to bend air dried walnut for the chair backs.  The 2" x 4" x 36" pieces of walnut were steamed for 2 hours and then bent to shape around a plywood form in a matter of minutes.  The pictures below outline the bending process.

Bending equipment at the ready, waiting for the wood

Wood hot out of the steamer and clamped to the form, ready to be bent

A "Come-Along" pulling the wood around the form

Switching to the second "Come-Along" to complete the bend

In a matter of minutes the bend is complete

 

 

10 days later the wood is dry and ready to be shaped