Like most people of my generation, I was taught rudimentary woodworking and metal working at school, but only when I married aged 23 did I start to do extensive joinery work on a DIY basis – I put up shelves, made items of furniture, wooden toys for the children such as toy forts, built sheds and so on, but never had time to pursue it as a hobby. During my career we moved house several times often in quick succession, which doesn’t lend itself to hobbies – Nottingham to Spalding to Grimsby in nine months, Grimsby to Mansfield to Sheffield, in two years, then to East Yorks in 1991.
Lots of DIY, but not much time for hobbies, though since a schoolboy in the mid 50s to the present day, electronics and radio have been my main hobby interests. Only in retirement did my thoughts and interests turn to woodworking and woodturning as my interest in amateur radio declined, having been licensed since 1974, though I remain interested in vintage radio.
I've attached a few pics showing some details of of my first woodturning/woodworking project, which was a Windsor chair I made on a five-day course (one-to-one tuition). The course was in 1999 - a birthday surprise from my wife Jennifer on my 60th Birthday. After that, I bought a cheap lathe, than about five years ago upgraded to a better one, but I haven't made any more chairs - nowhere to put them! I have so little time for hobbies, that although I try to achieve a good standard and to take a pride in what I do (instilled in me as an apprentice back in the 1950s), really, I'm little more than a dabbler at anything!
The chairmaking course was enjoyable and involved a range of skills such as turning, steam bending of the arm rest, the backrest, and the 'crinoline' - the bow shaped support under the seat which holds the legs firm. The bent wood is left overnight in clamps, then shaped using a spokeshave and draw-knife. The spindles were made by holding a length of ash in a ‘jam chuck’ in the headstock, and running a 'rounding tool' tool like a large pencil sharpener along the length of the wood to reduce it to the right diameter. Then another similar tool that you hold on the spindle was used to gradually taper it along its length. The chair is ash - the seat is elm. There won't be any more chairs with elm that wide - Dutch elm disease has put paid to that! The shape of the seat is scooped out with a sort of convex plane known as a 'travisher'. The shape of the seat is scooped out with a sort of convex plane known as a 'travisher'. The chap whose course I attended is called Tom Thakray - a well-known highly regarded chair maker who makes his own tools. His travishers are much in demand, but he only makes a few as and when he's in the mood, and they fly off the shelves when he does:
http://www.woodsmithstore.co.uk/shop/Pro...Travisher/
Anyone can attend Tom’s courses with no previous experience. You turn up on Monday morning, and leave on Friday afternoon with a chair that you’ve made using the skills Tom has taught you. All done by hand and eye without the use of jigs, using draw knives, spokeshaves, the lathe, and brace and bits. People from all walks of life, men and women, old and not so old attend Tom's courses - few have any skills before attending. The most he takes at any one time is two people - often man and wife.
Windsor chairs as we know them today, began to appear in England in the early 1700′s, originally used as garden furniture, but were soon adopted as tavern chairs, then later adopted as dining chairs among the aristocracy. Their history is somewhat obscure, but it’s generally agreed that the Windsor chair was developed in the late 17th or early 18th century in the vicinity of Windsor. As to who invented them in the first place, there are only theories. One suggestion is that spinning-wheel makers originated them. The splayed legs of spinning wheels and their spokes have similarities in decoration and geometry. Another suggestion is that wheelwrights may have developed them. In any case, by the 1720s they were widely available in England's southern counties, usually painted green, and intended as garden (lawn) chairs.
By the 1760s they’d spread to America, where initially they were made in Philadelphia, where they became known as ‘Philadelphia chairs’, and spread to New York and New England. In the UK, Chair making became centred on High Wycombe, where ‘chair bodgers’ worked in the woods, coppicing timber and making the spindles on pole lathes.
Hope these ramblings and the pics are of interest.
Lots of DIY, but not much time for hobbies, though since a schoolboy in the mid 50s to the present day, electronics and radio have been my main hobby interests. Only in retirement did my thoughts and interests turn to woodworking and woodturning as my interest in amateur radio declined, having been licensed since 1974, though I remain interested in vintage radio.
I've attached a few pics showing some details of of my first woodturning/woodworking project, which was a Windsor chair I made on a five-day course (one-to-one tuition). The course was in 1999 - a birthday surprise from my wife Jennifer on my 60th Birthday. After that, I bought a cheap lathe, than about five years ago upgraded to a better one, but I haven't made any more chairs - nowhere to put them! I have so little time for hobbies, that although I try to achieve a good standard and to take a pride in what I do (instilled in me as an apprentice back in the 1950s), really, I'm little more than a dabbler at anything!
The chairmaking course was enjoyable and involved a range of skills such as turning, steam bending of the arm rest, the backrest, and the 'crinoline' - the bow shaped support under the seat which holds the legs firm. The bent wood is left overnight in clamps, then shaped using a spokeshave and draw-knife. The spindles were made by holding a length of ash in a ‘jam chuck’ in the headstock, and running a 'rounding tool' tool like a large pencil sharpener along the length of the wood to reduce it to the right diameter. Then another similar tool that you hold on the spindle was used to gradually taper it along its length. The chair is ash - the seat is elm. There won't be any more chairs with elm that wide - Dutch elm disease has put paid to that! The shape of the seat is scooped out with a sort of convex plane known as a 'travisher'. The shape of the seat is scooped out with a sort of convex plane known as a 'travisher'. The chap whose course I attended is called Tom Thakray - a well-known highly regarded chair maker who makes his own tools. His travishers are much in demand, but he only makes a few as and when he's in the mood, and they fly off the shelves when he does:
http://www.woodsmithstore.co.uk/shop/Pro...Travisher/
Anyone can attend Tom’s courses with no previous experience. You turn up on Monday morning, and leave on Friday afternoon with a chair that you’ve made using the skills Tom has taught you. All done by hand and eye without the use of jigs, using draw knives, spokeshaves, the lathe, and brace and bits. People from all walks of life, men and women, old and not so old attend Tom's courses - few have any skills before attending. The most he takes at any one time is two people - often man and wife.
Windsor chairs as we know them today, began to appear in England in the early 1700′s, originally used as garden furniture, but were soon adopted as tavern chairs, then later adopted as dining chairs among the aristocracy. Their history is somewhat obscure, but it’s generally agreed that the Windsor chair was developed in the late 17th or early 18th century in the vicinity of Windsor. As to who invented them in the first place, there are only theories. One suggestion is that spinning-wheel makers originated them. The splayed legs of spinning wheels and their spokes have similarities in decoration and geometry. Another suggestion is that wheelwrights may have developed them. In any case, by the 1720s they were widely available in England's southern counties, usually painted green, and intended as garden (lawn) chairs.
By the 1760s they’d spread to America, where initially they were made in Philadelphia, where they became known as ‘Philadelphia chairs’, and spread to New York and New England. In the UK, Chair making became centred on High Wycombe, where ‘chair bodgers’ worked in the woods, coppicing timber and making the spindles on pole lathes.
Hope these ramblings and the pics are of interest.
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
