Fan Back Windsor Bar Stools

The order I am currently finishing up included 9 chairs overall with 3 of them being fan back bar stools. I have made several bow back bar stools before but never a fan back. I was thrilled to see how one of the fan backs would turn out and to my surprise they look incredible. The height at the pommel is 27" on these and to make it comfortable to sit at with your feet on the foot rest, the foot rest needed to be between 17-18" below pommel. I had to play with the legs a little to see what would work the best and came up with what you see in this picture. It sets perfectly, very comfortable and the foot rest is at just the right height. The seat height on my regular fan backs, or any chair for that matter, is typically 18" at the pommel. If it worked out to that every time I would be totally happy with every chair. I like most chairs that are just for sitting to have about a 1" drop from front to back but on sets that are for a table I think 3/4" works better and helps keep the sitter more involved in what is going on at the dinner table.

Windsor DVD

Here is a promo to my DVD on making a Bow Back Windsor. I use a few new techniques now but this is basically how it's done. There are a few things I left out on the DVD because it was intended to be given to students taking my chair class as a warm up for what to expect and what they need to kind of familiarize themselves with before coming to the class. The DVD is about 30 minutes long and is available on my web site for purchase.

Seat Shaping

These pictures show shaping a seat starting by hand planing the blank flat then carving out a seat with the inshave and travisher and finally using a spokeshave. These are the same tools used to make all the antique Windsor Chairs and they still work, probably better, than most power tools we have today. Plus, you don't get those cool looking hand tools marks if you use a sander to smooth it up. Hand tool work is really not as hard as most poeple think, if, the tools are sharp and tuned up. They really can make quick work if you use them right and can read the grain direction, and the only noise is that sweet swooshing sound the tool makes from the contact with the wood.

The "Titanic"

I started work on a huge 8' long Sack Back Settee the other day and here I have started carving out the seat. I took me just over 3 hours to carve the seat, talk about sore arms. I still need to smooth it with the travisher and a spokeshave.  A friend of mine Terry Kelly @ www.tkellyfurniture.com coined this thing the "Titanic" and I think I am actually going to call it that, it's a perfect name for this monster.

Carved Knuckles

I have struggled to carve like I really want to or how I see it in my head. I do think that I have become more detailed in my carvings but would like to be better. In a future post I will show steps on how I am carving the knuckles on my chairs. It's been kind of the most difficult part to get right on my chairs. I really think it adds a unique feature on a Windsor. You can just sit in the chair and rub your hands over the details of the knuckles and it's very relaxing. Without even looking you can feel the faucets left by the carving chisels and it just takes you to a place of less worry. Maybe thats why they are called "Worry Knuckles".