Shaping a Windsor Chair Spindle

 After browsing over my past videos uploaded to YouTube, I watched the one on Spindle Making. While I'm never happy with the way most of my videos come out, that video I am defiantly not happy with. It shows basically nothing but a "buffoon" hacking away at a stick of red oak. I didn't speak one word as to what I was doing or how I got to that particular point in the process. It's just a close up of me trying my best to make a video on a subject I thought I knew something about.

So with spindles to make for the chairs I'm making now, I thought this is a good time to redo a spindle video. Maybe I can give someone wanting to make a Windsor, a little more detail on how to shape them than I had when I first started.  I'm going to leave the old spindle video up and let you all comment on which one gives more info on the process and helps you make a spindle. I'm pretty sure which one it'll be but I'll let you tell me in your own words. Who knows I may have to make another with better ideas from you.

New Year...New Froe Club

I was splitting out some spindles for some chairs today and after a few hard whacks my froe club broke in two. I made the broken one back in June 2011 out of hard maple. I know the date because I wrote it on the one I was replacing the now broken one with. I am trying to find what woods work best for a froe club that I have on hand. Red Oak, White Oak, Hard Maple, and Walnut are the spieces I use for chairs most often and almost always have at my disposal. I would like to find a piece of Dogwood but haven't had the luxury yet for it to be placed in front of me to try. I am writing the date I retire the old broken one so I can see how long the next one will last.  

So after using the red oak one for about a year and getting a pretty good amount of use out of it, now the maple one has only gone about 7 months. I am trying out a white oak club. Here is a short video on how I go about making my clubs. This is roughly the size I start all the clubs I've made with 4" sq and 17" long. It works great for me and I love the balance this size gives.

Chair-maker in the making...

I had been sitting at the shaving horse all day when my 3 year old daughter Lily, came out to see me. I stood up and walked over to the bench a few steps away, turned around and Lily was on the shaving horse doing what she saw me do. I had to take a quick picture with my phone before this one got away. I hope even if she doesn't go as nuts over woodworking as I have, that she at least appreciates it down the road. It would be incredible if I had a chair making buddy though.

The Life of a Windsor Chair Spindle

When you look at a Windsor Chair in it's completed form, there are so many parts that come together to make the beauty you see. Part of that beauty are the plain and simple back spindles providing the anchor of the upper half of the chair. What you don't see is how those plain and simple little back spindles came to be. To do them the right way they need to be split or riven out of a green log. First you have to find a good straight log (in this case White Oak). You have to saw it to length, split it in half, then again into quarters, and even if you can read the bark well, the log may have some hidden defects that make it unusable. Once it's split into quarters, and any defects discovered and discarded, a grid is layed out across the section, some people split it into eight sections instead. The 1" grid gives you more even squared up spindles stock making it easier to shave with the Draw Knife in my book.

Each grid line is strategically rived using a riving brake, giving gorgeous straight grained oak providing the utmost strength and quality. Then each wide plank is rived again and again till 1" square billets are produced.

With each billet split out, it's time to shape them square with a draw knife. First you have to follow the grain on one side, flatten it out, turn it end for end, up and down, back and forth, then move onto the next side and do it all again. Once thats done four times, you have to make it octaganal and oversize the tenons, the swell, and taper. After you have all that done...  

They need to set around the shop a week or so before they go in the kiln for 2-3 days. Then they are ready to final shape with a spokeshave.

  So, those plain and simple little spindles have been through so much just to be a plain and simple spindle. Even if they seem like plain and simple parts of a Windsor, they provide the backbone of the chair allowing you to sit and rest your back. Now I'm ready to lean my tired back against those plain and simple spindles and relax.    

As the Drawknife Slices

 There is truly something magical and mesmerizing about a Draw Knife. I split out in the neighborhood of 100 billets and roughed out 93 yesterday and today. A good quality oak made the last two days so pleasant to work, on top of the fantastic weather and great scenery I have at my shop. The super sharp draw knife (thanks to Pete Galberts video on the grinder jig) made the work seem to fly by. I learn something every time I pick up the draw knife (or any tool for that matter) but I have gotten so attached to using a draw knife. What a wonderful tool, so simple in design, but so useful in so many ways. When you can make a pile of shavings and not remember what your doing (work) or what the rest of the world is doing has a wonderful effect on you.

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.

Spindle Work

Here you see the process of making the spindles for the back of the chairs. After buying a log from a local Logger I get the log back to the shop and chainsaw it to rough length, then split it in half and then into quarters. I'll map it out into about 1" x 1" squares and use a wedge to begin splitting up the quartered section. I use a hatchet to score across the lines I've drawn just to help aid the split better. After I get the whole quarter section split up I take it into the shop and start the rough shaping with a draw knife before it goes into the kiln to dry for 3 or 4 days. After the rough blank is dry I use a spokeshave to finish it to it's final dimensions.