(upbeat country music) - You're looking at my favorite project of season 30.

It's called the corner chair, because in our house, I used to spend a lot of time in this chair.

"Scott, go in the corner."

And it's so comfortable, you didn't mind being there.

It's a classic form.

Came out in the late 1700s.

It's called Windsor because the original chairs, in theory, were built near the Windsor Castle in England.

This one happens to be the baluster form, which is a shape of that leg and this front post.

We're going to do one in the bamboo form.

So don't go anywhere.

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- This is the most comfortable chair that I've ever been in.

The next chair would be a Maloof inspired rocker that you saw me build several seasons back.

And on this one, there are a lot of turned parts to it.

On the Maloof form, it was all sculpted, band sawn, and then shaped.

Now, what do you think is the hardest part of this chair?

Well, truthfully, it's these back graceful spindles.

There are nine of these, four smaller shorter ones, and then these are turned as well.

The legs are turned.

So let me start with the hard stuff first.

So to create this form, that's done two ways.

One is that's turned on the wood lathe right there, but then this gets too whippy to spin it, so you use a draw knife on the wood lathe with it off to shape it into that form, very graceful.

So the easiest way to do that is to start with three quarter inch diameter dowel rods.

And it's a total, what you want to start with is 29 inches long.

And then what you do is you use a razor saw to cut your dowel rods to finished length, that 29 inches.

And you see me use a lot of power tools, but this is my number one go-to hand tool.

What you want to do is watch your fingers because this blade just flies through the wood.

Cuts on the pull stroke, just like that.

Now pick up the scrap because you don't want to step on that.

And now that we have the length done on that three quarter inch rod, we tighten it down in the tail vice.

We bring up this amazing tool.

Watch what happens.

Marry this to your body, sight down the shank of the drill to the dowel rod and you create those little tenons that are five-eighths of an inch in diameter and about an inch long.

A lot of chair making is done by eye.

Now I'm going to do the same thing on the other end, and you can get good at this when you practice, marry it to your body, and needs to go a little deeper.

Now, over to the wood lathe, and I'll show you how to sculpt this to perfect form.

Viola.

To turn the nine graceful long 29 inch back spindles, I've taken that tenon, and I've put it in the four jaw chuck here, and I've done the same down here.

There's no live ball bearing center, it's actually into that number two morse taper.

You can see what it looks like when it's in there.

And then I just hit it with a lubricant lightly with some wax.

And the key diameter right here that has to be nine sixteenths to hold the arm rests.

This needs to be three quarters, so that doesn't get touched 'cause it's three quarter inch dowel.

Then I need to dip this down right here to five eighths to match this diameter, and here's the easy way to do that.

Face shield down.

Whatever you do, read, understand, and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your woodshop.

Work safely.

Bring the skew up, rub the bevel, and then start to make the cut.

never from the heel down here, always a quarter of the way up.

And you just rub that bevel.

And people have problems with the skew because they don't know what I just shared with you.

You have to rub the bevel first, raise the handle, and you never ever take it off the heel down there.

Now watch what I do coming this way, same idea.

You can go up towards the center line.

Meaning right there on the skew.

And this is rolling along at 860 rpm.

If you went a little bit faster, it'd be okay, but it'd be a little bit grabby.

So now, you can see how we cut down that graceful form right there.

And with the calibrated eyeball, I know with a little bit of sanding, that will be perfect.

Leave that full.

And then, right from this spot, I'll take this on down, and some people reach over and put their hand to steady it on the backside.

I always keep my hand on this side of the tool rest.

I don't want to get it pinched.

And when it starts to get a little bit too wobbly where that dowel rod flexes too much, let me show you what I do.

Okay, right there is about as thin as I care to go.

I'll turn that off.

And using the wood lathe as my hold, I bring up a draw knife.

And this has not been dialed in perfectly yet.

Here we go.

Let me show you what we can do.

I just brought that knife down a little bit.

And you can go to town.

Bringing that all the way down to a small diameter spindle.

It takes about 15 minutes to work it down all the way.

But you can roll that right on around and work that down.

I'll get this done.

Little bit of sanding with it on with a dust collector, and then I'll show you how we turn the legs.

(machine whirring) Now that's the finished form.

And just get wrenches of the various diameters that you need instead of calipers.

And this is five eighths down here.

This center point is five eighths, that's three quarters, and that is nine sixteenths, 10 inches up from the end, so the armrest will rest.

This is three eighths of an inch in diameter.

And oh, by the way, I kept calling this a draw knife.

It's a spoke shave, anybody knows that.

It's early.

This is a draw knife.

Okay, go figure.

Now, take a look at this.

I've reconfigured the wood lathe.

So this is the bamboo form.

Why?

Look at it.

It looks like bamboo, okay?

And what I did was I used the skew to sculpt in this shape, to sculpt in this little dip gracefully, and then I used the toe with the blade perpendicular to the tool rests to cut those V grooves in at three locations.

And those are very important.

And that's how I end up with this bamboo form.

The other thing that I do, see those holes?

Those are five eighths of an inch in diameter.

I use an angle gauge and drill those so those are three quarters of an inch deep.

And those are set up at various angles.

We'll talk more about that later.

So that's how those are turned.

And then I'll set up to turn the two front posts for the legs.

Now take a look.

This is our front post.

This is the one that we're turning down.

Very easy to do.

Need to take the diameters down a bit.

Then a spot of sanding.

And then we'll go back over to the main bench, and we'll start to put all the parts together.

Looking good.

They call this a turner's chair for a reason.

There are a lot of turned parts to this.

Let it come up to speed.

Again with the skew, when you bring it up, rub the bevel, raise the handle until the cutting edge and the bevel kiss the wood at the same time at that magic spot.

Not on the heel, a quarter of the way up from the heel, and you will always get great results as long as you have the cutting edge halfway between the center line and the top diameter of the workpiece that you're turning.

Take a look at how things are shaping up here.

And here are the front post turnings.

And I'm going to cut this off.

All the crosscuts are made with the razor saw.

And that goes in nice and tight.

You gotta spin that in, and that's the way I want it.

It has to be strong.

And then do the same for this one.

Again, this is the bamboo form, and it looks really more contemporary than the balustrade.

I like both.

Let's see how this one shapes up and in like so.

That looks really good.

Now over here, we have one more thing to do and you'll start to see the leg assembly come together.

And that's to cut this stretcher, it's a side stretcher out of ambrosia maple, which is really pretty.

Wait until the finish comes up on that.

And those are the back legs.

This is the side stretcher.

A little bit tight there.

I'll need to size that down just a bit.

I turned that to that tenon diameter.

And to turn it, what I use is a parting tool on the wood lathe.

And you go straight in, you keep the shank of the blade perpendicular to the tool rest.

And then once it's turned, you can use a five eighths inch diameter wrench to check it.

And that's the way those tenons are turned.

Let me bring this front leg post up, and you can see the hole there.

Let's see if this is gonna be a better fit.

Oh, that's gonna have to be sanded down just a little bit to go in further, but then this comes across, and that will be for the front leg because you can see the bamboo pattern on that front stretcher.

So the legs need a seat to go into, and let's take a look at that because that's the foundation of this project.

That holds everything together.

And with the seat, look at this.

I'll pull everything out if I can.

Boy, that's there to stay.

Okay, 1, 2, 3.

They're coming out.

And what you need to see is I'm using something that was rarely used for seat boards.

It's a plank of mahogany that I recycled that came out of a ship, and it's beautiful.

And it's going to be stately.

And look at that.

So to start to saddle the seat, you do that outside with an angle grinder with a tungsten carbide cutter.

Make sure the seat board is secure.

And you use templates to lay out the pattern for the deck where you drill the holes for the spindles to go into.

And that template also is joined to the seat board with double-sided tape along the back edge.

And I use a very special bearing router bit to cut that V groove in all the way around that work piece.

And from there, I'll have to do some sanding on that seat to make it comfortable.

You want it saddled out nicely.

That's what it's called.

And then it's back inside to flip it over to drill the legs and put it all together.

I've stubbed the four legs in, and I'm coming around to the final stretcher here.

And look at that.

That's nice and tight.

What happens is, as I sink these home, it closes the space down on the stretchers.

And all of this is under stress that holds it all together.

It's not the glue.

And man, that's looking really good.

Now the next thing we need to do is work on the armrest, okay?

You build up thin strips of wood that are three sixteenths of an inch in thickness.

This is oak, this is hard maple, and you take all those strips and you glue it up and you create this form.

Now outside, after the glue squeezed out, I use the sander to work it down.

You can see what it looks like before you sand it down, but it's going to be gorgeous when we drill the holes and sculpt this out at the bandsaw.

And that's where we're going next.

Let's go to the bandsaw to work on this and cut the crest rail.

The next thing is to sculpt this armrest that's been laminated into a pleasing form, and then it gets sanded down.

I've just penciled those things in.

Trust yourself, go by eye.

Just give yourself a roadmap with a pencil and let the blade be your chisel to sculpt it in.

We'll do that armrest first, but before we get into it, this is a solid piece of old air dried walnut from an old barn.

And what you do is you create a graceful curve that matches the curve of the armrest.

That's where I got my pattern.

And you trace that out left and right to come up with the curve for your shoulders to go against.

And that needs to be three inches thick and a minimum of 22 inches to the outside edges.

So we'll cut all those pieces out at the bandsaw using a half inch blade with good tension.

I'll lower that blade bearing guide down just a bit.

It'll be harder for you to see, but that stops a blade from flexing and it's safer.

This is a guard.

Make sure it's locked.

So let's make those cuts.

(machine whirring) (machine whirring continues) So the seat deck, as this is called, right here where the holes are drilled at the drill press, and you start in the middle over here and space it two and a half out.

And as you go up, let me show you what happens.

Putting all the turned pieces together.

And now you know how to turn these pieces, get them sized perfectly.

And I'll bring up this glue up now that it's dried and sanded to perfection.

And you'll see the arm will come up and rest on these two posts, and I've got that marked on the very bottom.

So this is the bottom side.

And starting up here, every two and three quarter inches on the armrest, it's going to get drilled a half inch diameter hole.

And we do these seven long holes first.

So that's done at the drill press to keep everything square.

Make sure you have a sacrificial board.

And I have this braced to my body.

I bring that point down right on the mark.

And make sure you're right on the mark and give that bit time to carry away the saw dust.

And don't break through, cut through there, I cut through.

Okay, and I'll complete all these holes this way.

These are square, half inch diameter.

Get those drilled out.

That's looking good.

Take your time.

Don't break out of the cut.

So the seven back holes centered left and right on the armrest.

You center up that one center hole.

And all of these back spindles are 29 inches long, and I have those marked.

And I just use the razor saw to cut those to length.

And then what I can do is slide the armrest onto these, and I will index the side holes 'cause these spindles don't come all the way through.

They're stubbed into the bottom as well as the front post.

And this armrest has to be on the back seven before you can get the location of those.

So I'll just get that cut out and away we go.

Make sure you keep your fingers well away from that razor saw, and don't step on those scraps on the floor.

Pick 'em up safely.

Now, take a look at the fit.

It's all nice and tight and it sounds solid.

You tap these individual spindles home, the back seven as it were.

It's all solid now.

And what I've done is marked, by using the posts and the two other side legs, the holes and where I need to drill those.

But the easy way to match the cant angle is to do this right here.

Now that I have the holes all marked, I'll bring up the chair on the underside because remember, these holes don't go all the way through.

And it's remarkably strong at this point because all these spindles are like a suspension bridge.

And I only drill half the way in.

Now, watch what I do.

Right on that X for the front post with a five eighths inch multi spur forstner bit, you bring it up to speed and you line it up the shape of the hole with the hole that's in the deck.

And you drill that, matching the hole.

And again, you do not want to go all the way through.

That's about home, just a hair deeper.

And this is where you use your eye to make all the pieces come together.

This is going to go down here, and this will seat home right there.

It's a little bit proud.

I'm going to have to sand that down to get a perfect fit.

And I'll do the same for all the other holes.

Let me get those drilled if I can get this one out.

You want it to be stout and tight.

And once you get the dry fit done, you put glue in these joints.

But I'll get all the other holes done and then get the spindles positioned, again, lining up on the hole in the deck.

Now this is where you have to trust your eye because, well, I wouldn't wanna make another one of these crest rails, 'cause this is so beautiful.

So what I did was I drilled the hole for the crest rail here, and that's three eighths of an inch.

And you open it up by wiggling it around just a little bit.

And that's nice and tight.

And that lines up.

And what you do is you take a marker, a white marker, and you lay in the angle of the spindle when the crest rail was lined up where you have it all indexed so you know exactly what angle the hole is that you're drilling.

So the angle here, out, out.

I'll complete that.

And then it's outside to finish with garnet shellac the Suzy way.

This is looking so cool.

Can't wait to see it.

- All right, I'm using a garnet shellac.

It's gonna be beautiful on all these different woods.

And I've got it in airbrushed mode, and let's get it to go, let's go.

Oh, look at that.

Woo, that's looking good.

Oh man.

Looky there, look, do see?

Boy, he did a great job on this chair.

It's looking awesome.

Woo.

All right, let's go on the arm.

All right.

- That is beautiful, Suzy.

You do great work.

- Well, thank you.

I worked so hard on this chair.

- Okay, now that's bamboo form that she's just finished, garnet shellac.

This is balustrade form.

Okay.

- I love it.

- What's your favorite?

What do you like better?

- They're both so beautiful, but I love the bamboo touch.

That's really cool.

But the mix of woods kind of makes it pop for me.

- Okay.

- It really does.

It's just beautiful.

- I'll take this one any day of the week.

Well, there you have it.

Now if you want to make chairs, take a class.

That's the best way to do it.

And hire yourself a good finisher.

Thank you.

See you next week in "The American Woodshop."

- See ya!

- [Narrator] Woodcraft since 1928.

Providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Pro tools for tool pros.

(tense music) RIKON tools.

- [Narrator] Woodcraft Magazine.

Projects, plans, and web links designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish silicon steel band saw blades and super sharp scroll saw blades.

- [Narrator] A bed to sleep on.

A table to share meals.

A house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio.

Providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind "The American Woodshop" and to watch free episodes 24/7, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music continues)