THE SEAT

While your bodged components are drying, you have several weeks to make your chair seat. You need a 500mm (20in) square plank, 50mm (2in) thick. I use elm, though this can be difficult to get hold of since the ravages of Dutch elm disease. Wild grain gives the most interesting seat pattern. Use it so the grain goes front to back.
Purists can cut their seat out by bow saw; others with a bandsaw. It is best to drill the holes before working on hollowing out the seat. For the legs mark the centre of holes on the underside of the seat.
Draw sighting lines on the seat which give the splay of the legs. Use a sliding bevel set to 20 degrees for back legs and 15 degrees for front legs to give the drilling angle. Drill with a brace and 25mm (1in) bit. Often drilling is done by eye. I like to bring the holes right through, then wedge from the top, so stop drilling when the point just comes through, turn seat over and drill from the other side.
Drilling holes for the side and back sticks is the same process as for legs, but the drilling angle is 8 degrees, using a 20mm (3/4in) bit. The front two sticks need holes drilled right through the seat, for the others drill to 20mm (3/4in) depth.
Shaping the seat with an adze will take out a lot of wood quickly. Work diagonally across the grain, make sure the seat is securely fixed, and wear safety boots! Finer finishing can be done with an inshave, then a travisher and finally a cabinet maker's scraper. It's a good idea for detail to put a long chamfer on the undersside of the seat, which gives a thinner appearance.

                   

GO TO MAKING A WELSH STICK BACK CHAIR - PAGE 3 (STEAM BENDING)