Green Woodworking Series: Make a Ladder Back Chair 18-1
Instructor: Norm Baird
White Card Required
There are two main objectives for this 5 1/2 day class: learning to work with green wood and making a traditional ladder back chair. It’s fun, rewarding and easier than you might think. No prior experience is required and all the necessary tools will be available. All you really need is a Guild white card.
Students will be guided through all the steps to build their own hand-crafted ladder back chair.
Green woodworking. We will start with small logs of Oregon White Oak, still full of sap, and split out rough blanks for chair legs and rungs. Then we’ll shape them as far as we can go with drawknives, working at the shaving horse. The sensations of guiding a sharp blade through a green workpiece are very satisfying to the senses. With this approach, the parts will follow the grain of the wood, maybe not absolutely straight and square, but with maximum strength and fully functional.
Making a ladder back chair. After swapping the green parts for dry, we will refine the rungs and legs to final shape and hand finish, using the drawknife and spokeshave. We’ll find we can achieve excellent precision when hand fitting round tenons on the rungs to mortises in the legs. We will steam bend thin boards for back slats and heavier pieces for back legs. Some assembly, some finish, weave the seat, and we will have finished chairs. Each student should be able to leave at the end of the class with a finished chair, even those who have never used these tools or made a greenwood project before.
Tools. As with many areas of woodworking, if this is your first time working greenwood you may be using some tools new to you. Please rest easy. We have plenty of all the tools available, and you are welcome to use them throughout the class. We have both vintage tools and tools purchased new from a variety of makers in a variety of styles. If you are thinking about buying some tools of the greenwood trade, you might consider waiting until you have the opportunity to “test drive” various ones in class. Some of you may already own drawknives, spokeshaves, and shaving horses, and you’re encouraged to bring them to class.
Homework. You should be aware of one other aspect of this class. Expect some “homework”. These chairs have multiple rungs, legs, and back slats. We have planned the schedule so that we can teach and you can practice each operation during class, then you can make some of the parts at home during the roughly 2 week intervals between sessions. We are trying to avoid using class time for doing repetitive work you have already mastered, and to give you opportunity to fit these operations into your own shops.
Schedule: 6 sessions
#1 15 Sep 2018 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
#2 16 Sep 2018 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
#3 29 Sep 2018 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
#4 6 Oct 2018 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
#5 20 Oct 2018 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
#6 3 Nov 2018 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Questions? We realize that some aspects of this class may be a bit different. We encourage you to contact instructor Norm Baird, or class coordinator Rick Alexander to discuss tools, schedule, homework, or just chair making in general. Both of us love this work, and enjoy sharing the experience of greenwood with others.
In order to complete your registration payment must be made within 7 days.Please go online and pay using PayPal or by check made to the order of the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers. Reference the class title on the memo line and mail it to: GOOW-Registrar, C/O Julie Niemeyer, 20282 SW Inglis Drive, Beaverton, OR 97007
Guild classes are Member only classes. Not a member? Visit the Membership webpage and Join Now.
