In
December 2023 I began designing and building two carver chairs to
accompany the 6 bentwood chairs we have owned for the past 40 years.
The chairs we have were purchased all those years ago along with a
farmhouse table, which is around 200 years old. Although we cherish
this table, we need something larger, and time has come to replace it
and add two more chairs.
The
table planned will be a modern version of the farmhouse table, in
Rock Maple top and skirtings, and with Jarrah legs. The carver chairs
need to match the intended table and blend with all the chairs. Our
taste is minimalist, Mid Century Danish, modern.
So I started
thinking about the chairs I would build, and I took inspiration from
this picture ...
...
and began to evolve a design along similar lines. The 8 legs were
started (just needed rounding) and the seats carved, and then the
tenons were cut. And that is where a problem arose. I had this idea
for integrated tenons into through mortices in the legs. Very few
chairs are built like this, and for a good reason - you cannot
control for run out in the tenons, and run out make for weak tenons.
And that is what I discovered. And so I stopped the build, and
decided to begin again from scratch.
I started looking more
carefully at the chair I had come across and had treated rather
casually. It has a name: DC 09, and it was designed by the Japanese-
Scandinavian duo, Kyoko Inoda and Nils Sveje, in 2011. It is built by
the Miyazaki factory in Japan.
There
is a challenge here - can I replicate it purely from photos? This is
unlikely since one needs to examine an object in three dimensions to
discover the subtleties of the design and construction. I have
experience of this, having made an exact copy of Hans Wegner's "The
Chair" or the "Round Chair" several years ago. What
made this possible is that I own an original. One is mine and one is
Wegner's ...
So
the chairs I build will not be exact, but hopefully close. Actually,
I am still on the fence about the arms and back and may modify this
... but we shall see. We need to start with the seat. That is the
key.
Help comes from two video I found ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yLSaoBXNI&ab_channel=yasuhiromurai
https://vimeo.com/438408781
Some
dimensions to start the process:
The
doors above my bench make a place to pin details and photos
..
The
seat plan was scaled and drawn using images from the videos and
photos.
Two half-templates were created - the first was a
straight-sided outline of the seat. The reason for this is that I
planned to use loose tenon joinery, which would enable the tenons to
have straight grain for maximum strength, and the mortices would be
made using a Domino. These would be 30mm long x 10mm wide, in other
words would use custom-made loose tenons. The straight sides would
make it easier to cut the mortices ahead of shaping the seats.
The
second half-template was the actual outline of the seat, and this
positions the tenons.
Here
the tenons are positioned ...
A
little jack-planning to flatten the underside of the seat blanks
..
These
are now sawn to shape ...
After
this was done it became apparent just how the first shaping of the
first set of chairs differed from the DC09 design. Here is a first
chair along with two legs. In the background can be seen the plan I
had made for that build ...
It
looks quite good, with the angles and spacings appearing correct. In
fact, they are quite different from the DC09. Below is the DC09 seat
below the first seat. You can see the positioning of the legs
..
Before
I dominoed the mortices, the legs were mocked up to be sure of the
angles. Playing around here indicated that they should be at 14
degrees and not 10 degrees, as they had been in the first build. In
the top right corner (of the photo below) you can see a DC09 for
comparison ...
Guides
for 14 degrees ...
Marked
and morticed ...
Tenons
were made on the router table ...
All
is looking right so far ...
The
rule for chair backs is that thy need to allow for a lean of about
90-95 degrees. I have been thinking about this but decided to set
aside this area for later. The priority is to get the seat shape
correct - in three dimensions. - and its relationship with the legs
(which were shaped in the first build - they are substantially
correct, other than the upper ends being around 28mm against the -
estimated - 40mm of the DC09. I will decide on whether to keep or
replace these later). I have left the legs 1" longer in the
lower half to adjust the tilt of the seat (the seat sits 18" off
the ground and the ones I made previously are 19" in this
respect).
I did stand the old chair along the table, and noted
how low the arm rests were in reality - actually an ideal height for
comfort. I do have some ideas how they may be "improved"
aesthetically .... but this for later.
All advice gratefully
received.
Regards from Perth
Derek
January 2024