You’ll recall from Chair 1 how we made the legs, now all we have to do is join them all together. The front legs accept a tenon from the side rails. This joint is square because the legs are angled outwards which implies that the tenon on the other end of the side rails isn’t square. We can get the angle for the rear mortice, and the tenon shoulders from the full size seat drawing using a sliding bevel.
The front rail meets the front legs at an angle but the back rail meets the back legs square. The side stretchers meat the back legs at an angle in the horizontal plane and the legs are curving away in the vertical plane. The stretchers meet the front legs on the turned bit so the tenon shoulders are curved.
The cross stretcher is secured to the side stretchers with sliding dovetails which are not seen from above. They are very small.
The cresting rails (is that the correct name for all three of them?) are laminated from several thin strips clamped around an MDF former. They meet the back legs at an angle. Mark the shoulder angle and position by putting the rails back in the former and marking square across where the legs would be.
The decorative carving at the top of the back and front legs was achieved with an in-cannel gouge (curved chisel). The top of the back legs were shaped with a block plane and rounding on the front legs was done with rasp and spoke shave.
The seat is a frame with webbing stretched across. There will be a shaped cushion to go on top of this.
A bit of finish (shellac and wax) et voila one chair.
When it has a cushion I’ll take some more photos and add to the gallery
Here are loads of pics of chair construction:
The full scale seat drawing 
cutting some of the many tenons with angled shoulders 
Angled mortises in the back legs 
Finished tenon 
A pair of sides 
Save the off-cut of the curve for use in the mortiser (and the bench vice) 
Mortiser in action 
Mortise cut 
Legs and back rail 
Curve in front leg 
Match the curve 
Nice curves 
Back to the mortiser 
Trying to find where the bottom of the leg should be 
Use the level box to get the flat reference surface level 
curved shoulders need a curved chisel 
A chisel too far. This is one of several rejects 
That’s better 
refining the fit of the stretcher 
curved shoulder in place 
Sanding the sawn side of the lamination layers 
5 layers for each rail. The white bit is polystyrene just to ensure even pressure 
Marking the tenon shoulder positions 
more angled shoulders 
nearly a chair 
sliding dovetail to hold the middle stretcher in palce 
Rounding the cresting rails with spoke shave and scraper 
front rail gets an arch 
top of the back legs gets some decoration 
Bottom joint needs some tweeking 
Bottom of the front leg is tapered 
dry fitting 
Glue up with lots of clamps and wedges for the angled bits 
Just needs a seat 
top leg detail 
The seat frame pre glue up 
seat frame glued 
webbing is nailed in place. Pre drilling is recommended to avoid splitting the frame 
Sit down next to me.
I wish I’d been a bit more ambitious with the design as I had nearly a whole week to spare when I’d finished the chair and cabinet. Never mind, it was a very enjoyable experience and certainly won’t be the last chair I make.
Baylis Handmade 