Sack Back progress

As soon as I got home, it started to rain. So much for working in the yard, not that that was my plan.

I went to the shop to just mess around and ended up making a little progress.

For awhile I have been wanting to make a set of winding sticks. So I made some winding sticks. I had brazilian cherry left over from the dining room table project a couple of years back. The cherry is dense and I think will make great winding sticks. I should have taken a picture.

I used them to line up the arms on the sack back.  A little tinkering and I got the arms set at about the same height.

After getting the  arm posts even, it was time to work on scraping the seat. I started to do this but the legs were not even and the chair kept rocking as I scraped. 




So I stopped and leveled the legs. It didn't take long, well that is not true, it took 18 years to get to it. 


Looking at the picture of one of the legs being cut reminded me that I bought that Japanese back saw to cut dove tails. When I was working on the blanket chest last spring, I tried using it to cut the dovetails, and there were a lot of dove tails to be cut, and it was worthless.(At least for me.) I had been admiring the Lie-Nelson dove tail saw and bought it. I must be a "western" boy because this is how a saw is supposed to work. 

 Then I continued on to the seat, scraping and sanding. Slowly it is starting to get to where I want it. The weather forecast is for rain the rest of the week. That means I will have plenty of time to scrap and sand. Yard work will have to wait.

The arm hoop got some attention last night too. I had glued blocks for the hands, sorry if that is not the right term, and planed them down. They are ready to be drilled and reamed to fit the posts. However, the posts have to be glued first and they are waiting for the seat to be sanded and.....                                                                                               

Balloon Back Chair

This is the start of one of the balloon back chairs. The plane is a #5 Stanley/Bailey. It belonged to my grandfather. It made fast work of leveling the seat.

The shop

This is the shop. When I built it, I was intent on only building windsor chairs. Funny, I have never completed a windsor chair in this shop. I built a set of cabinets for the study, a dinning table, podium and a bunch of other things, just no chairs. The shop started out as 12'x12' and grew to be 17'x 12'. That is still small but not impossible. I want to expand it again but need to justify adding on. My wife would like to see more come from this modest building than saw dust. She does have a point. I know I am not alone in this dilemma. I read other woodworking blogs. Shops are things that evolve, they are never finished, never enough room or tools.....

Beginnings

Is it me or does everyone come home from work and pass out? Okay, it's just me. Perhaps I should try one of those drugs they advertise on television.

 

Out in my wood shop I have three projects going on. Two balloon back windsor chairs and a sack back windsor. Believe it or not, the sack back was started 18 years ago.  Can I win an award as a procrastinator?

I was doing so well 18 years ago, it was the 6th or 7th windsor I had worked on and we moved to a new house. The kids were small, the house needed work, there were soccer games to attend, graduate school to survive and just a lot of interruptions along the way. 

Now the oldest is married, the other two are out of the house and I find myself with time but no energy. 

I guess this blog is a plea for encouragement to finish these projects. So there it is, a cry for help. Pathetic I know. 

Okay then, I am glad I got that off my mind. I have been told I ramble. I suppose it is a gift. If you are following this blog you may be in worse shape than me. No matter. Okay, my first task is to figure out how to post some pictures of the projects I am working on or have been. I'll be back...

I figured out how to post pictures. This is a blanket chest I built for my daughter's wedding. Somewhere I have finished pictures of it, but this one shows off the "hand cut" dovetails.