| Greg
Kraushaar, Wentworth Falls, NSW
Lily chair
Green
(40% moisture content) silky oak (Grevillea
robusta) sourced locally from the urban
recovery of a diseased street tree.
Cotton (Shaker) tape sourced from The
Shaker Workshops, USA
Jarrah from the scraps bin.
Concept
My goal was to make a comfortable chair
that was both simple and elegant. In doing
so, I wanted to reduce the dependence
on petro-chemicals as far as possible.
The chair started out being modelled on
the Shaker chairs from the American North
East. As the concept developed, the design
was influenced by Brian Bogg’s chairs
(Kentucky USA). The final result is an
amalgam of the two sources, but adapted
to Australian timbers, and with shaved
octagonal section members, rather than
the more traditional turned members. This
chair is intended as a bedroom/reading
chair. With only slight modifications
in construction, it will make an elegant
dining chair. I minimised sanding in order
to preserve the look and feel of the both
the handwork and the timber.
Joinery
All pieces were roughly bandsawn to size.
I then steamed the back legs and slats,
and bent them in jigs. The legs, being
a large section, and a relatively severe
bend, were constrained in the jig by a
steel tension strap. The slats were simply
bent over a round former then kept in
a drying rack that held them under tension
for several days. The stretchers were
force dried to 4% over four days at about
50°C in a domestic oven. I then shaped
all pieces to their final dimension with
a drawknife and spokeshave. I turned the
ends of the stretchers to 15mm on the
lathe. Mortises for the stretchers were
drilled with a 15mm Forstner bit.
I cut the mortises for the slats by hand,
and then hand trimmed each slat to fit.
After glue up, the slats were pinned with
a square jarrah peg, which I cut to final
shape with a carving knife. Finally, I
wove the seat using Shaker tape in a traditional
herringbone pattern.
Glue
Liquid hide glue: Old Brown Glue from
Antique Finishers Inc.
Finish
Three coats bleached shellac from Shines
(NSW), rubbing back after each with 3M
Scotchbrite A-VFN. This was the only sanding
done.
I then waxed with Organoil Natural Wax
and Polish.
Photos: Greg Kraushaar
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