Author: Mike Dunbar
Published by: Popular Woodworking Books
Published: 2013
Softcover
Black and white images
Pages: 191
‘Making a Windsor Chair is one of the purest forms of woodworking’, says the cover blurb of this fairly recently published update of Mike Dunbar’s classic text.
‘Why’, says Mike, maker of this chair genre for over 40 years, ‘would anyone devote themselves to just this one style?’. The answer is, he says, that ‘it’s a perfect construction, perfect engineering and perfect design’.
The validity of this is evidenced by their prevalence as antiques. The joints on a Windsor chair lock, the back is flexible like a ‘suspension bridge’ and anchored by the arms.
In the book Mike covers the construction of every element and details the variations of each. The photos are black and white and not the best quality but they nevertheless illustrate the process and show some of the specific tools that pertain to this traditional craft in use.
There’s a gallery that shows the possibilites, and several appendices that cover topics such as bending wood, sharpening and finishing.
In the video gives an interesting tour of his Windsor Institute.