The Stick Chair Book

By Christopher Schwarz

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Most woodworkers think it would be easier to grow a third arm than to build a chair.

From the outside, it seems like you need to harvest special wood from the forest, buy a bunch of exotic tools, master a lot of crazy angles, and learn high-tolerance joinery to make a chair that is comfortable, strong and approaches sculpture.

The truth is that everyday woodworkers – farmers, amateurs, and people in other trades – made wonderful chairs using a handful of common woodworking tools and whatever wood was available: dry, wet, soft, hard or the branches pulled from a tree.

“The Stick Chair Book” explores the craft of these “hedge carpenters” or dabblers who built chairs for the everyday home. The chairs they made weren’t designed to impress the neighbors – they were designed to be comfortable, stout, and (if you have a good eye) nice to look at.

After 18 years of building vernacular stick chairs and studying historical examples in the U.K., Europe and North America, author Christopher Schwarz has figured out how anyone can design and build these chairs without a lot of gear.

Here are the things you don’t need to build a stick chair: a shave horse, drawknife, steam box, greenwood, axe, or even a passing knowledge of geometry.

Instead, most of the work is done with saws (a band saw speeds things up), a drill or brace, a jack plane, and maybe a couple of specialty tools if you want to saddle the chair’s seat. You can use any kind of wood, even stuff from the home center.

“The Stick Chair Book” is divided into three sections. The first section, “Thinking About Chairs,” introduces you to the world of common stick chairs, plus the tools and wood to build them.

The second section – “Chairmaking Techniques” – covers every process involved in making a chair, from cutting stout legs, to making curved arms with straight wood, to carving the seat. Plus, you’ll get a taste for the wide variety of shapes you can use. The chapter on seats shows you how to layout 14 different seat shapes. The chapter on legs has 16 common forms that can be made with only a couple hand planes. Add those to the 11 different arm shapes, six arm-joinery options, 14 shapes for hands, seven stretcher shapes, and 11 combs, and you could make stick chairs your entire life without ever making the same one twice.

The final section offers detailed plans for five stick chairs, from a basic Irish armchair to a dramatic Scottish comb-back. These five chair designs are a great jumping-off point for making stick chairs of your own design.

Additional chapters in the book cover chair comfort, finishing, sharpening the tools, and answering the most common questions asked by new chairmakers.

“The Stick Chair Book” is 632 pages and printed on a brilliant white 70# uncoated paper. The pages are sewn, glued, and taped for durability. And the whole thing is wrapped with 98-point boards that are covered in cotton cloth. Like all Lost Art Press books, it is produced and printed in the United States.