Designing the Birdcage

and Chris' Hat Trick

*There is a spot that recently came open in the upcoming Continuous Armchair class, check this out for more details.*

I’ve been working on revamping my Birdcage sidechair for a set I’m building and thought I’d share some of the progress. To bring the travisher sharpening full circle, I’ll start with a video of carving out the seat bowl of the prototype. I like using adzes and inshaves, but I am still not in love with what’s available on the market. There are lots of well made ones, but I am super picky about tool geometry (in case you didn’t notice) and I don’t love telling people to spend money on tools I wouldn’t buy.

So without adzes or inshaves to recommend, I’ve been using the travisher for all my carving, even the heavy work. Here is a video of carving the bowl and front of the seat, it just takes 6 minutes. The video shows the action sped up, then in real time, and then a few strokes in slow motion. The slow motion clearly shows the subtle move at the end of each cut where I lift the blade out of the cut. It’s too fast to see in the other speeds.

You’ll also notice I go across the grain almost exclusively. This is the easiest and fastest way to get the material out without risk of tearing out. The sound is just a tiny bit off timing with the video so it might seem like the tool is cutting on the pull stroke, it isn’t, every cut is a push. And yes, I hum nonsense while I work…

The rest of the chair is coming together nicely, here is a shot of a mock up of the legs, seat and back.

I bent the spindles and then set out to bend the crest so I could start the final assembly. I’m three broken crests in and am starting to think the kiln dried hard maple won’t make the curve, not without soaking it. But I don’t want to do that because of the large ends I need for the later carving. I’m going to try it in ash tomorrow.

The crest you see below is from a different chair, but you can see how large the ends are. If I soak them, it would be weeks before I could trust them not to check up.

The v notch detail in the turnings has little “nodes” on either side, giving a slightly more organic feel. These are fun to do and will look great under the black paint.

The felt I line my bending forms with makes a cool imprint of the detail and doesn’t flatten or distort it at all. You can order the 1/2” hard felt here.

I love woodworking, but I must say, I think writing is the coolest craft. It’s crazy to have a window into the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, Oscar Wilde…and yes, Chris Schwarz. No, I’m not here to glaze Chris, but he keeps doing this thing where he takes observations, thoughts, even feelings that I’ve been unable to process, let alone put into words, and write them out so my addled, pattern seeking brain feels a deep sense of relief. I am pretty sure the venn diagram of our readers is a small circle (mine) inside of a large one, but I am going to point you towards these posts anyway.

First is this one,

I Love to Hate Your Work

It’s an honest view into the experience of viewing other peoples work. He’s so right in giving deep thought to the works that rattle his cage. There is so much you can learn from this state of being, it doesn’t mean the work becomes “good”, it’s just a valuable lens through which you can discover the rules you play by and the why some things give you the “ick”.

Then there is this one about the different paths you might take on your furniture making journey. In recent years, I’ve become more shy about advising anyone in this endeavor. First, each persons ability, experience, luck, work ethic, ethics, personality etc…are just too different to try offer a framework. Second, I don’t ever want to lure anyone into some sense that they should be able to succeed or they are a failure. That’s not at all true.

But Chris does a good job distilling a couple of paths. I recall Curtis Buchanan saying his goal was to make chairs in his back yard and he measured every career choice in that light, long after his back yard dreams were secure. It’s a great metric I think about all the time. I have some different ambitions, but that thought tempers me.

This post gave me a great sense of clarity, but I can’t stop thinking about the flavor of deodorant I’d prefer.

Earlywood: Success Isn’t at the Bookstore or the Museum

Finally, this one on commissions is spot on. Sometimes I love having someone in mind when I’m working but it can also feel invasive. I know I sound like a hothouse flower saying that, but I’ve made lots of sacrifices to work the way I do, so jealously guarding the experience seems reasonable.

Why I Hate Commission Work

Wish me luck with the ash crest, I should have this chair together soon if all goes well.