More Flat Spindles

“This doesn’t have to be hard”

That’s what I tell myself when I start doing just about anything. But the deeper I get, nuance always creeps. In the end, my goal is to have clarity in my results and thinking, but usually, that is the result of a deeper understanding gained through trial and error, research and effort.

Sure, I’ve nailed a few things right off the bat (my Temple Chair popped out nearly fully formed), but working with wide, curved spindles has been more of a long spiral than a straight line. They offer much more surface area contact, but that isn’t always desirable and the extra mass could end up too stiff. With more contact, there comes the trouble of needing curves that would fit most bodies comfortably. With round spindles, there is so much flex and so little actual contact area that they act like a hammock, bending where there is more pressure until they conform to the sitter. With flat spindles, the shape matters much more. Bending the spindles creates stiffness, which can be directed to the areas where it is most welcome, or it can end up in undesirable areas and be a problem.

In this post, I’m going to show some of the considerations that go into how I make the spindles for my rocking chair. This in not a panacea. You can’t just match this and expect it to work for every chair. But maybe with a clearer view of the issues and solutions I found in this instance, you can better know the issues you might face in working with flat spindles and some of the variables you can tweak. The comment I get most from my rocking chair is “You made this just for me, it fits just right”. I get this from 6’2” men and 5’2” women. I’m not bragging, I feel kinda dumb that it took me 15 years to get it right, but maybe I can help you get there quicker.

Here is the last part of the planing and bending process. After shaving the spindles to 3/4” or so, I send them through my planer. I know sending wet, tannin rich wood through a machine isn’t good practice, but I think the results are worth it. If it truly bothers you, let the spindles sit overnight between each journey through the tool and the surface will be relatively dry and less caustic. Waxing the bed of the planer is essential as the moisture in the wood makes it “grabby”.

I’m careful to flip the spindle face being planed to make sure each side gets fully shaved. Because the spindles aren’t flat, I am sure to lift the end high as I feed them it into the planer and then lift it as it exits, this helps prevent snipe.

A nasty bit of snipe

Snipe happens when the part is only held by one of the roller bars and can shift up into the cutters. By holding the back up, it’s greatly reduced or eliminated. Below is the way I feed the spindles in to prevent snipe.

Of course, you can skip the planer and carefully shave all the spindles to thickness, but I do like the uniformity of the surface and thickness it provides. Here is a set of spindles after planing.

And here is how they sit in the form after steaming for 45 minutes.

After clamping them in place, I pound the exposed edges of the spindles with a dead blow mallet until they align with the face of the form to take out any sideways curve.

As you can see, there is one lonely spindle in the top slot. That is the center spindle and has much less of a bend than the others. They get incrementally more curved as they radiate out towards the sides. Here is the centers spindle next to one of the outermost spindles so you can see the difference in the bends.

The outer spindle is on the left. When I first started bending spindles, I bent all the spindles the same. I found this works better for side or armchairs than rockers. With rockers, the reclined position has to provide a different kind of support. Our bodies have different radii at from the hips to the shoulders. Some of that can be accounted for by the variation of the radius at the back of the seat (nearer the hips) and that of the crest (nearer the shoulders).