The Push and Pull

This week I’m building the Helix chair with 6 intrepid chair makers. I dug into my pile of wood and pulled out some premium white oak I’ve been saving for the challenging bends. I love this chair. It feels like a chair that could only have happened because of all the years I spent splitting and bending wood for other chairs. Here are a few of the models I made while mulling over the design.

If you are unfamiliar, here is the chair.

This was an early version, I’ve increased the twist in the arm, flattening it out and providing more comfort. Of course, this added challenges to creating the bend, but after lots of effort, I’ve got the sequence of shaping, clamping and bending down to very predictable results. Here is a video of the bend in action.