6' Windsor Bench

This is my latest Waltham bench. It is 6 feet long and has a back with a custom height of about 42". My standard chair back heights are about 37".  I rough out my bench seats by machine but there is still a lot of hand work to get the shape right.  The hand plane does most of that work. Here is a nice shot of that work.  The bench is painted with a light gray milk paint as specified by the customer.

The weather has been pretty great here. We had 50's today and I managed to get out for a bike ride.  My goal this year is to make the time for more biking.  We'll see how it goes.
Happy Spring.
Tim

Why cross the road when you can drive?

Why did the chicken ride in the car?    So, it would not have to cross the road.

Yes, that is me with a chicken that we had seen hanging out by the side of the road for the past few days.  It is amazing that it made it on its own for as long as it did.  There are plenty of predators out there that missed out on a nice chicken dinner.  We are not ready for chicken parenthood but luckily some of our nearby friends already have  a bunch of chickens and they decided to adopt it.  So, while Leslie, the adoptive parent to be, lured the red clucker with popcorn, I managed to snag the little pecker from behind.  She (the chicken) was actually very calm.  Probably calmer than I , as this was my first chicken snagging in the wild.  My training at Shelburne Farms petting farm had finally paid off. Years before,  I had chaperoned a preschool trip there when my son was 3 years old.  Anyway, Henny Penny sat on my lap for the 3 mile trip to her new home.  She got her wings loose once but I managed to wrestle her back into control.  Her 2 pounds proved hugely inadequate for my... many, many pounds and she was no match for a waddle hold and a foul nelson.  Upon arriving at the home of her new adoptive parents,  we were rewarded with a dozen eggs from their chickens.  Henny Penny will now have a nice safe chicken house and a large yard to free-range in.
You know you are a Vermonter when ......  you take your chicken for rides in the car.

Time to get back to work.

Windsor Rocking Chair

I really love these chairs.  It is nice to still be very happy with a design after a few years of seeing it.  With some designs, I will tweak them for years but this one seems to work for me as is.  Here I am trimming off the through wedged tenons with a Japanese Ryoba saw.  The only hand saws that I use are the Japanese Ryoba and Dozuki.  European saws just seem to take away too much wood.
See more about the Cod Rib Rocker here. TimothyClark.com    As I just checked the Cod Rib Rocker page on my website, I did notice that I have changed the grain direction of the seat on the new chairs. It now runs from front to back instead of side to side.

Windsor Benches: working with what you have

Right now, I have four custom Windsor benches  underway. Pictured above is one of the bench blanks having one of its legs holes drilled.  In the past, I have used small hand held drill angle jigs to drill holes in bench seats but nothing beats the mechanical advantage of a drill press to drill a large hole with ease.  The chain fall is the real star here can be easily adjusted up or down with one hand so that I can get the angle just right before drilling the hole. This way, there is no straining on my part to hold the seat blank up.  Also, the chain fall is mounted on a trolly so that it can roll along the steel beam that runs the length of my shop.   This tool can lift about a ton so it is grossly over qualified for this job but it works well and saves my back and arms from a lot of stress and strain.
This blank is for a 6' Waltham Bench.  Also under construction now are two 3' Waltham benches and a Cod Rib side armless bench at 4 1/2 feet.  These benches are not on my website yet but you can see my other benches here. TimothyClark.com
Thanks
Tim

Merry Christmas from Vermont

Snow is finally here and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...  We have a great place down the road where we have been going to cut our Christmas tree each year.  The spot is beautiful with horses, hot chocolate, and very nice people.  We always seem to run into friends there which adds to the fun. Melinda, the owner of the place, was nice enough to let our son Ben take a ride on the old black horse and Claire enjoyed being close to but not too close to Ted, the huge draft horse.

I did manage to get some work done also. I am finishing up a 5' Waltham Bench for the Park Hyatt in Washington, D.C..  It will be placed at the entrance to their spa area.   I am buffing out the milk paint before it gets a coat of danish oil.  There is a lot of buffing involved in the milk paint finish.

Happy Holidays,
Tim

Swivel/Tilt Windsor Desk Chair

I recently finished up another desk chair using my Waltham Arm Chair. These are really great desk chairs. I have always liked using a Windsor chair as a desk chair because I have never liked the institutional look of most swivel desk chairs. I do like their functionality though. This really is a great solution. They are very comfortable and they do look great. The Waltham chair has just a bit more back support as it has one more spindle and they are spaced just a bit closer together. The second photo is a retake of the Cod Rib Arm desk chair that I made a short while ago. Find both of these chairs here on my website.

Thanks,

Tim

Finished Kitchen/Work Stool

Here are a couple images of the finished high work stool. The extra round off of the top sides makes this a comfortable stool to straddle with a foot on the floor. You can also sit right up on top of it with your feet on the longer stretcher. The through tenons of the stretcher-to-leg joint makes for a very strong joint and is an interesting detail. Let me know if you like these legs or if you'd like to see something different. This stool will cost $450. Click to see it on my website.

That's all for now.

Tim