Welsh seven stick chair

For the past couple of weeks I have been building this Welsh seven stick chair all in oak. In these photo’s I’ve glued up and carved the seat, drilled the spindle location holes through the arm and into the seat and in the process of shaping the spindles by hand using my trusty jack plane. It is important to dry assemble the chair and label up each component so when it comes time for the glue-up there are no hold-ups.

The arm bow has been pieced together using continuous grain and a finger joint at each juncture, providing a strong seamless joint. The grain orientation is particularly important when shaping solid wood, as with what is called short grain (where the grain of the wood runs at 45-90 deg. to the workpiece) can cause the wood to break when stressed. By ensuring good grain direction and forming a strong reliable join, the wood becomes very strong and can withstand heavy use.

Now that the chair is assembled, it is time to take it all apart and sand all the surfaces up to 240 grit and ready for the glue-up, which I will share with you next.