Greg displayed several of his Windsor style chairs at our Grand Opening in March 2008. Their elegance and simplicity were stunning. Not only that they were remarkably comfortable! (We kept forgetting to remind him to take them home).
Greg has also designed and built some amazing Windsor style bar stools so we're asking him to teach making those as well.
Making a Windsor Chair is primarily about design, technique and good wood. And should we mention virtually no power tools?
In this course you will build a hoop back side chair without the back braces.
You will make the chair primarily using hand tools. The seat is shaped out of a single piece of wood using a hollowing plane, scorp, and travisher. The spindles and bows will be shaped out of white oak rivings using a draw knife, spoke shave and scraper. You'll steam bend the back of the chair.
Hand making a Windsor chair requires many of the usual hand tools and a number of specialized hand tools. If you're serious about making chairs we encourage you to make that investment and buy or borrow the specialized tools on Greg's list.
Greg is an accomplished finish carpenter who has a passion for chairmaking. He has studied with masters of chair making on the East Coast and has been making chairs in his spare time since 1998.
Greg's Tool List
If you are considering making Windsor chairs after the course we'd recommend that you consider buying the following specialized chairmaking tools:
Class size: 10
Cost: $650 Material charge: $175*(If the actual materials charge is less we'll refund the difference.)
June 28 - July 2, 2010 Cancelled
*Greg makes special runs down to Oregon to get the materials for these classes and his work. It takes time to find good bolts of straight aired dried oak - which can be rived into blanks for the back spindles and the hoop. Greg has the leg spindles specially made at a custom turning shop.
