The Greene & Greene team did amazing work with everything they touched. This chair is an example of their craftsmanship on a small scale. I've read about them some years back and found them to be awe inspiring. Their projects were way above the heads of the average man. I believe they worked on projects for, you might say, over the top wealthy people. My hat goes off the the man/ school you mention that went through the trouble to calculate all the templates for this chair. I want to say that is a beautiful chair indeed...even without the cushion...!!
Way to go ! Nice Chair . Greene Bro.s really had quite a place and eye for woodwork . Some of my early woodworking days put me in touch with their work thru Heartwoodworks in Kohala . ['Hap' Tallman's shop] Now on the disabled list , I have returned to my forebearer's ways . A 'un-plugged world of greatgrandad's of both sides of the family . All I have left of them is some of the tools I've inherited . Image , their work place , their quiet , dust-free work place . Well , I have now the time to rethink my work and safely produce . As I re-hab myself back and hopefully off the 'disabled 'list , your video of this chair gives me more reson to keep pushing myself . Mahalo Mark Baker
Dear Marc, this internet thing made a very small world for us all.. I am happily watching your work from here, Istanbul... I think you are one of the best quality masters, the way you tell about the work, the way you handle it. Thank you very much.
William Ng is a master woodworker and fantastic teacher with a great channel on RU-vid. Your chair turned out marvelous and I love the Greene & Greene style.
This build is probably one of my favorites and one of the best videos covering the Blacker House Chair. Well done Marc. My bucket list project is to simply make one of Greene & Greene's sconce. Thanks for sharing.
It was an acquired taste for me. I always respected the workmanship and design though I didn't initially like it. But now, I'm a big fan. I have several pieces in my own home as a result. So I can understand why some folks don't particularly like it, but I don't think there are many woodworkers out there that don't at least respect it.
The Wood Whisperer Forgive me for going on but...I travel for a living and had occasion to stay in a Seattle Hotel called The Arctic Club. It's a dramatic example of turn of the century architecture and true to it's "gold-rush" roots although it was financed by the pottery trade. It was the jumping off point for the Cook Arctic expedition. The Hotel Mascot is a walrus. Amazingly it's 'just' a Double Tree. The workmanship throughout the place is indescribable. The polar bar was so impressive that I could barely order my martini and embarrassed myself with a bartender who is, apparently, royalty at the hotel and internationally known for his mix-ologist publications. I spent the first 20 minutes walking around in awe and finally stopped dead in my tracks before a simple table in a passage way that was in the Greene and Greene style. I don't have the chops to say that it was original or a replicate/reproduction but, the point is, it just looked all the more amazing in this setting so, I'm thinking, the style is best appreciated "where it belongs" so to speak. I think it's called a 'hall bench' which is odd because, you couldn't sit on it and was obviously not meant for sitting. It had a branch inlay on the top and fixed "leaves/wings" with the classic Greene and Greene joinery. I eventually found more objects peppered around that had similar examples of that type of joinery. All smallish and 'incidental'. Most of the big stuff was plush upholstery. I checked some relevant galleries on the internet and haven't seen any examples so I doubt any of it was authentic but, it was still awesome. I examined/stared at the hall bench long enough that the staff made the move to ask me if I was Ok and didn't need "help". I do need 'help' but, that's a different RU-vid channel. Enjoy but, this doesn't do it justice..... www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&espv=210&es_sm=93&biw=1147&bih=706&tbm=isch&oq=the+arctic+club+seattle+&gs_l=img.3..0j0i24l4.1767754.1767754.0.1768374.1.1.0.0.0.0.102.102.0j1.1.0....0...1c.1.36.img..0.1.101.VmpOVzyG3co&q=the%20arctic%20club%20seattle
Marc, that chair and the process is truly a woodworkers dream. I know you would love to give your wife a full set of those. I have looked at thousand of pictures of Mission style chairs and never found one that was unique. A couple of years back I came across a Woodworkers Journal of Craftsman Furniture Projects at Books-A-Million. I have built the red oak chairs using their plans, modified to suit me abilities. I think they are nice. Your G&G BHC is just in another league. Congratulations, you have arrived.
Beautiful chair marc ! I have done alot of reversed engineering with most of my woodworking and its a great challenge and very time consuming process. This is my favorite area of mind creativity. I love working with fine detailed inlay work. Keep up the good work!
Mark, you're the best in your detail and presentations. I'm so envious of your Arizona weather than you can spray outside this time of the year, its still frigid here in the Adirondacks and then when it finally does warm up in June black fly season takes over making for an interesting finish.
We can have some serious dust and wind around here, but most times of the year we're pretty darn lucky in regards to finishing. I don't envy the flies and snow!
Nice video. A few years back I took a Windsor Chair making class from Mike Dunbar. Learned a tremendous amount of hand tool use from the class; steam bending, specialized planes, fingernail drill bits. It was definitely worth the money, and I ended up with a great chair!
Looks great. My wife has been after me to build a kitchen table and 6 matching chairs. I am still unsure of my abilities to tackle such a project, but I am starting to think that with the proper planning and careful execution I will be able to accomplish this task. Thank you for the inspiration.
Hi Marc. Great Video. I took your class building the Green and Green inspired mirror frame there at Willian Ng's school. That Blacker chair is something else. Well done.
Heard you mention the Blacker house chair several times on past wood talk episodes, sooooo this is it huh ? Impressive! Very nice work Marc, I’m also a huge William Ng fan he’s an extraordinary woodworker and has a great sense of humor .
Hi Marc, I took your Greene and Greene mirror class at Williams school. There was a fellow student there that had built 6 of these chairs! That impressed me greatly. Excellent video BTW.
I really enjoy your you tube show, Ive been watching for years. Im not sure why its taken so long to become a guild member but Im very much looking forward to joining. Thanks for all you do.
Great job! I did a similar class for a Greene & Greene style server. I also build the Robinson table from the plans in Woodworker's Journal several years ago. Sadly I need to sell that dining room table now since my wife wants me to make her a Farmhouse table. You don't know anyone in the market for one do you?
Marc, I wish I had your talent, the chair is beautiful, I am a fairly new wood worker with very limited tools, I hope to some day have the talent to do some of the work that you do great job. Thanks for all of the great videos. Mike
Hey Marc, looks like you have the Green and Green fever. Just got my latest issue of Popular Woodworking . Got a look at the Blanket Chest. Just like this chiar ----- awesome job! Love your videos,keep up the gret work!
Is it so difficult to build this beautiful chair as my first project? Just kidding. I am watching you guys videos on iTunes and saw the beautiful house fully furnished with black square joint something (I don't know what it calls) as well. Just amazing!
I like the chair, although I think it has way too many plugs... When I look at your chair, the back seems racked to the left as I look at it. Is this an optical illusion?
Impressive piece of work. One thing that has always bothered me about the Greene & Green style is the ebony details. Clearly on your chair and most of the other modern reproductions I've seen of these pieces the plugs are just decorative. But I was surprised to see that the splines are actually functional in your chair. In the original pieces, are the plugs (and other ebony details) purely aesthetic like they mostly are on the modern pieces? Or are they actually functional (i.e. used for locking the tenons, etc)?
The vast majority were decorative. Darrell Peart showed some x-ray images of G&G details that reveal most splines were just there for decoration and rarely provided any real support. For the most part, it was all about aesthetics.
The Wood Whisperer That is what I thought, and why I was pleasantly surprised to see actual functional splines in this chair. Their lack of functionality does bother me just a bit (my engineering mind keeps telling me "form follows function"), but I guess there isn't any need to further increase the difficulty and work required for an already complex piece like this by adding functional pegs all over the place.
How did you put those small tapered sections into the leggs? I have been trying to do this myself but chissels and determination have only rewarded be with frustration . . .
Those were done on the multi-router. I have done them in the past with a standard router and a jig that sits over the legs. WIth a stop collar and a straight bit, the whole thing becomes pretty straightforward and all that's left to do is a little sanding.
The Wood Whisperer Quick photoshop sim: Black dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10423991/CushionBlack.jpg Burg:dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10423991/CushionBurg.jpg
Agreed, I miss New Yankee and especially the show that used to be on DIY network with David Marks "Woodworks". I think Marc here is a great deal more engaging and fun to watch it would be great if they put him on a network like DIY or PBS etc.
The Wood Whisperer Guild is much better than a 30 min segment on building a project...like DIY or PBS. I'll take Marc's Guild with 4 projects per year and great content. Nice job on the chair Marc!
As long as I can see the piece ... Reverse engineering has never been a problem . Even from a photo . But true ...when you are dealing with HIGH RISK ventures like this project here ...best to take advice from someone who absolutely knows what they are doing . Better yet is to learn from the master .
+The Wood Whisperer Legend has it that the mahogany used by the Peter Hall shop (the artisans retained by the Greene brothers) was Cuban mahogany, Swietenia mahagoni. Honduran mahogany, Swietenia macrophylla, is readily available, although at high prices. Last time I went shopping, Honduran mahogany was still much less than teak. See Mahogany under Wikipedia.
forgive me if this is a contentious point, but why use zillions of powertools and jigs to reproduce a 120 year old chair? Surely as a craftsman, you transcend WWing for the sake of aesthetics; part of your connection to the G&G heritage is to build as they built? Otherwise you're just making a facsimile of or an homage to history, rather than a re-creation of it... ? I understand you said time was a big factor, but I'd wager the Greene's could spokeshave their stock to the right size before a modern woodworker has even cobbled their jigs together.
I honestly don't understand your logic. But the joy of woodworking is that it's a very personal experience. So when you build your projects, you're certainly free to do it however you wish and in whatever way allows you to derive meaning and purpose. For me, using power tools and jigs doesn't detract in any way from the building experience. In fact, they enhance the experience for me.
