Rex, in my estimation this is hands down one of your BEST videos. You really make the chair come to life with your incisive detective work. And now I can’t wait until you build your interpretation of the chair! Just great, great work, my friend.
Rare as heck seeing a guy so skilled and so passionate about his trade willing to share all this knowledge. It takes a while but RU-vid recommendations sometimes bring forth gold.
I knew a fellow who made Windsor chairs. He dried out the ends of the rungs by sticking them in warm/hot sand. Then as you said Rex, when they normalized to usual humidity, they locked in.
This video is the perfect example of why i subscribe to Rex’s channel. You want a real deep dive into wood working? Ok. Rex will take a discarded chair made from green wood and break down many of the choices the craftspersom made to make the chair and why they did it. MASTERCLASS.
In addition to the exercise of building your own version of this lovely chair, I was wondering if you were planning on refurbishing this one and giving it another few decades of life. Your neighbor might be surprised to see her old chair with a nice new seat and cleaned up with a layer of oil to preserve the lovely wood patina.
That's a lot of oxidation. I don't do this kind of stuff so I don't know what it would look like after being cleaned and degreased and hit with some BLO. Not sure where the line between patina and weatherbeaten is. :) Obviously subjective. The sentimental value would make it worth considering even if it wouldn't add collector value.
Great video!!! FYI, ladderbacks were often used as “walkers” by toddlers learning to walk. They would lay the chairs down on its back then would stand between the legs for support. Many older ladderbacks will clearly prove they were used for this purpose because they have flat areas on the back of the posts. This occurred after generations of kids learned to walk using the chairs for support.
Rush seat material is still available. That is an art in itself. Wedged tenons in blind mortises are also used. Wedge has to be just right of course. It is also a good repair technique. Some of your best most informative work.
Rex, I love your videos. I especially love the videos where you break down the history of the piece based on the evidence the Craftsman left behind. It is simply amazing and gives me a greater appreciation for our craft.
I like the fact that the maker used marking lines as an actual feature. It really does make the piece more interesting and organic, more 'human' than we ever see in modern furniture. Very, very nicely done. Also saves time getting rid of marking lines...! 😐
I was pleased to see this video. I recently got a small ladder back chair like this that has been in the family for ages. It was covered in multiple coats of paint and had a hickory bark seat that was in bad shape. After stripping the old house paint and what appears to have been red and green milk paint I uncovered a chair like yours. It is short, only 33 1/2 “ tall with a 16” seat height. It also has layout lines scored in the turnings like you described. It is a very sturdy little chair. It came to Michigan from eastern Ontario, but I was told by my mother that it was originally from Ohio or Kentucky.
Great job, furniture detective. The green woodworking is really clever. The closest I got was fixing a dry handle on green wood mallet head and that was just on a whim. I use the mallet for a few months now, pounding on holdfasts and what not, it didnt move yet and judging from the chair, it probably wont move any time soon :) Cant wait for your recreation video
Hi that's real impressive. Our ancestors had a lot of knowledge of using different grades of wood, and how to combine them, to get sturdy furniture or anything else. Thanks for bringing this topic up
That's a very nice project for the autumn. I'm sure it's going to be super useful to get even more familiar with wood shrinkage, movement, fiber structure and more. I'd like to try it myself one day.
Yet another fantastic video with clear explanations. I've been reading the latest "Make a Chair From a Tree" and I think this video is a great way to show some of the why it works. I'm looking forward to your chair.
Also holy crap I love that joint and you taking us in these journeys! The sides sliced off the round tenon what really got me. Grain orientation is an alchemy of it's own!
I would like to see you do a whole video on how the wood shrinks and swells, I know others do this, but you have a talent for explaining things esp the part about how it swells crossgrain in one direction but not the other, that seems to defy nature
I couple of decades ago our family lived in Rocky River and Westlake, Ohio. On my way to the bus stop I’d find old and very ole chairs out on someone’s tree lawn or at garage sales. I still have many of them in our Utah home. A daughter counted some 50 chairs in our home at one time. Now I understand a few of them better. My thanks to Dr. Kruger, the chair archeologist. Fascinating.
I wonder, in a couple of decades, if Rex's grandson will make a video on an IKEA chair he found in his neighbour's garden 😄 Really interesting stuff, Rex!👍
This is a most excellent segment. Maybe your best. It is an excellent breakdown of of this chair to incredible detail. As a spindle turner who has made a number of modern variations, you nailed. it. Can't wait for the K-chair!
BTW - consider Shaker tape for the seat. I have done both. You could use it on a refurb of this chair too, but I'd be inclined to do fibre rush as a more historical restoration.
There was little information in this new to me; I watch because i like to see Rex discovering these things. It reminds me when it was new to me. The tone of amazement and the joy of discovery are worth my time.
Thats neat, I never thought a chair could look so ghostly lol. I guess it being so masterfully constructed is one of the reasons it was able to weather the effects of decomposition and get to that ghostly state so well
Thanks for another awesome video. This will really changes the way I look at the furniture I make. Keeping that balance between durability and beauty is so important.
I can well believe that there is no glue. I was doing a project where I needed to dowel the joints but the dowels needed to be twice the length of the premade dowels. Thought buy rod from the the big store and cut to length. The 10mm Tasmanian Ash didn't fit really well so after I ran the callipers over it and it was 9.67. I cut a length longer than needed, drilled a 9.5 hole chucked the dowel into a drill and drilled the dowel into the joint. The speed and friction forced the dowel in far enough to finish off with some energetic pounding. No glue but rock solid with 1.67 mm. Years later tried to disassemble couldn't even shift it with a sledge hammer had to cut the joint off.
As you were describing the chair, I was looking over at my ladder back rocking chair, noting a lot of similarities. The chair naturally reclines a bit, the angle between the seat and the back is a little over 90 degrees, the rungs have tenon in the legs. My chair is 40 years old and was made by one craftsman in a workshop. The joints are secured with finishing nails. The seat is made from slats. Looking at the grain, it appears that the back slats were resawn from one board and all of the seats slats were resawn from one board.
I found your channel through furniture forensics on that dropleaf table a year or so ago, and I am so happy to see furniture forensics again here! I love hearing the stories of these vintage and antique pieces, and your explanations of the factors behind the features.
I was holding my breath when you sat on that thing! Agree with others, this was one of the best vids I've watched and learned a lot from it. I know it's only one of the "types" of videos you produce, as it should be. I don't think they should all be furniture forensics, but as noted, we can all learn a lot from the past. Well done Rex.
Rex, that was a fascinating analysis of what went into a seemingly simple construction. Brilliant. Are you considering restoring this frame? It deserves to brought back to its original glory.
I must admit I didn't watch this all week because I thought the subject would boring and irrelevant to my woodworking. Well, I was oh so very wrong. Your forensic breakdown taught me so many different tremendously relevant techniques and things I will take into consideration when woodworking from here on out.
Rex, Really great video!!! I learned a lot from this video and I want you to thank you so much for taking the time to truly delve into a piece of "junk" furniture and truly exposing what great piece of furniture it is and what makes it features such a great example of joinery!!! Thanks again Rex!!!
I really enjoy and appreciate these types of videos. The detective work, the explanations on how and why things were made the way they were and all the historical context are extremely interesting to me. Thank you so much and take care!!
50 years ago was 1971, IKEA started selling their own furniture in 1955. I would guess that this chair is much older than that. Did the traveling green woodworking trade still exist then? I would not be surprised if this chair was dated to sometime during the late 1800.
I still have 6 similar chairs my grandfather made before the 40s when he died.. up until the early 70s we had a few big rocking chairs made in the same basic design.... gives me an idea for a project now..
I really really enjoy this series, and I'm not the only one to! My girlfriend doesn't do any woodworking and isn't particularly interested in it, but she saw that video on my RU-vid feed and started watching it! We ended up watching it together and had a great time!
From a chair in a ditch. When is was new it was made to be cheap, and somewhat rushed. See the cracks a shem or two. The crafts person knew exactly what they were doing. There is a venerated artist. I think it was Rembrandt. The reason his works were so collectable was he is very prolific. He sold his sketches fairly cheap compared to what they are valued now. They appreciated in value because a lot of people could buy in and the mastery of his craft was apparent. It is amazing what we value in our society, and what we don't.
When times were hard I used to re-seat chairs like this with new rush bottoms, just like this one had. I’m in UK, so I can’t reseat this one for you, but perhaps someone over there could do it? As you have made clear, that chair has a lot of life in it yet. Rex, your videos are admirable, particularly this furniture forensics series. I look forward to the next, and to your chair build.
My GGgrandfather, and later Ggrandfather were chair makers in Wheeling WV(then Virginia) from 1820's-1860's. Fort Wheeling at the time was a major stop for those heading west, so there was a huge demand for furniture that people could strap on their wagons for the trip. What I wouldn't give to be able to own one of their chairs, or at least touch one! Great video!
I got an old rocking chair I've been tasked to repair by my wife. Didn't think it would hold anyone just looking at it, but it's now my favorite chair in the shop despite the needed repairs.
I just worked on a similar ladder back chair. The rush was in very good condition as it was redone recently, which made things difficult. I had to fix most of the joints, which were completely broken, with more modern techniques so the chair won't be quite a sturdy but it will be functional. Looking forward to your build. Side note: Alec Steel did a greenwood project with his father not too long ago, very entertaining and informative.
Fantastic walk through the craftsmanship of this chair. You should check out the videos of Alec Steele making a similar chair with his father. the east coast seems to have a number of variations on the same system of chair construction. Really interesting.
Wow man I know this is an old one but that end speech was awesome! I can't agree more on every point. The only power tools I still use are my table saw for long rips and my skilsaw for big processing and I couldn't be happier.
Not a huge hand tool worker. Love my lathe, but your videos are an absolute joy to watch. Keep up the fantastic work! You almost make me miss Ohio. I went to Youngstown state.
I really like the idea of combining the dry oak with the green soft maple to create a joint that locks in place and shaving the tenon so that all the forces on the mortises are compressive to avoid splitting. Seems like you could adapt these techniques to fine furniture as well. No reason everything has to be a spindle even though it makes complete sense for someone churning out a product made by hand quickly using wood pieces which are split off instead of being milled to dimension.
Our dining room table and chairs is a set of lots of these chairs and a harvest table that my Grandfather made. (He lived in NE Connecticut). The seats of our chairs are made with some sort of twisted paper it looks like. I'm a big boy, over 300, and these chairs hold my weight. I have memories of this table and chair set in my Grandparent's house in the early 1980's when I was very young. I do not k ow how much further they go back. But I will say that no other piece of furniture I've ever owned lasted more than 5 years, especially with my 3 boys... and these chairs are still strong.
I once had the chance to help tear down a 150 year old post and beam barn.. all the joints were mortise and tennoned and thru-pegged. They were STUNNINGINLY tight. At first thought we could punch the pegs out so we could maybe reassemble potions of it. ...That idea ended when after 2 hours of hammering on a peg with a brass drift pin and it hardly moved at all. Some of the guys were ready to throw the idea that we'd never get it apart and were willing to just start cutting things apart. I suggested we use an auger and bore the peg out with a slightly oversized bit.. we'd have to replace the pin, but that is a lot easier and less work than reworking major timbers... Even after boring the pins out completely, the timbers STILL didn't want to come apart easily, requiring a lot of levering and even a porta-power spreader to get to finally come apart. But we were able to deconstruct the bldg and it now stands in a new location, though with new pegs my friends grandfather later told us, the pegs like that were routinely cut from green wood (often hickory or ash) cut oversized and hard driven into place and cut flush. done that way, they kind of "bond" to the other wood in a way that it's nearly impossible to get them out. it must be bored out, the way we'd done
The passion for your craft really shines in a video like this one. The study, thought, and depth of woodworking lore is impressive. I don't find that elsewhere, sure like seeing it here. 👏👏👏👏
Amazing! The simple genious of Our Forfathers. Thank you for helping us see the hidden mechanics that must have been passed down through the generations of family craftsman. I hope these simple craftsman somehow knew how special they were or how people would one day marvel at the knowlege and skill they possesed in their daily labors. Just knowing which way wood shrinks in a round peg boggles my mind.
Hello Rex, this is a very good examination of the chair, many thanks. Here in UK, a chair like this would have had a rush seat. Rush is itself a contribution to comfort as it retains a little flexibility, and often the cavities that the weaving process creates were stuffed with bundles of bits of rush to plump up the seat. A rush bottom wears out before the woodwork, and a chair would be reseated probably several times in the lifetime of the frame. Of course, if rushes or the skill to use them were not to hand, other materials would be used. Spun sea grass made the job easy, sometimes a piece of wood nailed on if nothing else was available. At one time I made a (poor) living re-rushing chairs and saw all sorts of improvised mends. All this just to say, don’t pass the opportunity to give your version of this chair a proper rush bottom, and treat the old chair to a new one too, perhaps. This series of expositions is a real treat, you do these detailed examinations very well. Keep it up and best wishes.
This scientific analysis is just outstanding. You are approaching Roy's level of understanding and explaining findings. I feel great comfort and hope now for the woodworking future!
Looking forward to seeing the recreation of this, especially after you dug into the secrets of construction. It's quite an impressive piece of furniture once you delve into it, even more so when you realise how much neglect it has simply shrugged off.
i have been fascinated lately by the green wood making of ladderback chairs by jennie alexander and her make a chair from a tree book, and peter galbert and his windsor chairs. that old chair will likely outlive us if properly cared for. i think deserves to have a new rush seat installed and there are bunches of channels that show us how to do it. the one i like is by ed hammond.
Rex I found your channel only a few weeks ago and watched almost every video. I must say you're an awesome creator doing really cool stuff thanks for being so entertaining. I even picked up a t-shirt.
This was unbelievably interesting. I wanted to make a couple of primitive style chairs. After watching this I think I'll just find some second hand ones. I don't have the patience after listening to what's evolved. I will watch you make your one, thank you....I really should be in my workshop making cupboards.
So this chair is awesome, I think I want to try and build a tiny version of this for my daughter, been awhile since I made something. I need to get back on Patreon but idk I’m broke as broke right now
Holy. Moly. That was, by far, your best video ever. Really great attention to details, able to explain almost all decisions that went into making that chair logically and still be entertaining and not sounding like a dry-cut history lesson in college/high school. I really enjoyed watching this. I think you are onto something here. Maybe you should do more "Furniture Forensics" style videos in the future. I mean, they totally fit your style and your channel. It just makes sense. Do more of those. I bet you can find more old and used furniture along the road that people want to get rid off/throw away. Just stay away, or maybe just make one general video, about IKEA furniture forensics. I don't think IKEA stuff needs more than that. The interesting stuff is, as you showed in this video, the stuff that old furniture makers made when there was no IKEA or big box store.
I was first really surprised that this video had down votes. I guess it’s just human nature. I’m not interested in making a chair, and wasn’t expecting to enjoy this video. Boy was I wrong, you sir are an excellent educator. Those lathe markings for the joints is ingenious, and I can’t wait to find a project to use that on. Looking forward to future videos in this series.
Love it, love it, love it. Can't wait to get going on the chair! I will watch your deep dive on this chair again and again. I still need to understand joint shrinkage and the relationship to the stretchers.
Well done Rex. I'm excited to see your work making this chair. Your videos are always a pleasure to watch. I've learned a lot already in the last few weeks since I found your channel. Thanks for the awesome videos!
