derekcohen
New Shoots
I appear to have the dubious honour of the first hand tool post on the forum. Thanks for inviting me along, Rob.
I started building a copy of Hans Wegner's "The Chair" in January, worked for all of that month, and then my day job and life got in the way and I was not able to return to it until a few weeks ago.
Hans Wegner (April 2, 1914 - January 26, 2007) was probably the quintessential Danish furniture designer and most famous for his chairs. Their styling was modernist and minimalist, yet with all the joinery of traditional furniture making.
“The Chair” as it is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful designs of its genre. It owes some of it fame as the Debate Chair, used when Kennedy and Nixon went head-to-head on TV for the US presidency in 1960 …
The original version was designed in 1949. The following is the review by Interiors Magazine in 1950:
There are two versions, the original above with a woven seat and back, and a later version with a solid seat and open back (that displays the tapered finger joint that became a feature of this chair) ...
My plan was to build a composite: woven seat and open back. The Danish factory has built this is a variety of woods, with oak a favourite. I planned to use our local woods, and was offered some Fiddleback Jarrah, which I thought would be tricky to work, but produce a stunning creation.
The factory built these chairs largely with copy lathes. I planned to build it with hand tools, keeping it exactly the same as the factory, including the finger joints at the arm/back intersection, and the intersecting mortice and tenon joints in the leg/rail connections.
I was fortunate to pick up a bargain on eBay of an original chair, and this allowed for measurements to guide me through the process. There are no plans anywhere since the chairs are still made under licence in Denmark. I could not have done this from photos since every piece is a compound curve.
Now I shall not bore you further. The entire build in on my website. Just scan down to the bottom of this index page: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/index.html
The seat is still to be woven - this weekend - and the pictures below show the work done this past weekend.
And a comparison with the original:
I'll post the completed chair once done.
Regards from Perth
Derek
I started building a copy of Hans Wegner's "The Chair" in January, worked for all of that month, and then my day job and life got in the way and I was not able to return to it until a few weeks ago.
Hans Wegner (April 2, 1914 - January 26, 2007) was probably the quintessential Danish furniture designer and most famous for his chairs. Their styling was modernist and minimalist, yet with all the joinery of traditional furniture making.
“The Chair” as it is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful designs of its genre. It owes some of it fame as the Debate Chair, used when Kennedy and Nixon went head-to-head on TV for the US presidency in 1960 …
The original version was designed in 1949. The following is the review by Interiors Magazine in 1950:
There are two versions, the original above with a woven seat and back, and a later version with a solid seat and open back (that displays the tapered finger joint that became a feature of this chair) ...
My plan was to build a composite: woven seat and open back. The Danish factory has built this is a variety of woods, with oak a favourite. I planned to use our local woods, and was offered some Fiddleback Jarrah, which I thought would be tricky to work, but produce a stunning creation.
The factory built these chairs largely with copy lathes. I planned to build it with hand tools, keeping it exactly the same as the factory, including the finger joints at the arm/back intersection, and the intersecting mortice and tenon joints in the leg/rail connections.
I was fortunate to pick up a bargain on eBay of an original chair, and this allowed for measurements to guide me through the process. There are no plans anywhere since the chairs are still made under licence in Denmark. I could not have done this from photos since every piece is a compound curve.
Now I shall not bore you further. The entire build in on my website. Just scan down to the bottom of this index page: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/index.html
The seat is still to be woven - this weekend - and the pictures below show the work done this past weekend.
And a comparison with the original:
I'll post the completed chair once done.
Regards from Perth
Derek
