3 Legged Chair

I used Scott Morrison’s (www.finewoodworker.com) ‘Tea Party Chair’ DVD bundle to create this 3 legged chair. I used Scott’s DVD set to guide me through my Maloof inspired rocker last year and found his instruction extremely good.
I selected this design because it is very versatile as an artist chair. The seat is sculpted to be sat in normally, from either side or uniquely, backwards with your arms resting on the backrest, while painting at an easel. And, of course, it is always stable.
It is constructed entirely of cherry with walnut plugs. Below is a shot of the templates I made from the Morrison patterns.

The 8/4 cherry was cut and glued with special attention to grain patterns since nearly every component is two pieces glued together.

The legs are joined to the seat using Maloof style joinery. I used the special router bits I acquired when building my rocker. I have not found a joint more stable for chairs of this style.

Tip; remember, these joints are going to get a lot of sculpting/material removed, so really be careful to get these cut perfectly tight or they will be very ugly.

This is primarily a sculpting project. Every surface of this chair is sculpted using just about anything that can cut wood. Files, rasps, grinders, shaves, and sandpaper. Two tools that I could not have done without are the Holy Galahad see through 4” grinding disc and Microshaves. The two rungs required a lot of patience. One is straight and could be turned if you are talented in that way, but I sculpted both. The dimensions are extremely important for proper fitting of the rest of the components.

The backrest might have been my biggest challenge. Pretty complex joinery and sculpting to produce a really nice flow between it and the chair.

All sanded to 320 and 3 coats of General Arm-R-Seal Satin (wipe on Poly). I apply generous 1st coat, allowing to soak in for about 5 minutes. Then wiping nearly dry with cotton rags. The subsequent coats are applied with a Liberon 000 steel wool pad, applying very light pleasure. Then wipe nearly dry with clean cotton rags.
Very fun project. Now for the matching desk.

-- Darrel..."The biggest threat to 'good' is 'better'.