Stick chair

I got some small ash logs from a friend's property about 18 months ago and finally got around to making this chair from it. The wood was still green enough to drawknife pretty easily.

I mostly followed the plan from Christopher Schwartz's book.

The seat is made from locally sourced white elm planks (not easy to find due to the Dutch elm disease). All the ash parts are split from the log and shaped by drawknife and spokeshave. I did reverse-tapered octagons on the legs and stretchers. I saddled the seat by hand - don't have an inshave or travisher, instead I use the Lee Valley chairshave. I've never worked with elm before, it was quite a bit more work then the white pine seat I saddled previously.

I tried to steambend the arm. Left it in the steam for over two hours, but I just wasn't strong enough to get such a thick piece to bend, I would have needed some kind of come-along. So I did a bent lamination instead. I steam-bent the laminations onto the form so that the laminating would go more easily.

I wish I could be more accurate with the leg angles. I can see that they're not consistent from one leg to the other. I think I get the original hole pretty close but then get off with the reaming. I may try a shallower angled, handheld reamer rather than the LV drill-powered one I used.