With the seat blanks ready to be drilled, and the bows and spindles through their initial shaping, it is time to work on the underside of the chair: the legs and stretchers.
These are turned on a lathe, although they can also be made using a drawknife and spokeshave - it's a different look, but still nice.
Typically one would: get a green maple (or oak, or ash, ...) log, cut a 20" round from that, split out leg blanks from that, rough out the parts on the lathe, let them dry a bit, then turn them to mostly finished shape, and let them dry completely before finishing them. I have done it this way, and it's fine and fun, but I purchased a quantity of blanks a while back, and have been working through those, so no need for all that rigmarole.
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| Cutting the blanks to size |
These are actually baseball bat blanks which have been rejected by the manufacturer because of defects. They're completely fine for chairs, and are already dried and rounded, which saves significant time and effort. The turnings are indistinguishable between the two different starting points...
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Legs and stretcher blanks cut to length
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Mark the centers
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Make a centered hole in each end
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Onto the lathe!
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