Greenwood Chairmaking
The "Bodging" tradition
When Mike started making greenwood chairs in the 1980’s, he was mainly influenced by the tradition of the chair bodgers of the 19th century in the Chiltern Hills. Here the tradition was for the bodgers to produce the turned components for Windsor chairs using freshly felled beech trees. The logs were transformed to shape by the techniques of cleaving, shaving and turning on a pole lathe. These components would then be dried and sold to chairmakers, usually based in urban workshops, who would often employ more specialists to shape the seats, bend the bows and assemble the chairs. It was unusual for one person to make a chair from start to finish.
American traditions
In 1993 Mike attended a conference in the USA and was able to spend time with some of the leading American chairmakers. John Alexander, Drew Langsner and Brian Boggs had worked together to explore the tradition of ladderback chairmaking around Kentucky and the Appalachian Mountains.
One particular technique was of particular interest as it actually made use of the fact that wood warps as it dries out. Far from being a drawback, this enabled the old chairmakers to form a slightly oval mortice-and-tenon joint, which increased the strength of the chair by enabling a tighter joint without splitting the wood. (These techniques are unique to the world of green wood chairmaking and are described in detail in Mike’s second book "Living Wood"). Mike also learnt at first hand, the process of stripping the bark from certain trees to produce a flexible leather-like seating, unknown in the British tradition.
The Herefordshire tradition
A year after his American trip, Mike moved to Herefordshire, with its tradition of ladderback and spindleback chairs, similar in many ways to the chairs he had seen in the USA. For the next ten years, Mike continued to make Windsor chairs but with an ever increasing interest in ladderbacks, especially the work of local Victorian chairmaker, Philip Clissett.
Compared to Windsor chairs with their solid plank seats and complex drilling angles, Herefordshire chairs involve fewer specialist operations, a smaller range of tools and eliminate the need for sawn planks. Mike has repaired and carefully examined a number of Clissett chairs and has developed a range of simple jigs which are used on his courses.
Making use of modern precision gauges, Mike has refined the oval joint, enabling beginners and experts alike to produce a comfortable, lightweight yet resilient chair without the need for glue. From 2005, Mike ceased making Windsor chairs and his chairmaking courses now concentrate on ladderback, spindleback and lathback chairs.
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