Morris Arts & Craft Chairs

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woodchip

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Bingley. West Yorks
Inpsired by Ted's post in Projects I've decided my next project (my 2nd!) will be a pair of Arts & Craft Morris chairs. I've bought some plans off the net and I'm now looking for the oak.

I've not got a planer thicknesser yet, so I've been looking at dimensioned timber. British Hardwoods will plane me a load of 3/4 stock to the 3/8 I require (for slats and to laminate the curved arms), but will obviously charge me for 3/4 which proves to be quite expensive (approx £220 per chair).

So, some other options for advice, please:

1) buy 1 inch stock and re-saw it on my table saw (5.75" width, so two cuts and a flip, without the guard :shock: )
2) buy 1 inch stock and a bandsaw to resaw (which bandsaw?)
3) buy somewhere else (where?)
4) buy sawn timber and a planer thicknesser (£200 - £400 + extractor say £150)

The re-saw saves me about £70, but the rough sawn seems to work about not a lot cheaper than PAR, am I calculating it wrong? (the cutting list is below if anyone can be bothered to go over it and price up sawn v PAR from the figures on British Hardwoods site I would be very grateful)


thanks for reading, here's the cutting list (in inches)

Part Thick Width Length QTY
E 3/8 4 ¼ 13 2
I 3/8 5 ¼ 36 6
G 3/8 5/8 1 ¼ 24
H 3/8 5/8 3 8
P 3/8 5/8 1 16
T 3/8 5/8 1 ½ 10
F 3/8 1 ¼ 13 12
O 3/8 1 ¾ 24 7
S 3/8 3 ¼ 20 4
K 1 ¼ 4 ¼ 29 2
L 1 ¼ 1 ¼ 24 2
J 1 ¼ 1 3/8 9 4
M 1 ¼ 1 ¾ 23 2
N 1 ¼ 1 ¾ 24 2
Q 1 ¼ 1 5/8 29 2
C 1 ¼ 3 ¾ 30 2
D 1 ¼ 3 ¾ 27 2
R 1 ¼ 3 ¾ 22 2
A 2 ¼ 2 ¼ 22 2
B 2 ¼ 2 ¼ 22 2
 
Hi Woodchip

This is your second project, right? And I would say that a Morris chair was a good, adventurous, challenging but feasible project for a serious hobbyist. So, on the assumption that this is the second of many (as opposed to the second of two :)) I would say that now would be a good time to think of investing in some kit. Good kit. Not necessarily top-of-the-range (though if you can, do so, you won't regret it once the credit card bill has been paid) but decent stuff rather than entry-level. A planer-thicknesser and a saw (bandsaw or tablesaw) will repay you manifold in quite a short time.

A Morris chair stands or falls (quite literally) on the quality of its M&T joints, so find a way of cutting M&Ts with which you are happy, and perfect it. You can cut them one by one with a good tenon saw, but most of us use a jig of one kind or another for router or tablesaw or bandsaw; there are lots of options.

Best regards
Steve
 
Hi Woodchip

What exactly do you mean by a Morris chair? His most famous style, I think, was turned. We have some Morris chairs at home if you need photos or reference. And if you are rushing the seat I can offer some advice.

Stay in touch.

Nick
 
Woodchip,
Good luck with your project. I just finished a Bow Arm Morris myself--a present for my daughter's college graduation--and I love it so much I don't want to give it to her!
For the arms, I steam bent 1 inch thick material and the rest was made from 3/4 inch material. I built quadrilinear legs and I did surface the slats for the back and sides to 3/8 inch thickness.
Steve is right on though. Pay close attention to your mortise and tenon joints and you should be pleased with the end result.
By the way, for the loose cushions, I had to use the hides of two cows. That in itself was quite expensive, but more for the cows than me.
Good luck.
 
Nick Gibbs":mb8iylk2 said:
Hi Woodchip

What exactly do you mean by a Morris chair? His most famous style, I think, was turned. We have some Morris chairs at home if you need photos or reference. And if you are rushing the seat I can offer some advice.

Stay in touch.

Nick

Nick,

A bit like this (only with slatted sides and back) the plans are on Woodstore.net

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23301

Vince
 
Ok. This isn't what I expected at all, but looks like a fantastic project. Do stay in touch about its making. You're going to need a lot of oak. Have you found a supplier yet?

Cheers

Nick
 
Nick Gibbs":ggznihlp said:
You're going to need a lot of oak. Have you found a supplier yet?

He's in Bingley.

British Hardwoods is 10 minutes up the road from him. He'd get most of what he needs for this project out of their offcuts bin.

Completely free so long as you keep it nice and tidy!

Put the money you save towards a planer/thicknesser, Vince!
 
Dan,

Are you serious about BH and an offcuts bin? I used BH for my last project and found them to be quite expensive, and didn't spot an offcuts bin?

Vince
 
Are there other timber options that would be cheaper?
 
I'm in Huddersfield, if you bring the boards here I could thickness them for you.

Have you tried John Boddy's, not the Fine Wood and Tool Store, which is a rip off, but the timber yard. Try phoning and ask for timber sales for prices. They have 3/4" and and possibly even 1/2" oak. However they will not plane the stuff for you.

I don't like the idea of deep cutting on the table saw without the riving knife. Not safe and you lose a lot of wood in saw dust.

Another factor to bear in mind when buying sawn timber is the amount of wastage, even with square edge boards you should allow at least 30 %.

Good luck

Chris
 

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