I recently purchased a lathe (Grizzly G0462) to learn to make chair parts. Up until now, I've been shaving everything by hand with drawknives, spokeshaves, and jack planes. It works great, but takes a lot of energy, especially when your shop isn't cooled. I currently make two styles of chairs, the Jennie Alexander style and the Brian Boggs style. I purchased only a roughing gouge, bedan, and skew for now since those are all I really need for this work. I've been practicing the last couple of weeks and am starting to get the hang of it. Sharpening is still my biggest issue, but I'm getting a little better at that.
Here's a couple of my chairs, note that these were all shaved, not turned.
Boggs chair in hickory:
Jennie chair in white oak:
Here's some of my practice front legs in hickory and rungs in pine and poplar:
I'll use those front legs for my next two chairs, they came out really well. I have a bunch of hickory rung blanks in the kiln drying now, I think I'm ready to turn them after all the practice this week.
Here's a couple of my chairs, note that these were all shaved, not turned.
Boggs chair in hickory:
Jennie chair in white oak:
Here's some of my practice front legs in hickory and rungs in pine and poplar:
I'll use those front legs for my next two chairs, they came out really well. I have a bunch of hickory rung blanks in the kiln drying now, I think I'm ready to turn them after all the practice this week.
