The S.E.A.T - Construction Information
A friend told me that Max Reed, a local sawyer, had some really special wood. He had bought enough to make a new set of kitchen cabinets. I decided to make a trip to Max's and see what the fuss was about. I really didn't need anything, but it pays to keep in touch; after all it's only available when he's got it. I asked if he had anything interesting and he said he had a lot of Ambrosia Maple. Ambrosia Maple is technically not a specific species of maple, but rather a general description for any type of maple that has been infested by ambrosia beetles. The beetles bore into the tree, and with it bring fungus that discolors the wood. In addition to the ambrosia figure, this wood also had some bird's eye and curly figure.
I don't remember where Max said he got it, but he said it was the biggest tree he had ever cut. He had to keep it on his loader and just kept shoving it into the band saw mill; basically whittling it down to a normal size. I went nuts when I saw it. The wood I bought didn't have much birds eye or curly, but it was of excellent quality with lots of wide boards.
The dark legs in the chair are walnut. It's really hard to get 3" walnut in this area. I had some milled for me several years ago and I decided it was time to use it. Unfortunately my thick walnut was 9" wide and a crack had formed down the middle of the beam which significantly increased the waste. Still I've done 3 chairs with what I had and I have just enough for 1 more. The ottoman uses 2" wood, which is not a problem.
I bought the plans for the chair off the internet. It came with full size blueprints which was nice. Unfortunately the plans were very confusing; they had a set of descriptive instructions, a cut list, and full size drawings. None of the 3 sets of dimensions agreed (sometimes final sizes were larger than the rough sizes). I would have expected the cut list to be for rough sizes, and the description to be either for the rough or final sizes, but it wasn't that simple. The blueprints had the best and most consistent set of dimensions, but there were some mistakes there as well.
Construction was pretty straightforward with mortise and tenon joinery. The arms are bent laminations with faux through-tenons from the legs. My wife made the cushions, which are supported by web frames. The chairs can be reclined using pins in a series of notches along the back of the arms.
For glam shots of this chair visit South Eastern Appalachian Throne (aka The S.E.A.T).
I don't remember where Max said he got it, but he said it was the biggest tree he had ever cut. He had to keep it on his loader and just kept shoving it into the band saw mill; basically whittling it down to a normal size. I went nuts when I saw it. The wood I bought didn't have much birds eye or curly, but it was of excellent quality with lots of wide boards.
The dark legs in the chair are walnut. It's really hard to get 3" walnut in this area. I had some milled for me several years ago and I decided it was time to use it. Unfortunately my thick walnut was 9" wide and a crack had formed down the middle of the beam which significantly increased the waste. Still I've done 3 chairs with what I had and I have just enough for 1 more. The ottoman uses 2" wood, which is not a problem.
I bought the plans for the chair off the internet. It came with full size blueprints which was nice. Unfortunately the plans were very confusing; they had a set of descriptive instructions, a cut list, and full size drawings. None of the 3 sets of dimensions agreed (sometimes final sizes were larger than the rough sizes). I would have expected the cut list to be for rough sizes, and the description to be either for the rough or final sizes, but it wasn't that simple. The blueprints had the best and most consistent set of dimensions, but there were some mistakes there as well.
Construction was pretty straightforward with mortise and tenon joinery. The arms are bent laminations with faux through-tenons from the legs. My wife made the cushions, which are supported by web frames. The chairs can be reclined using pins in a series of notches along the back of the arms.
For glam shots of this chair visit South Eastern Appalachian Throne (aka The S.E.A.T).