making cherry spindles
chasing success and failure simutaneously
I learned about Windsor chairmaking through the instruction of Dan Faia, Curtis Buchanan, and Peter Galbert, all during my time at the North Bennet Street School. Additionally, enjoy picking up Michael Dunbar’s books on chairmaking [it’s hard to capture them properly….they are equal parts infuriating and informative. Dunbar’s knowledgeable and engaging writing is why I continue going back to those books, though I’m insulted by his contempt for the shave horse and its users. It takes skilled writing that I learn while feeling slighted, all while eager to turn the next page].
In giving credit to those who taught me, it’s hard to know who’s approach I’m using here. It’s likely some blending of the training I’ve received. I’m using a shave horse here….so I’m confident this isn’t a Dunbar method.
The 3-minute video shows my basic steps of spindle-making. I’ve already roughed these cherry spindles and kept them in the kiln for about a week. I’ve collected a chair’s worth from the kiln, cut them to length, and the video begins as I start adding tenons.
I use three cutting tools at the shave horse; the drawknife and two Boggs shaves. The drawknife does the bulk work, first making the bulb a consistent diameter with the help of a 3/4” guage, then in tapering both ends. This creates a tapered octagon.
Next is an aggressively set round-bottom LN Boggs shave to knock off the corners and refine the tapers. I count the strokes at each corner (on these spindles, with five directly on the corner, then four more cuts where I slightly adjusted the cut of each pull to refine the facets.
Finally, I pick up a flat-bottom LN shave with the slightest cut/tightest mouth. I’m going for refinement and surface quality here, giving the spindle a crisp feel, removing any tearout, and skimming away any digs left by the aggressive round-bottom shave. I’m also lightly removing some material on the tenons since I set my tenon cutter to a too-tight fit. I take a single pass over the entire diameter of the tenon being careful not to take any additional strokes.
Then I chamfer the edge and it’s ready to test in the chair.
[Why two shaves? Because I own them. I’d simply adjust a single shave more aggressive and then more refined if I only had one in my tool kit.]
VIDEO END - BONUS FAILURE
The last sequence shows a spindle with grain runout. This is where the drawknife is unforgiving. Without a chip breaker, the knife is free to slice a deep cut, which leads to major runout and tearing if the grain within the spindle is not running end-to-end (end-to-end grain is the strongest, and what I’m testing for in these spindles*). The spindle I’m working on has some wavy figure to it. The knife catches it, and instead of a crumpled shaving (which is what I’m hoping for), a length in front of the blade lifts and rips away.
I’m testing for failure. While I’m rooting for the success of each spindle, I also want it to fail here on the shave horse rather than once it is in the chair. So if it doesn’t get past the drawknife, it goes into the firewood stack.
* Using only spokeshaves could make a beautiful spindle by skipping the drawknife. It would be a little slower with only shaves, though the process would not lose spindles along the way. But that misses the point….this process bypasses the drawknife stress test.