Oseberg Chair - Almost finished

Here's the almost finished Oseberg chair.  It needs to have the pins and pin holes put in, the false seat holes drilled and it needs to be oiled.  The join between the two main boards on the back have both been bevelled to fool the eye.  The boards are not entirely glued in, but will move over time (used a modified breadboard end technique) so I wanted it to not look so obvious.

Oseberg Chair

Oseberg Chair

Next up in the shop - The Oseberg chair.   It will be interesting to make.  The original is made of Beech and the front and sides are not panels, but are solid wood, with the center lowered to give it a paneled effect.  Originally, it had a seat woven into the panels, somewhat like a rope bed.  I'm not going to be making the seat, but instead will make a frame that a seat can be built onto that will simulate the effect of the original cushion.

The original was painted.

Chair from the Oseberg Burial

Woodworker's notes:

1.) The mortise and tenons are rounded and not square, which is unheard of in later construction.
2.) Construction will be out of hard Maple as a substitute for Beech
3.) The front and side panels are all one piece with horizontal grain.  I will be using multiple boards and will try to match the grain
4.) The back posts are triangular, getting the angles for the mortises may be tricky.  Being able to drill the ends of the mortises will help with this.
5.) Unknown trouble - "Here there be dragons"

Something from the East

A post from FB tonight put me in a more Oriental mood.  Both of these lanterns are based on Japanese lanterns but have been wired for electricity.

Most of the woodwork was done by hand.  It was just easier that way.  The tall, dark one is Walnut, with a turned top and bottom.  The blond one is Maple.

I used plasticized shoji paper for the fill.  It works easier than regular paper and is more durable.

The photography is terrible on the large one because I can't get close enough to it with my cell phone to take a decent picture.

Turning

Nothing much today, just some turned ware.  The canisters are cherry and are variations based on the Mary Rose findings.  The bowl was a gift and is made from walnut. 

"Modern" medicine

How would you like to use one of these to set a bone?  Yeah, me too.  This is taken from a woodcut that I found in the Mary Rose book "Before the Mast".  It was made for a friend who does a barber-surgeon impression.

It's all made of Ash, with the exception of the long screw, which is hard Maple.  Making the screw was the hardest part.  Not so much technically difficult, but it's physically demanding to cut that much thread into maple.

The finish is milk paint with a tung oil finish coat.  The effect is very similar to period paints.

The woodblock I was working from.  The worst part was trying to get the proportions down.  Look at how long that shin is!

The mechanism.  The two ends are static, with the middle piece moving back and forth along the screw.

Oh, and I was asked how I made the crank handle.  It was pretty simple.  I cut out a place for the spokes.

Then chucked it on the lathe and turned it round.

I cut down the spokes from the original so they wouldn't get in the way all the time.

End Table

More in the "furniture for my wife" series. This is a modern piece, based loosely on the arts and crafts style.  The woods are oak and maple.  The oak is stained with Minwax "Sedona Red".  Once I'm caught up with my current commissions, I'm going to make a chest of drawers for myself in this same style.

First run of Glastonbury chairs

These are the first set of Glastonbury chairs I made.  They are all poplar, with a clear finish.

First!

Just a first post.  This blog will be to show the woodworking that I'm doing.

This is one I made for my wife, Victoria.  It is based on a 16th century chair.  The original was in oak and had 3 sets of vertical spindles in the back and had a solid seat.  This one is in ash and has a woven seat.  The big oops on this one is that when I changed the seat from solid to woven, I didn't take into consideration the difficulty in getting the weaving material through the space between the seat and back rungs.  It was... annoying.