Build a Roorkhee Chair with Chris Schwarz
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Build a Roorkhee Chair with Chris Schwarz - New!
June 3-7 FULL (waitlist is open)
Cost $1095
Materials: Included
Skill Level – All
Participant Information
Build a Roorkhee Chair – The British Army’s Lounge Chair
Roorkhee Chairs are one of the missing links between Old World furniture styles and modern chair design – they also happen to be one of the most portable and comfortable chairs ever built. Designed for the British army in the 19th century, Roorkhee chairs were a staple of English officers around the globe. They are astonishing pieces of engineering. The back tilts to accept your shoulder blades. As you lean back, the seat’s back presses and supports your back. No matter where you put the chair, it settles into a stable and comfortable stance because there is no fixed joinery – everything adjusts itself to accommodate the terrain and the sitter. In this class, we will design and build a Roorkhee chair together, from turning the legs to dying and riveting the leather seats. During this week-long class you will learn a variety of hand and power skills:
1. Designing turning blanks for a Roorkhee that fit its intended use – house, desert, swamp, baseball field.
2. Basic spindle turning for furniture makers. How to do most shapes with two tools. No previous turning experience required.
3. Designing a chair for maximum comfort – slight changes to the seat make the difference between a chair you squirm in to a chair you sleep in.
4. Make tapered tenons and conical mortises using a brace and bit.
5. How to handplane and scrape exotic woods, such as the mahogany typically used in Roorkhee chairs.
6. An introduction to leather work. How to cut, rivet, dye and finish raw hides.
7. Aging brass and iron hardware – how to give your chair a vintage look.
8. And if there’s time at the end of the class, we’ll build a Roubo camp stool.
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Christopher Schwarz
About the Instructor
Christopher Schwarz is the editor of Lost Art Press, a publishing company that specializes in producing books and DVDs on hand woodworking. He was an editor at Popular Woodworking magazine for almost 15 years where he worked to rebalance the scales of media coverage of handwork and machine woodworking. He is now a contributing editor for Popular Woodworking and The Fine Tool Journal. Chris is the author of six books on handwork including “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use” and “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” He is a long-time woodworker – he built his first workbench when he was 11.
