Synopsis: Even the most basic chair must support a body comfortably and be strong. Dealing with angled joinery and curved parts exposes you to making patterns, full-scale drawings, mock-ups, and thinking in three dimensions. Also, chairs are great for improving hand skills such as fitting joints and smoothing curves. All the pieces are sawn; no steam-bending or laminating parts is involved in the construction. Build one or two, and youll be tweaking this design to reflect your own tastes and needs. The article also includes details on cutting angled seat-rail and lumbar-rail mortises.

Even the most basic chair must support a body comfortably and be strong enough to take lots of rocking and rolling. This likely involves angled joinery; add some grace to the design, and you’re probably working with curved parts as well.

A lot of woodworkers shy away from making chairs, but there are many good reasons…