Hammer and Nails

 I gotta tell you, I love building chairs.  I think they are really the peak of the craft.  You start, with my Windsors anyway, with a log and a pine plank, and end up with a chair.  And anytime I do a new chair, I have to do two, because unlike a cabinet, you never can know how it will look; and more importantly how it will sit.  You never know, so I always build one, and then analyze, look, sit, look some more. 

 Then I figure out what I would change, how long the legs are, how the back feels.  After all this I build a real chair, and that one, hopefully, becomes the one that looks and sits just right.  I joke that all the chairs in my house are prototypes, save for a couple.  That's why I only take orders, I can't really sell a chair that I don't feel is as close to perfect as I can get it.

 I am almost done a chair that really started it all.  A few years ago, maybe 8 or so,  I saw an article on Curtis Buchanan, and in the article there was a picture of comb back arm chair that just struck me.  It had Philly turnings for the legs, shield seat, carved knuckles, everything.  I knew I wanted to build one, but I had never built a chair.  So I took a couple classes and fast forward 8 years, and it's almost done.  I can't wait to put the oil on it.  Should post it in a few days.

I love building chairs, really, but they are challenging.  There are only two right angles, on the whole chair.  Everything else is some angle, and a lot of intuition.  I wonder sometimes if you get technically better, of course you do, but also important is to trust your eye as much as your tape.  Fairness--if it looks good, it is good. 
So why this small cabinet?  First,  I love the color and finish, and second, sometimes it's nice to build something with a hammer and nails!

ps.  note the Cow Jumping Over the Moon on the top of the cabinet in the top post,  Erinn, my daughter,and I built it.