Lunch Special

 

The sapling grows through summer. By the end of August,  it has eighteen leaves and is the same height as the launches of a lynx. 

North Woods, Daniel Mason 

After several did not finishes in the fiction category of my reading, this book has restored my faith in fiction.  Just an amazing book. It's a ghost story about apples trees.  That's all you need to know you can thank me later.  

So the next few images are of a chair that was a test subject. I've always wondered about how my chairs fair in the wild. I have never gotten a call back or a complaint and when I am contacted by previous clients its for more chairs or they have referred another client. 

So this simple little side chair was a test subject. Years ago maybe 10 I loaned this chair to the kind owners of the Thomaston Cafe and asked that they simply use the chair along with the other rather eclectic assortment of chairs. No special mention or treatment.  I wanted to see how the chair would hold up under daily use in a busy cafe. 

So after ten years or so the owners were selling the cafe and I got the chair back (I gave them the twin for their house) and now use it in my kitchen. 

I chose this chair because from a structural point of view, it is a bad design. The back post don't have the benefit of arms and a front post that create half of a suspension bridge. It's simply glued and wedged in as are the spindles. The legs are a box stretcher system which is about as strong as an "H" stretcher system.  

All in all other than the paint wearing off the chair is as solid as the day it was built. There is absolutely no looseness in any of the joints. None. I was honestly expecting some especially considering it probably lived a pretty hard life but it's like brand new.  This is a great testament to the longevity of the chair building methods I (and others) use; namely using moisture content differential and always always using handtools to follow the long wood fibers.  I guess the old adage is true if you can build a chair you can build anything.