The Chairmaker's Workshop is now available in an Author's Reprint Edition. The color gallery photos in the original version are now black and white. Many small errors have been corrected among other changes to make this author's reprint edition an improvement over the original. 304 pages with soft cover in color.
Drew Langsner’s classic text, The Chairmaker’s Workshop was originally published in 1997 by Lark Books. Written to serve as both an introduction and working reference for anyone interested in making both post-and-rung and Windsor chairs. Partial contents:
Part I. Materials, tools and setting up a workshop (includes directions for making several specialty tools, such as a splitting froe and a travisher.)
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"This is the best book on chairmaking. Period. Everyone knows that, which is why the price for the used books is so high. Go to Drew Langsner's website for Country Workshops and you can get the updated author's reprint for a very reasonable price. While you're at it, sign up for one of his classes. I learned more about furnituremaking and craft in one week at Country Workshops than I have learned over the past ten years reading every woodworking book in the library." M. L. Potoff Ann Arbor, MI |
Part III. Scaled plans and notes for making 8 other post-and-rung chairs and Windsors, including a post-and-rung rocking chair, 4 classic American Windsors, and a double hoop English Windsor.
Part IV. Making a shaving horse, a chairmaker’s workbench, a spring pole lathe, and several options for constructing a small drying kiln. Plus a chapter on designing a chair, with 4 pages of tables for calculating sighting and resultant angles for boring legs and spindles on Windsor chairs.
The book also includes a chairmaker’s glossary and an annotated bibliography. Over 300 drawings, and more than 200 photographs. With an Introduction by Welsh chairmaker, John Brown. Softbound, 304 pages.
All books purchased from Country Workshops come with an author's autograph. While supplies last we will include for no charge a set of enlarged plans that originally sold for $16.95 when the book was first published in 1997.
| DL-13 | The Chairmaker's Workshop - Authors Reprint Edition |
$50.00
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| DL-04 | Enlarged Plans Set |
$17.50 postpaid
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Full-Size Bond Print Plans
The DL-08 series consists of individual copies of the same drawings that make up the Plans Packet that is currently included with orders for The Chairmaker’s Workshop. The difference is that these plans are printed on one side of bond paper, and are mailed rolled in a tube (no folding.) Page-size versions of these same plans are found in The Chairmaker’s Workshop.
| DL-08 | Chair plans from The Chairmaker's Workshop |
Any single plan $12.50 postpaid
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2 or more plans $10.00 each, postpaid
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DL-06, DL-07 and DL-12 are large bond print plans for chairs that Drew has designed and that have been the course projects for Country Workshops’ chairmaking classes. These consist of a full-size plan view with seat details, arm/comb patterns, leg/spindle boring angles, and a profile view from the seat up. (Leg and stretcher design details are left to the individual maker.) DL-06 is the rustic Windsor that Drew currently teaches during tutorials and summer workshops. (This is not the Stick Windsor in The Chairmaker’s Workshop.) This rustic Windsor can be a high-back or low-back version. The Hearth Chair plan (DL-07) includes two large bond print sheets plus an 18 page photocopy of an article on constructing a slightly different version of this chair, which originally appeared in “Woodwork” magazine, issues 58 and 59. DL-12 is a new design for a rustic Windsor settee. These plans are rolled and sent by regular mail in a shipping tube. Prices include postage for U.S. customers.
| DL-06 | High-back/Low-back Rustic Windsor |
$20.00 postpaid
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| DL-07 | Hearth Chair |
$30.00 postpaid
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| DL-12 | Rustic Windsor Settee plan |
$20.00 postpaid
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Note: DL-06 and DL-07 plans are design copyrighted © by Drew Langsner. Purchase constitutes a license to make one reproduction for personal use or as a gift. For all other purposes, purchaser agrees to contact Drew Langsner (at Country Workshops) for details regarding royalty arrangements.
OUR SHAVING HORSE, which we call a “shaving mule” can be purchased ready-made from us, or you can make your own. The Shaving Mule Plans Pack consists of ten 8-1/2 x 11” pages of detailed drawing and instructions.
| TD-03 | Shaving Mule Plans Pack |
$12.50 postpaid
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Country Workshops' Select Book List
New from our English friend, Mike Abbott. Mike's third book about green woodworking is called Going With the Grain. This time around, Mike has focused on post-and-rung chairmaking, and he has set aside his pole lathe in favor of making a drawknife shaved chair, utilizing rung tenons made with a Veritas tenon former. Mike shares myriad tricks and insights from the past 25 years or so. He also includes a variety of post-and-rung designs, including his ìperching stoolî with a forward tipped seat that encourages better posture than the conventional drop towards the back. Itís all in metric dimensions; but maybe this is a good time to start making the conversion. The book is loaded with color photos. 190 pages, soft cover.
| MA-02 | Going With the Grain by Mike Abbott | $25.00 |
Jögge Sundqvist's book, Slöjda I Trä is entirely in Swedish, but itís still something of a thriller for anyone interested in sloyd crafts from Scandi- navia. Contents include making sandwich spreaders and bentwood spatu- las, making a knife, clothes hooks and cupboard knobs, spoon carving, making a shrink box and rustic stools. Thereís lots of illustrations, and the close-up color photos show off Jögge's work very nicely. 89 pages, with hard cover. (Yes, books from Sweden are pricey.)
| JS-01 | Slöjda I Trä by Jögge Sundqvist | $37.50 |
Videos
of Special Interest
The
17TH Century … Now on DVD
Peter Follansbee’s recently released DVD
is titled “17th Century New England Carving.” Watching the
program is not quite the same as being at Country Workshops for Peter’s
class, but this is a really good instructional video. The material is
well organized and presented, with sections on Tools and Materials, Postures
and Grips, and a series of practice exercises in technique and design.
Produced by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.
| LN-01 | 17th Century New England Carving | $25.00 |
Carved
Swedish Bowls with Bengt Lidström
Bengt Lidström is probably the most famous bowl carver in Sweden.
This video depicts how Lidström carves a bowl from a split, half
round log. The process involves axe and adze work, followed by extensive
carving with gouges, including a decorative motif chip carved into the
exterior surface. The final step is a multi-colored paint job.
In the video Lidström works on several different bowls, utilizing
two different log blank orientations: conventional bark down (with the
bowl carved into the split surface,) and bark up (the split surface forms
the base of the bowl.) The latter is an innovation of Bengt's that allows
him to develop unique shapes that are often influenced by the hull form
of a Viking ship.
The video, which was recorded at Lidström's lakeside home in northern
Sweden in 1998, has been edited into a 75 minute program by Rick Mastelli.
A co-production of Country Workshops, Inc. and Image & Word, LLC.
Notice: This is not an instructional video. Some techniques that are depicted
are not approved by safety authorities and could result in a serious injury.
| MV-25 | Swedish Bowls DVD |
$25.00
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SWISS COOPERAGE: TWO DAYS IN THE WORKSHOP OF RUEDI KOHLER. This is a beautifully edited version of the Ruedi Kohler video originally recorded in Switzerland by Rick Mastelli and Drew Langsner in 1988. You will almost feel that you are in Ruedi's shop observing this virtuoso woodworker as he handcrafts a complex and very beautiful Swiss alpine milking bucket. A copy of Drew's "Fine Woodworking" article on Swiss cooperage is included. A Country Workshops Production. Click here to view a Quicktime clip from the video.
| MV-21 | Swiss Cooperage VHS-USA format |
$10.00
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| MV-26 | Swiss Cooperage DVD |
$25.00
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MAKE A CHAIR FROM A TREE. John Alexander has produced this 2 hour video which shows how he makes a post-and-rung chair. Every step is carefully shown and explained, from splitting an oak log to weaving a Shaker tape seat.
| JA-03 | Make a Chair From a Tree DVD |
$25.00
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Carving Swedish Woodenware. This instructional video clearly shows how Jögge carves a serving spoon and a large bowl. Stock for the spoon was a rhododendron limb with a nice natural curvature. The bowl came from a split tulip poplar log blank. It was carved with the traditional pith up/bark down orientation.
The video was originally released as a VHS cassette tape. When sales declined Taunton dropped this production, so it has been unavailable for several years. Taunton has recently decided to re-issue some of their old material, and “Carving Swedish Woodenware” is now available in DVD format.
| TP-01 | “Carving Swedish Woodenware” DVD format |
$20.00
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How To Order
Tools can be purchased three ways: Order by phone (Office hours: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Eastern Time) using your Visa/MasterCard for payment; order by mail, by clicking on Order Form (you can print the Order Form on your computer's printer, but we do not yet offer on-line ordering); direct purchase at our store and showroom.
Country Workshops Home Page
E-mail:
Drew Langsner
Phone:
828-656-2280 (Daily, 9-6 Eastern time)