Chairs

The more furniture he makes, the more appetite he has for working wood by hand

George Sawyer's father, Dave, is a pivotal figure in the renaissance of green-wood and Windsor chairmaking. George’s company, Sawyer Made, has absorbed his father’s example but takes Windsors in a different direction. “I don’t know what the Shakers would think,” George says, “but I like it.”

When Justin Nelson started Fernweh Woodworking in Bend, Ore., in 2014, he was coming off four years in the Marine Corps and then a season on a Forest Service Hotshot crew fighting wildfires. A couple of years in, he was introduced to Sam Maloof’s work. “It boggled my mind,” he says. And it convinced him to turn his business toward furniture.

Dawson Moore was farming in Southern California when he happened to take a woodcarving class. From acanthus leaves and ball-and-claw feet, to flatwork cabinetmaking, Dawson was eager to learn. Then one day he read a blog about spoon carving. “I carved a spoon and was immediately hooked."

There is no place for store-bought chair pads on fine furniture. In this video, learn how to add leather pads to chairs to protect floors.

Myko uses a digital gauge and scrap wood to make an accurate drilling guide.

Scott McGlasson shares his techniques for making the tiles, drilling the holes in them for the rope, weaving them in a running-bond pattern, and creating the walnut beads that decorate the tied end of the rope.

Scott McGlasson's chair combines mid-century style and hardwood scraps into a cool, comfortable chair.

Amanda is joined by Ashley Pieper and Bonnie Elisabeth Hawk to discuss woodworking education and how it has carved a path for them in their furniture making careers.

An episode from a Irish docuseries called "Hands" shows Surlis make a stick chair from an ash log.