Windsor chairs were designed by turners, for turners. Spring-pole, treadle, and great-wheel lathes were all common in early 19th-century America, along with a few water-driven mills and lathes powered by horses, oxen, and even dogs. Of the human-powered options, great-wheel lathes had power, speed, and continuous rotation, but the apprentice turning the wheel was an expensive power source – these lathes were best reserved for large-diameter turnings. Treadle lathes had speed and continuous rotation, but lacked power until 19th-century improvements came about. Spring-pole lathes had both power and speed – they were a good choice for turning chair parts. And they are easy to make – my lathe is cobbled together from junk boards, bungee cords, and decking screws, just...
Editor's note: For more information about the House by Hand project, click here. Oh my goodness. Where do I even begin? Saturday was the big raising day in which we had 20 or 30 people lined up to help assemble and lift our house timbers into place. As I mentioned last week, Mike, Julia, and I had been obsessively monitoring the weather forecast developments the whole week before and we all were starting to feel nervous as we saw loads of rain encroaching on the day. Ironically, the end of last week in which the final prep work happened was swelteringly hot – so much so that we were starting to take precautions for heat stroke. And then on Friday...
One of the things you’ve heard me quote again and again over the years is G.K. Chesterton’s adage: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” In his characteristically provocative and opaque way, Chesterton tells us that the really valuable stuff of life (such as work, leisure, birthing and rearing children, etc.) is something we ought to handle ourselves, even if it won’t yield perfect results. It’s that important. A true amateur – as understood in its literal sense of a person who does something “for the love” of it – is still a rare breed it seems. The word is often hurled as a pejorative to disparage the work of the non-specialist, but in Chesterton’s view,...
