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'Woodworker's Pocket Book'
If someone has a pocket in their shop apron, then this book should be in it.
– Doug
'Ingenious Mechanicks'
This is the book that allowed me to get started in woodworking. The barrier to entry to building a low bench with simple workholding is so much lower than a full-sized bench, and I wasn’t quite ready to full-on commit to a new hobby without this. And it is still my only bench!
– Brian E.
'Euclid's Door'
Offered a new and useful perspective for this aspiring woodworker. Thanks.
– Bob A.
An American, an Irish Chair, in Germany
I’ve taught woodworking at Dictum GmbH in Germany for many years. And it’s always a bit disorienting (but fun). I’m an American with a German last name who teaches people how to make chairs from Wales ...
Kill Wood-boring Insects with Kitchen Appliances
When I first started harvesting green wood for my workshop, I was worried about bringing wood-boring insects into my workshop. It would be like letting loose 1,000 raccoons into a Golden Corral restaurant. ...
Slöjd Key Fob from ‘Karvsnitt’
The following is one of the projects in Jögge Sundqvist’s book “Karvsnitt: Carving, Pattern & Color in the Slöjd Tradition.” Cutting patterns and symbols in wood, and enhancing them with vibrant color, are folk traditions ...
Mind Upon Mind: Help With Planing Octagons
Editor’s note: Our Mind Upon Mind series is a nod to a 1937 Chips from the Chisel column (also featured in “Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years”), in which Hayward wrote, “The influence ...
Cutlists are the Devil (aka ‘Smalls’ Errata)
There is little as an editor I dislike more than cutlists; I wish we could do away with them. No matter how many times and how many people check them, there are always cutlist errors. I always feel like ...
Backwoods Chairmakers: In Search of the Appalachian Ladderback Chairmaker
by Andrew D. Glenn
You can download an excerpt from this book here.
For more than 200 years, chairmakers in Appalachia built ladderbacks to sell to neighbors and the occasional tourist. It was a tradition that was handed down through generations. But with the rise of furniture factories and mechanization, woodworker Andy D. Glenn wondered if there were any traditional chairmakers left.
So he set off into the mountains with a camera and a tape recorder. There, he found many still working the craft – some by hand, and others who have added machines to their workshops.
Part travelogue, part profile and part how-to, “Backwoods Chairmakers” explores the tradition of this enduring form. Glenn takes you inside the shops of more than 20 makers, with photos and personal interviews about their lives and techniques.
Then, Glenn shows you how to make a post-and-rung side chair and rocking chair using the traditional techniques explored in the book.
This is a massive book: 8.5" x 11", hardbound and 304 pages. It is printed on #70 matte coated paper. Its signatures are sewn and secured with fiber tape. All that is wrapped in heavy cotton-covered boards and a tear-resistant dust jacket.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Curtis Buchanan: VII
Introduction: 1
1: Setting Out 4
2: The Chair 10
3. Tom Lynch 18
4: Sherman Wooton 30
5: Cannon County 40
6: Mason Alexander 58
7: Randy Ogle 74
8: Langsner & Alexander 90
9: Tom Donahey 100
10: Newberry & Sons Chairs 106
11: James Cooper 122
12: Michael Houston 130
13: Lyle Wheeler 138
14: Brian Boggs 150
15: Dick Poynor 170
16: Chester Cornett 176
17: Terry Ratliff 188
18: All Good Things 206
19: Vignettes 210
20: Three-slat Ladderback 238
21: Rocking Chair 266
Bibliography 286
Acknowledgments 288
About the Author
Andrew D. Glenn is a furniture maker and woodworking instructor living in Midcoast Maine. Glenn received his formal training while a student in the North Bennet Street School’s Cabinet and Furniture Program in 2008. Since then, Glenn has worked in repair shops, a boatyard, a cabinet shop and a four-year stretch leading the Woodcraft Department at Berea College (Kentucky).
Glenn became engrossed with the prevalence of handmade ladderback chairs while in Kentucky and began taking trips into the eastern Kentucky foothills to seek out the chairs and their makers. The simple question, “Are there backwoods chairmakers working today?” was the first spark that led to this book.
Read more about Andy in our full profile.