Video: Build a Stick Chair

What's a stick chair? You can learn all about them here.

A video with Christopher Schwarz

Learn to build a stick chair using common woodworking tools and machines, plus kiln-dried wood from the lumberyard. This video, which clocks in at more than four hours long, has 18 separate chapters that cover all aspects of stick chair construction, from selecting the lumber to applying the finish.

Purchasers will also receive a digital file with full-size patterns for the chair shown in the video, which can be printed out at any reprographics firm or office supply store. Plus, notes on the sizes of the chair parts and sources for tools used in the video. (This chair is a new design, not one found in "The Stick Chair Book.")

This, and all of our videos, can be watched one of two ways. You can stream it (after logging into your account here at Lost Art Press). Or you can download the video and put it on any device. The video is offered without DRM (digital rights management), so the files will be easily moved to any of your devices, now and in the future.

Stick chairs are an ideal chair form for beginning chairmakers. Unlike with Windsor chairs, ladderbacks and other advanced forms, you don't need green wood, a steambox, a shavehorse, a drawknife, a froe, a hatchet, a lathe or even a spokeshave. You can build stick chairs with kiln-dried lumber, a regular woodworking bench and mostly a drill, handplanes and a band saw. There are a few specialty tools (mostly inexpensive) that make the job easier, which are covered in the video.

We consider the “Build a Stick Chair” video as a companion to “The Stick Chair Book.” Not a substitute. The book took years of work to write and edit, and it goes into details that are impossible for a talking head to explain on a screen. But the video shows bodily motion in a way that print never can. Some things about chairmaking are so simple if you can just see the process unfold before your eyes.

We're not saying you should get both the book and the video. Instead, start with the one that appeals to you most. If you are a visual learner, the video is probably the correct choice. If you are first a reader, the book is what we would recommend.

Make a Stick Chair Video

What's Included with Purchase

• Streaming and full download access to all 18 chapters with no DRM (digital rights access)

• Download of the full-size patterns for the seat, arms, shoe and comb of the chair that can be printed out at any copy shop.

• Measured drawings of the two jigs shown in the video: the band saw jig for making octagons and the drilling jig for boring mortises in the arms and seat.

• A parts list, links for the tools shown in the video plus the recipe for the soft wax finished used on the chair.