A little
about Abel's Ohio Windsor 18th century Windsor chair, and Windsor
furniture creations.
Our Windsor chair
business is very small, but full of a lot of heart. We ( Bob & Connie)
gather our log material from our hometown area. To make our custom
order Windsor chairs. We try to stay within the boundaries of the
original Windsor design and construction, (18th century).
We use all
original hand tools in the making of our Windsor chairs. The wood
lathe, bench vise, and shaving horse are extensively used in the Windsor
shop.
The spindles are
riven, (split) from the log and whittled to size, with a drawknife and
spoke shave.
A two inch thick
block of wood is used in the making of the seat. While standing over
the seat swinging the gutter adz between my feet, the seat saddle is
roughed into shape. This is an interesting beginning for all the
Windsor chair seats.
The bows, arms,
and crest are riven and then steam bent on our own custom forms.
All our chair
legs, stretchers, medial stretchers and front arm spindles are riven
from the log, (usually hard maple) and roughed into round billets. They
are then stored to dry. Later they will be finished turned by hand with
much detain in creating these Windsor parts.
