Last week I wrote an article about having patience in the shop. The inspiration for that article came from the two Adirondack Chairs that were nearing completion in my own shop. If you’ve ever built a Greene & Greene project, you know that the real magic occurs at the end when the soft subtle curves become punctuated by the pillowed ebony plugs. Since I had two chairs on the bench, I had to make 68 of these little buggers! Talk about testing your patience! After tapping a few plugs into place, I knew that all the hard work was well worth it!

So here’s the final product. One chair made with Honduran Mahogany from a local source (left) and the other made from plantation-grown Fiji Mahogany from Bell Forest Products (right). As always in the Guild, I try to show numerous options in materials, techniques, and finishes. Since I had two chairs, this was the perfect opportunity for a comparative experiment. One chair received two coats of Watco Teak Oil and the other received two coats of Sikkens Cetol Marine. The Sikkens actually contains some pigment which is partly responsible for the cleaner more consistent look of the chair on the right.

Personally, I think the chair on the left has more personality, so here are a few more photos for you to check out:

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I gave some thought as to how I would approach making these and ultimately came up with two ways. The first was more of a “brute force” method. I used a router to create the through grooves. I then used the dovetail saw to extend the walls of the groove into the bevel. And finally, a chisel was used to create the bevel itself. A fine rasp was then used to give everything that classic Greene & Greene softness.

The end result is a fairly close representation of the original. So what about the second method? Well, suffice it to say I was so focused on filming that I forgot to take a few photos. But the concept is fairly simple. Instead of routing the grooves, I simply rip the board into strips of appropriate size. The two strips that represent the grooves are then cut at the tablesaw to introduce the bevels. Once everything is sanded, the parts are then glued back together and the end result is nearly identical to the first version. Pictured left, you can see the “brute force” version on the top and the “rip & glue” version on the bottom.

With the aprons complete I was able to move onto the lower back support, which had its own fun and interesting challenges. Primarily cutting the contour shape and then adding a 7 degree bevel. Fun stuff. But the base is pretty much complete and next we’ll be moving on to the arms and top back support. An incredibly fun project so far!

Tapered Leg Indent

The Greene & Greene Adirondack Chair features a nice tapered indent on the front legs. This feature is much easier to make than it might first appear. A simple jig (inspired by Darrell Peart’s design) straddles the leg and when used with a router outfitted with a straight bit and guide bushing, its a no-brainer. A perfect indent every time!

Three Leg Options

Now because this is a Guild Build, I like to show alternative options whenever possible. So I decided to try my hand at carving a foot similar to one I saw on a Greene & Greene plant stand. I have absolutely no training in carving so I just did my best to replicate the design and the results were passable. Still needs some refinement and I can definitely use more practice. But you get the idea.

As a third option, I showed how to make a leg that is commonly found in Greene & Greene pieces and it features nothing more than a little slope at the foot on all four sides. Here’s a nice shot of all three leg options. I’m still going with the tapered leg indents, but it was nice to review a few different designs.

Angled Tenons

The next thing I worked on was the side legs of the chair. The trickiest part about these bad boys is the angled tenon. But my Incra 3000 was up to the task! Some careful attention to the miter angle along with a razor sharp dado blade results in perfect angled tenons.

A Close Shave

After a test fit, I noticed my tenons were just a little long. So I decided to shave a few thousandths off using my smoother. I just sharpened the iron last week so I was anxious to see what this puppy could do. After a couple passes I was pulling up .002″ shavings. Now that would put a smile on any woodworker’s face!

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The Dogs

And on a completely off-topic note, Jax and Lexi wanted to say hi. Don’t let Lexi’s smile fool you. She’ll rip your face off if you try to come into her yard. And Jax, well, let’s just say he has been working for years on his special trick: balancing a single blade of grass on the tip of his nose.

Every year, I like to take some time off for my own woodworking eduction. I truly believe that a craftsman never stops learning. Even when you think you know all there is about a technique or topic, there is always something to be gained from another perspective. A 5-day class at the William Ng School fits the bill quite nicely for an educational adventure.

The William Ng School is located in Anaheim, Ca and features class projects that really speak to me; lots of Asian-influenced work as well as numerous Greene & Greene pieces. Also, its only about a 6 hour drive, so I can build any size project and bring it back with me. The instructors are always top-notch and the shop assistants are helpful and knowledgeable. The lunches are excellent and there is always enough coffee and green tea to go around.

If you’ve never taken a 5-day class, I’d highly recommend it. You will be amazed at what you can build with no distractions in a well-outfitted shop. I’m not sure at what point in my life five days of non-stop manual labor became fun, but I’m there now! This is my ideal vacation!

Last year, I attended Darrell Peart’s Aurora End Table class (see the 6 Days to Aurora series of posts), so this year I decided to take William Ng’s Greene & Greene Coffee Table class. The tables compliment one another and more importantly, Nicole has been waiting patiently for me to build her a coffee table for the last ten years! Scratch one off the honey-do list!

Part of this little vacation is NOT documenting every step of the process, but I do enjoy taking photos. So that’s what I have for you here: a pictorial that documents the process in pictures. I hope you enjoy.

First I laid out the spacing for the 5×7 pictures. Next I grabbed a video clip from Marc’s video and imported that into my file. I stretched and squashed that image to fit my layout and made that a background image. I then followed that image to create the line drawings I used for my templates. I adjusted those line drawings to be of pleasing proportions. I then printed the whole project on my laser printer. Since my laser printer only prints 8 1/2 x 11, I had to print it out in multiple sheets and tape them together for a full size set of plans, which I used to create templates.

Selecting lumber was next. I wanted the bottom piece and center sections to be lighter in color so I found a piece of light colored mahogany for the bottom, and veneered plywood for the center section. 1/4″ ply is not thick enough to allow for the glass, picture, and cardboard backer, so I added 1/16″ to that. I wanted the top and sides to be darker because they were to create the visual interest and weight of the project. The top needed to be fairly straight grain so it wouldn’t interfere with the straight lines of the 3/16″ and 1/8″ ebony bars. I wanted the sides to have some grain interest, and I found a board the served that purpose.

Once I had the lumber selected, I needed to step back and figure out how I was going to cut things. The grooves in the top for the ebony were cut on the router table. I laid everything out and cut them by dropping the board down onto my bit. I also laid out and cut the rabbets that the plywood would set in. These were done on the router table as well. Next was to attach the templates and cut the pieces out. That was all pretty straight forward. Once the holes were cut in the plywood for the pictures, the corners needed to be squared up. Now for the tricky part. I cut the bars for the top and used a scraper to finesse them to where they fit the groove nice and tight. After rounding them over and smoothing them up, they fit like a glove. The same goes for the ebony plugs. Marc covered this in his video. Now what to do with the center holes? I wanted an ebony surround, but it had to be strong and cover any edges, this took me a while to come up with a plan. I first cut an 1/8″ groove on the edge of my ebony stock, then flipped it around, and then cleaned out the center. Next was to cut it off at 1/4″ and create a U shaped channel. Now laying the channel on it face U is up. Once cut, you end up with trim that is a 1/4″ square with an 1/8″ groove down one side. The groove is placed over the edge of the plywood so part is glued to the face of the plywood and the other face is glued to the side of the hole cut in the plywood. This creates a shoulder for the glass and picture assembly butts up against. Doing this adds another level of interest to the center of the frame, instead of just being flat.

Finishing up with 2 coats of Watco natural oil (I think this adds depth of the wood), then 4 coats of a wiping varnish. I like to use 50-50 mineral spirits, and polyurethane. Sand between coats with 320 grit, last coat gets a sanding with 600 grit using watco oil as a lubricant. Then after cleaning that up I use a good quality wax and buff. This makes the wood feel soft to the touch.

Things I learned along the way were. I had never used a shooting board. So I made one of those. Designed and created templates, I have done half laps before, but not like these. There several challenges to overcome with this project, and it was fun trying to figure out all the gotchas before I got started. And the biggest thing was I had never heard of Greene and Greene prior to seeing Marc’s mirror project, and maybe someday I will build his mirror frame as well.

P.S I would love for my 8th grade shop teacher to see this project, because he flunked me in woodworking class.

The second thing I want to mention is a new product from our good friend Charles Neil. He concocted a new pre-stain conditioner that seems to work wonders on blotch-prone woods. You guys know as well as I do that preventing blotch is the easy part. Getting the wood to accept the stain afterwards is the real challenge. Neil’s formula seems to provide that perfect balance in a water-based product. I haven’t used the stuff myself yet but you can see it in action by watching the video below. And if you want to order a can or two, you can do so here.

This video is an accompaniment to my column in the Aug. 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. The video focuses on pillowing ebony pegs, an adornment commonly found in Greene & Greene style furniture. The method is adapted from Darrell Peart’s techniques. Now although the video focuses on the pegs, the article shows you how I built my John Hall frame reproduction. And if you want to build one yourself, you can download the article and the full-size templates below.

Download the PDF of the article and the full-sized patterns, courtesy of Popular Woodworking.

There is sure to be some deja vu here. Some of you may remember me linking to this when the original article was released. But once again, this is an opportunity to add this video to my site archive, while giving you an opportunity to download the PDF of the article for free. Guild members will have even more deja vu since I produced a similar but more in-depth video that now lives in the Guild Archive.

I have attached some photos of my Wood Whisperer inspired, Hall replicated, Greene & Greene designed frame. I actually finished it a while ago but didn’t have a chance to get the pics off my phone to email them to you. That is my family from left to right; Paige, Carolyn (my wife), Brie, me, & Xavier.

The inspiration for the frame was borne directly from Darrell Peart’s website (The frame is a gift to my wife). I intended to duplicate his frame (on a much smaller scale) for this project but decided upon a continual radius for the bottom rail. All frame joints are mortise and tenon with solid Ebony plugs. The smaller ebony plugs on the face are simply glued in place. The finish is 7 parts green dye stain (GF) : 4 parts medium brown dye stain (General Finishes) with 7 coats of General Finishes semi-gloss Arm-R-Seal Topcoat and finalized with Renaissance Wax.

The most enjoyable aspect of the project was the fabrication of the panel as I had just built a vacuum press (using the plans provided by Joewoodworker.com). Building the press was an entirely separate but equally enjoyable endeavor (more of that some other day, though). I found the sheets of veneer via an online website and was immediately taken by the Maple quilted crotch pattern. This was my first attempt at jointing and applying a veneer to a substrate via the press so the process was a little more time consuming than was probably necessary. Though I had difficulty exacting the joint I think the result was certainly acceptable. I used 1/4″ MDF as the substrate and Better Bondâ„¢ Veneer Glue (also purchased from Joewoodworker.com).

As with all my Popular Woodworking columns, this one has an accompanying video on pillowing ebony plugs. You can check that out here.

And finally, if you are looking to actually make one of these beautiful Hall Frames, you can download the templates here.