The Chairmaker's Workshop: Handcrafting Windsor and Post-and-Rung Chairs [Paperback]

Drew Langsner (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Lark Ceramics Book | Publication Date: June 30, 2001

“Ranks as one of the most comprehensive handbooks for handcrafting Windsor and post-and-rung chairs. There are plans and materials lists for a variety of post-and-rung and Windsor chairs, and galleries of old and contemporary chairs...also plans for a shaving horse, a spring-pole lathe, and two simple wood kilns.”—Woodshop News.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marshall, NC

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books; 2nd edition (June 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579902308
• ISBN-13: 978-1579902308
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We need more woodworking books like this one!, March 30, 2003

By 

Doh (Pickering, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chairmaker's Workshop: Handcrafting Windsor and Post-and-Rung Chairs (Paperback)

There are few woodworking books that cover a subject as well as this one. It isn't so much the depth of the coverage, but the completeness with which this book gives you the necessary information to cover the projects in question.

The book deals with tools, techniques, and has plans for just the chairs the average person drawn to this subject will want. That may sound fairly typical, but take tools. We don't just get a few pictures and lines per tool, we get information on how to build tools like a travishers, shaving horse, how to grind drill bits, or sharpen the specific tools the chairmaker will use. You get all the information you will need, and none of what does not apply to the subject. Drew is a retailer, teacher, tool designer, even takes tours to tool makers, so when he tells you about tools that's it.

Every part of the book has that kind of focus and concision. There are instructions on a workbench, but it isn't the usual kind, but obviously a chairmaking bench. I have a cabinetmaker's bench, and don't need one for chairs, but if you did, it's there.

Drew is an authority on certain chairs, and they're covered here. He isn't perhaps as much of an expert on Windsor chairs. But he brings all the necessary info into the book. I have a set of plans from Dunbar (the authority), but these plans leave all the critical measurements out. To get those, you have to take a Dunbar course. But the dimensions are here, and there is a chapter on how to develop your own plans, with an exhaustive table of angles that you can apply to any design. No nonsense, no holding back.

I wish more woodworking books were like this one. All the necessary information, on a prime topic. No necessity to bring together 5 other books to cover related topic. A large number of detailed plans for the most important pieces. As technical or as direct as you want. This book has book-depth information, with magazine like style (meaty sidebars) and currency of information.

The author holds nothing back, even though every word he writes might take away from his opportunity to sell you a tool, or a course. He just tells it straight regardless.

A masterpiece.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive book on traditional chairmaking., November 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Chairmaker's Workshop: Handcrafting Windsor and Post-And-Rung Chairs (Hardcover)

Drew Langsner has written the definitive book on traditional chairmaking. The plans are clear and careful. -- John Alexander, author, "Make A Chair From A Tree."

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for all chairmakers., November 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Chairmaker's Workshop: Handcrafting Windsor and Post-And-Rung Chairs (Hardcover)

This is Drew Langsner's best book to date. His book makes chairmaking something that any woodworker can accomplish. The illustrations are easy to understand. Many of the secrets of chairmakers are revealed. My favorite woodworking book.