The Woodshop Shed

Roorkee chair without a lathe

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


Decided to make a couple Roorkee chairs from Chris Schwarz's Campaign Furniture book. Also watched his video on Popular Woodworking, which was a big help with the leather working.The legs are tapered European beech and the dowels are some kind of maple (store bought dowels that I tapered with a plane enough to fit the Veritas tenon cutter). I may replace them with something harder eventually because even though they're strong, the tapered tenons have deformed a tiny bit and it might just get worse over time. Pick a very hard wood if you're going to make one for yourself.I tried a lot of varying tensions on the seat and thigh strap positions but didn't find the chair to be as comfortable as I'd hoped. Even with the back seat rung being lower, my butt kept sliding forward and losing circulation. I'd say it's have a cup of tea comfortable but not watch a movie comfortable. I made a wedged cushion and that helps a lot. I haven't oiled this one yet but the leather will get a fair bit darker/browner after that.The leather is Tandy's Oak Leaf veg tan. I opted to learn some stitching to double up the arm straps but the project is designed to be all done with rivets.If you have a lathe and a drill press, this should be a pretty low stress project.

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