Replies

1. 
   TomHigby | Jun 17, 2007 04:41am | #1

   The title was, I think, "Make a Chair from a Tree". I don't remember the author.

   Tom

2. 
   xyloform | Jun 17, 2007 06:49am | #2

   John

     The book is "Make a Chair from a Tree: an Introduction to Working Green Wood"and the authors name is John D. Alexander. It was originally published in 1978 and I believe, re-printed in 1984. There is also an interesting article written by Mr. Alexander called "Holding the Work" in the Sept. 1978 issue of FWW.

      I'm one of these walking anachronisms that figures the last decent issue of FWW hit the shelves sometime in the early to mid 80s, ever since A.W. Marlow and Geo. Frank passed from the scene this magazine has gone straight to the crapper.

      The final straw for me was the ever controversial Sept./Oct.1984, No. 48 cover. Colour no less! The downward spiral continues!

      By the way, the original copy of the aforementioned book is 128 pages and cost me eight bucks! And no, you can't borrow it.

1. 
   Napie | Jun 18, 2007 06:03am | #5

   You are not alone, although, I think the quality sort of held on until the change to the small format, pretty much down hill from then on.

1. 
   xyloform | Jun 19, 2007 03:58am | #6

   Napie

      Do you read Woodwork Magazine? Perhaps a change is as good as a rest but Woodwork appeals to my current interests and esthetics, much more than FWW it seems. Somehow Tauntons quest for a broader audience and larger market share has rounded off the "edges"of their publications.  

      For the first three or four years much of FWW simply intimidated me. I was a trim carpenter looking for greater challenges and those early editions motivated me to persue cabinetry and furniture. It was a major reason why I spent two years working in Japan and has alot to do with why I have run my own shop for the better part of twenty years.

      FWW is an influencial and very successful enterprize. I can understand the necessity to serve a broader readership. Kitchens, bedroom and office suites pay the bills and support myself and my apprentices but I struggle weekly with going to the shop every day and looking at what is done there as a job. Truly interesting work comes along more as the exception than as the rule. I work hard to shape and direct the work I take on so that our experiences are continually expanding but I find I'm not always particularly sucessful. I hear people in the trade tell me they have twenty years experience but more often than not its the first two years repeated ten times, Woodwork mag,( and the early FFW mags), provide inspiration. 

      I guess FWW has in a way has become more of the job that I do and Woodwork is the equivalent of the direction I want to travel.... I think I'm straining the allegorical boundries and I'm don't remember what the hell this post was supposed to be about.

      Its twilight here and I think I have enough time to tend to my garden. Thats a job that that requires no motivational energy at all! Just as a side line re. gardening. When I returned from Japan and set up shop I wasted no time sending back pictures of my space, tools etc. The only reply from the Master was questions pertaining to the peonies growing at the front entrance. "Did they require supports? Did they require a certain type of soil? Would that species do well in his garden?" Nothing about my prideful pictures of tools and wood.

     I was told by the Master once to take my work very seriously but myself, much less so and if I ever must choose, Gardening is far better a past time than working wood.

      He may be right. 

     

     

       

3. 
   Stoneaxe | Jun 17, 2007 07:06am | #3

   John Alexander has a website

   http://www.greenwoodworking.com/

4. 
   oldusty | Jun 17, 2007 09:03am | #4

   Hi John ,

                 That book is an all time favorite of mine and I still have it and learned a great deal from it .

               I've never made a chair out of green wood but spent much time studying and grasping the concepts of Mr. Alexander .

            regards          dusty

5. 
   Lataxe | Jun 19, 2007 05:19pm | #7

   John,

   To at least partly answer you original question (as opposed to posting yet another pointless moan that FWW is not being written for me personally).......

   As an alternative to Mr Alexander try this book, available from author Mike Abbott only, here:

   http://www.living-wood.co.uk/

   I learnt to make greenwood chairs with Mike and he follows the Alexander tradition, except that he has taken it a little further in refining the method of jointing the round tenons of rail and stretcher into the chair legs.  In fact, I vaguely recall that Mike studied with John Alexander briefly (not sure though).

   The chairs are elegant and immensely strong, desite the complete absence of glue.

   Lataxe

    

1. 
   johnzeitoun | Jun 20, 2007 05:14am | #9

   Wow! Thanks to all. I certainly have the information I need and look forward to following up on them.

   If I had to choose gardening, I'd be out of a job fast.

   Jhttp://www.riverwoodworks.com custom cabinetry and canoes

6. 
   mvflaim | Jun 20, 2007 05:10am | #8

   This book is currently available from Half.com an eBay company.

   http://product.half.ebay.com/Make-a-Chair-from-a-Tree_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ1382529

    

7. 
   melonhead | Jun 20, 2007 07:16am | #10

   John:

   I don't know the book that you are looking for but I happened to be thumbing through an old copy of the first volume of the Foxfire series of  books dedicated to the preservation of the Apalachian mountain folks. There is an entire chapter that shows the making of a greenwood chair of hand split sections of white oak  logs. The seat is then woven from thin white oak splits.

   This is a link to the books --http://www.foxfire.org/prodFFbooks.html -- .  After looking it up on Google I realize that there are many more than the three volumes that I own, but the article / chapter that I was looking at is in book one.

    

   Regards,

   Bill