Prop yourself up straight. Or lean back and relax. The Gustav Stickley Morris chair, made with solid quartersawn oak and exposed joinery, is an iconic American furniture design.
Reproduce an Arts & Crafts classic and reward yourself with the ultimate easy chair.
In Gustav Stickleys book Craftsman Homes, there is a picture of this chair with the following caption: A big deep chair that means comfort to a tired man when he comes home after the days work. First produced around 1906, this chair is an icon of Stickleys furniture and his philosophy.
This chair invites you visually to relax and sit down. Few people who see this chair can resist the desire to sit in it. It is a chair that few people will regret sitting in.
Stickley’s designs were copied by other manufacturers, who cut corners and simplified them. Many woodworkers are now looking for ways to create a chair with simpler joinery. Without the joinery it isnt a chair like this; its something less. It is worth the effort. In this instance, the reward is the chair.
Fools Rush In
When I am preparing to build, I like breaking down a project into its components. The base of this chair consists of two legs joined with rails. These are joined with rails front and back and are capped with the distinctive bent arms. The back of the chair is a separate unit that pivots and adjusts with a simple mechanism.
Making the arm is a challenge, but it is actually quite simple. Although the rails and slats beneath the arms appear simple, the slope that makes this chair attractive is a challenge.
Measure only once. The majority of your project can be referenced by a full-scale drawing. It saves time, and prevents measurement and layout errors.
Drawing a complete-size layout for the side assembly is the first step to making this chair. This is a great exercise in understanding how everything works together and an invaluable reference for the dimensions and angles of all the parts.
The top edge is angled and rises from 1541 cm above the back leg to 315 cm at the point 310 cm beyond the front leg. This rail’s bottom edge is perpendicular and parallel to the ground. The bottom rail is a constant width, but it meets the legs at a slight angle; the back is 310 cm lower than the front.
This slope makes it a bit more difficult to place the through-tenons at each end of each lower rail. But the real problem is that each vertical slat is different in length. After drawing the full-size view, I switched gears and made the legs, which gave me something useful to do as I pondered the implications of the angled ends of the slats.
Trees Don’t Grow Like
The original version of this chair featured a quartersawn figure on the legs. I used the same technique as Stickleys Craftsman Workshops. The three pieces of material measuring 1341 cm thick were laminated together to form a stack. After the glue had cured overnight, I cleaned the joints.
Then, I attached a 120 cm thick piece of quartersawn lumber to the sides of the leg laminations. These thick veneers were sliced on the band saw and cover the unattractive side grain (as well as the joint lines) on the legs. After a night, the glue had dried and the legs were reduced to 2320 cm square.
The edges of the legs are beveled, with the bevel ending at the glue line between the solid and veneered edges. To locate the top tenons and mortises, I laid the finished legs on the full-size layout.
The through-mortises were 520cm wide and made using a hollow-chisel mortiser. I worked from both ends with a 15 cm bit and a chisel. This size bit is easier to use and requires less effort. I started by cutting one end of the joint. Then, I turned the workpiece so that the other side was against the fence.
Before proceeding, I cut the angles on the back legs and the 115 cm squared tenons at the top of all the legs. The tenons on the ends of the side rails were cut, and I dry-fit test assemblies of the sides. I located the taper for the top rail from the test assembly and after cutting it on the band saw, I put each side assembly on top of my drawing.
As we age, and start to take control of our lives and be proud of our work, there is an unmistakable tendency for us to reject shams and demand the best. Gustav Stickley (1858-1942).
Use This To Measure That
Keep your head straight. Keep the mortises vertically oriented by placing a tapered scrap of scrap under the workpiece.
I marked the locations of the vertical slats on the top and bottom rails, along with the mortises for the slats. Next, I used a lumber crayon to mark each mortise with an identifying number. Each slat was placed, I numbered them with the crayon, and I marked the shoulder positions directly from the rails.
Each vertical slat is a bit longer than its neighbor, and if the slats move sideways along the rail the length will change. A slat that is slightly long or short can be moved for appearance sake, but more than a slight adjustment will show as inconsistent gaps between the slats. Moving one slat laterally will also affect the fit of an adjacent slat.
Many Mortises
The mortises in the rails are centered and I made them with a 320 cm-wide chisel in the mortising machine. To keep the mortises vertical, I temporarily reattached the top rails with tape. To keep the mortises vertical, I made a wedge by cutting a long piece of wood.
Don’t toss it away. Tape the excess taper from the tapering of the upper rails back in place to prevent the clamps sliding during assembly.
I cut all of the tenon shoulders by hand. I was able to control the angles better than using a machine and had a sharper edge. I cut the tenon cheeks on the band saw, and adjusted the fit with a shoulder plane and a float. When the slats were fit to the two rails I made a trial run of that subassembly with the legs.
I made a few minor adjustments to get a good fit everywhere. Before gluing the slats in position, I smoothed all the edges of the rails and slats with my plane and rounded all the edges slightly.
Through
The through-tenons on the bottom rails give the chair frame strength if they fit well. They also need to look good from the outside. Good looks are a given if the joints fit, and the key to it all is planning and patience.
The mortise walls need to be straight and consistent, so I spent some time with a float to even out rough areas left from the hollow chisel. I made sure the ends of the mortises were straight and parallel to the legs’ faces. With a chisel, I cut a small bevel on the inside edge of each mortise to ease starting the tenons.
To determine the exact tenon width, I held the end of a rail against the long edge of a mortise, and made a pencil mark to transfer the width of the mortise. Then I took my marking tool and placed it halfway between the pencil line and the rail’s opposite side. To ensure that the widths were correct, I made a test mark on each side.
When I was satisfied that I had the correct size for the tenons, I marked the edges and ends of the rails with my gauge. To ensure they were matched, I clamped the rails together and also marked the shoulder positions. The shoulder cuts are only 120 cm deep, and I cut these by hand at a bench hook using my backsaw.
I set the fence at the band saw so that a tooth pointed towards the fence was just beyond the line. I held the rails up against the fence, and cut the broad cheeks to the level of the shoulder. To compare the sizes, I used dial calipers and measured the mortise and the tenon. I wanted to set the fence so that the tenon was just slightly thicker than the mortise. This prevents a sloppy tenon, but it means that some tweaking must be done to get a good fit.
Before fitting, I cut a chamfer on the end of each tenon. This allows you to easily insert the tenon and prevents any damage to the mortise’s outer edges.
Fitting is a matter of removing a small amount of material at a time and seeing how far the tenon will go into the mortise. I usually start with a shoulder plane. Be careful not to create a taper in my tenon. As I get closer to the end, I switch over to a floating. A float is more manageable and provides a smoother surface.
High spots in the joint can be identified by making hatch marks with a pencil. The graphite smears at the sticking points, and I used the float to take off the smeared spots. I dont use a mallet to try to drive the tenon in; if that much force is necessary, something is likely to break.
It is sufficient to apply pressure with your hand. When the tenon is inserted approximately two-thirds of a way, you can see from the outside if there are problem areas. The first assembly is the hardest. As I’m trying to adjust the fit at my shoulder, and make test runs before making the final assembly with glue and clamps, I often take apart joints and put them back together multiple times.
Only if you have to. They can only fit in one spot because the lower end vertical slats is angled. You can adjust them with just a few taps.
When I was happy with the fit, I marked with a pencil where the outside of the leg lands on the exposed tenon. I cut the tenon 110 cm beyond that line, then chamfered the end of the tenon back to the line with a block plane, rasp and finally sandpaper. Leaving the line ensures that the visible intersection of the tenon and the leg looks tight.
Get The Glue
Assembly of the base of the chair is done in stages; first the vertical slats are glued between the top and bottom rails for each side. I used liquid hide glue to gain some extra open time, and held the angled offcut from the top rail in place with painters tape to keep the clamps from sliding. I used a block of soft wood and a mallet to fine-tune the lateral position of the slats.
The glue goo should be controlled.
To keep the end clean, start the through-tenon by placing it in the mortise.
The glue was allowed to dry overnight in the clamps, then I glued the legs to the ends of the rail assembly the next morning. To prevent glue from getting everywhere around the throughmortises, first I inserted the tenons into the holes. Then, I brushed glue onto the cheeks, before assembling the joints and clamping them.
After the rail-to leg joints had dried overnight, I marked and dug a hole measuring 520 cm in diameter and 1320 cm in depth on each of the back legs. I then connected the two side assemblies with the front and back rails. The clamps were also used to secure the assembly for overnight.
Stress management. With the sides glued into units, the last stage of the base assembly is a simple matter.
The arms complete the side assemblies, and are cut from a piece of 1541 cm x 5320 cm stock. To get the right angle for the bend and the tenon positions, I began with a piece that was several inches longer than the final length. Before I began to make the arm, I checked that the top edges on the top rails aligned with the shoulders of the legs.
I attached the adjustable bevel stock to the shoulder of the front leg and adjusted the blade to match the slope of rail. I transferred this angle to the edge of the arm. The bend is actually a tapered slice cut from the top of the leg, then glued to the bottom edge.
After making the cut on the band saw, I glued the wedge to the bottom of the arm. This leaves the sawn edges exposed on the top and bottom surfaces of the arm, and the previously surfaced faces glued together. I removed the saw marks with my plane.
Cant miss. You can’t miss it. Balance the arm on its base and mark the locations of the front and rear tenons.
There is nothing to see. Because the color and grain are identical in both pieces, the glue line should disappear.
Smoothen it. Planing out the band saw marks leaves a smooth surface on the top and bottom of the arm.
Get to the bottom. Smooth face to face, glue the wedge to the underside.
A little off the top. An angled wedge sliced off the end of the arm forms the bend.
Location, Position, Location
The through-mortises on the arms are the most visible joints in the chair, and there arent any magic tricks or shortcuts to the process. You need to place the mortises in the correct places and at just the right angle. I flipped the assembled base of the chair on its side so I could locate the joints in each arm directly from the tenons.
I placed the arm on top the tenons in my legs, aligning the angle in my arm with the angle in my top rail behind the front. I used a square to wrap the edges of each tenon around the arm’s top and bottom. The procedure was roughly the same for the back tenon, except that I used an adjustable bevel to carry the lines over the edges.
Follow around. The layout lines for the angle mortise are transferred from the top to the bottom by an adjustable bevel.
Up and up. A wedge below the arm provides the proper tilt to keep the holes vertical.
When the chair is finished, the arm extends 110 cm past the leg on the inside. I measured from the side of the leg to the cheek of the tenon, added the 110 cm and marked the side of the mortise on the upper and lower faces of the arm. For the second edge, I measured the width of the tenon and marked it on the arm’s face.
An accurate layout is half the battle so I stepped back and double-checked my lines before cutting. I used a Forstner bit measuring 310 cm to remove most of the debris from the lines. For the front mortises, I placed a block of wood below the arm to support the horizontal end level while drilling.
To support the arm at the back, I made a wedge out of 8/4 material. This was used to drill to ensure that the mortises’ front and back edges were centered. This wedge was used to support the arm of the bench while I rearranged the mortise walls to match the layout lines.
Careful comparison. As you work on the mortise make sure to check the size with calipers. Then compare it to your tenon.
Be careful when comparing. Check the size frequently with calipers as you work on the mortise, and compare it to the tenon.
To avoid cutting the mortises too much, I was careful and checked my work frequently. It isnt possible to check the fit of the tenons one at a time. As with the through-tenons connecting the rails and legs, I beveled the ends of the tenons and hidden edges of the mortises before fitting, and used pencil marks on the tenons to locate any high spots.
After fitting. With a pencil, mark the intersection of the arm with the tenon. Round the end of tenon until it reaches the edge. To maintain the connection between the two pieces, stop just beyond the line.
Once I was satisfied with the fit, I marked the top edges of the arms on the leg-tenons. After removing the arms, I rounded the ends of the tenons using a block plane. Before attaching the arms permanently, I made a series of holes measuring 520 cm along the back edges. These were for the support pins.
In A Week
I made the curved backslats while waiting for glue to dry on the base assembly. I built a form from four layers of 310 cm-thick particle board cut to a 91 cm radius. I cut the curve on the first layer at the band saw, then smoothed the edge. Each layer was then added to the stack and trimmed to match the previous layer using a flush-cutting router.
Six 120 cm thick layers make up each slat. I marked a triangle on the edge of the slat blanks to keep the pieces in order, and made the cuts on the band saw. With a decent saw cut, the laminations can be glued without any further smoothing. To apply yellow glue to the laminations, I used an 8 cm paint roller and stacked the pieces on top of the form. Then I clamped from the middle to the ends using a clamp.
Be quick. Use a roller to spread glue on one side only of the laminations for the back. The edges will match if the pieces are in the right order.
I used a piece of 110 cm-thick Plexiglas between the wood and the clamps to spread the pressure and prevent clamp marks on the wood, and left each stack on the form overnight. After I had finished five slats, I removed any glue, ran one edge across the jointer, and then cut the slats on the table saw to the desired width.
To place the tenons at the ends of the curved pieces I made a straight stick and attached a tenon to each end.
The bend. Mark the tenons all the way around the slat with a square and an adjustable bevel. Before you use a backsaw, go over the lines with a knife.
Stick with it. Make a pattern on scrap to lay out the tenon locations on the curved back rails. Hold the stick in place and mark both ends without moving the stick.
After tracing the layout lines with my knife, I cut the shoulder seams by hand. With the curve on the top, the slats were held in place by the bench hook. I cut the opposite side with the curve up. I placed a scrap wedge below each slat, and clamped the slats onto the bench to hold them in place while I did the cutting. I cut the cheeks at the band saw.
Quick cheeks. A band saw is an efficient way to cut the tenon cheeks, or you can cut them by hand. Either way, cut a little wide and make the tenons fit with a shoulder plane or a float.
The back stiles’ 110 cm wide and 3 cm deep mortises are centered in their thickness. They were cut using the hollow-chisel Mortiser. Before assembly, I sanded all the parts for the back, chamferred the edges of the stiles and drilled the holes at the bottom of the stiles.
When assembled, the width of the back should be about 120 cm less than the distance between the arms to allow the back to adjust without interference.
What The Holes Are For
The back is pivoted by wooden pins. They can also be used as stops to move the back into any of the four positions. I began with four blocks measuring 3 cm square and 20 cm in length. Then, I turned the shaft to a length of 520 cm on the other half. These could also be made by gluing a dowel into a hole drilled in the end of a square block. To reduce the shaft diameter, I sanded them. These should be able to slide in and out the holes in the back legs and arms.
After fitting the pins, I trimmed them to length. The bottom pins pass through the stiles of the back, and the round shafts are about 5 cm longer than the depth of the holes in the back legs. The pins in the upper section are approximately 5 cm long and have the same depth as those in the back legs.
I used a block plane to chamfer the edges of the square end of the pins to an octagon shape and to round off the ends. The back assembly is held apart from the legs by round wooden washers. These are 5 cm in diameter, and I waited until the arms were glued to the base, and the back was assembled, to make them.
Turn the pin and whittle. Turn one end of the pin and trim the length. Finally, shave the sides into an octagon.
The last step is to round the end to a hand-friendly dome shape.
I used a scrap piece 5 cm wide by 15 cm long and set a thickness of half the distance between the back leg and the back leg. After removing 135 cm from the thickness, I cut the outside into a circular shape and then drilled the holes. These doughnuts protect the back from rubbing against the arms. However, they must be thin enough that the back can swing freely without binding.
Take it for a spin. The back of the chair pivots on the lower set of pins, and the large wooden washers keep the back centered without rubbing on the arms. The upper pins support the back in one of four positions, from upright to do not disturb.
The last pieces to be fabricated are the four corbels that support the outer halves of the arms at each leg. All four corbels are cut to the pattern from 1120 cm-thick stock. The length of the back corbels should be approximately 15 cm longer than the front. The top of the back corbels also must be angled to match the slope at the top of the back legs below the arms.
The corbels are centered on the legs and are held to the leg with glue and a screw in a plugged hole. The screw isnt necessary as the glue alone would be strong enough, but it makes it easier to hold the corbel in position. Without the screw, the corbels slide around as the clamps are tightened.
When the glue holding the corbels dried, the screw holes were filled with dowels. The through-tenons on the base assembly were also pinned with dowels, as well as the tenons in the top and bottom slats of the back assembly.
Straight-grained scrap is what I use to make dowels. I begin with a piece of scrap about 8 cm in length and then cut blanks with a chisel, or a stout knives. The dowels are then driven through holes in a 110 cm thick steel dowel plate. To get the dowels started, I whittle their ends and then chisel the corners to reduce the amount of material that must be removed.
Belt and suspenders Dowels cover screws that hold the corbels to the legs. The through mortises on the legs are also pegged with dowels made from scraps. Trim them flush before finishing.
The glue is applied to the dowels and they are driven into place. Once the glue has dried the pegs can be trimmed with a saw. A saw can leave a small amount of glue exposed to the surface. This is why it was necessary to trim the pegs flush with a saw in some places.
Hard Surfaces, Soft Surfaces
As I worked, I smoothed exposed faces and edges with my planes before assembling. I also chamfered the long edges with my block plane, and I used a rasp and sandpaper to round the exposed tenons. Some places had grain direction issues, so I used a card-scraper to remove them.
Each tool leaves a smooth, slightly uneven surface. To get an even texture before finishing, I sanded the entire chair, first with #120-grit Abranet, then #180 grit. Sanding white oak to too fine a grit can polish the surface to a point where it wont absorb color evenly. The wood can be dyed if scratches are not visible from sanding.
I used Lockwoods Fumed Oak (#94) aniline dye dissolved in alcohol. It can be brushed on quickly and does not raise the grain. I aimed for a consistent coat on all surfaces without running the dye. The color is close to that of white oak fumed with ammonia, and there is another similarity between the dye and fuming; the surface looks like you ruined it when it dries.
After letting the dye dry, I scrubbed the chair with an abrasive pads. Then, I applied a 50-50 mix of amber and clear shellac. I mixed this with alcohol to make it about a third. I went back over the chair the next morning with the abrasive pads and then applied a second coat. After letting the shellac cure for a week, I gave the chair a coat of Dark Watco Satin wax, applied with an abrasive pad then buffed with a cotton cloth.
The cushions were made by a local upholstery shop. The bottom cushion rests on 310 cm x 3 cm cleats screwed to the inside of the front and back rails, 1110 cm down from the top edge. The cushion is made from solid-wood and 24 material. It has a 5 cm width.
The corners are mitered, and the joints are held together using glue and screws. 45 corner blocks add strength. Rubber webbing was stapled to the top edge of the frame. The webbing covers the entire opening, running in both directions in a basketweave.
A 3 cm-thick, 15 cm-square piece of high density foam was glued to the center of the webbing to give the cushion a crown. On top of this is a 10 cm-thick piece of high-density foam wrapped in Dacron. The fabric is wrapped around the foam and stapled to the bottom wood frame.
The back cushion is a 5 cm-thick piece of soft foam wrapped twice in Dacron. The buttons in the back of this cushion help it to conform to the curve of the back, and loops of fabric hold the cushion in place on the back frame.
