Capstone A: The Democratic Side Chair

Everything in the plank-chair path funnels here: riven parts, shaved facets, a steam-bent crest, sightlines and resultants, tapered leg joints, seat carving, wedges, leveling, and a paint finish. Curtis Buchanan designed the small-d democratic chair for access—fewer tools and a process that invites people into chairmaking—and he publishes a 20-part build series covering splitting, drawknife shaping, crest bending, seat carving, boring, and assembly ¹.

This lesson is the project manager. Download the current plan from Buchanan’s store, keep it beside the build, and use its drawings for every dimension, sightline, resultant, pattern, and form ². No dimensions are reproduced here.

Definition of done

The capstone is complete when it:

• stands without noticeable rock on a verified flat surface;
• passes the stepped, weighted load test in Stage 7 without joint movement, new cracks, permanent set, or alarming sound;
• matches the controlling plan’s stance and back geometry;
• has smooth hand and leg paths without sharp facets, wedge ends, or splinters;
• documents material, moisture, deviations, and finish; and
• leaves enough evidence that a second chair can improve one chosen variable.

Do not make “looks like the video” a criterion. Your material and shop are real; the plan references and stop gates are the comparison.

Build the packet before the chair

Print or save the complete current plan at its intended scale. If any page is tiled or labeled full size, verify its control dimension after printing. Mark:

• seat centerline, front, and mortise centers;
• every sightline arrow and angle convention;
• bending-form pattern and grain direction;
• part names and pairings;
• tenon/mortise systems; and
• operations that require green, air-dried, or specially dried material.

Make three logs:

1. Parts log: blank source, growth-ring orientation, grain/runout notes, and final role.
2. Moisture log: date, location, reading/condition, and intended next operation.
3. Decision log: every departure from the plan, why, and what downstream step it affects.

Mnemonic: plan, parts, moisture, decisions. If one is missing, stop before shaping removes evidence.

Source the two material systems

The class description states that the green chair parts can come from a short section of strong, easily split wood such as oak, ash, or hickory, plus a seat of easily carved wood such as white pine, basswood, or tulip poplar ³. Treat those as classes of suitable material, then inspect the actual stock.

Riven undercarriage/back stock needs continuous fibers through slender parts. Reject checks, ring shake, rot, insect damage, abrupt grain runout, and knots in joint or bend zones. Split oversize and read the fiber before assigning a blank to the crest.

The seat blank needs enough sound thickness and area for the plan’s saddle and mortises. Mark defects on both faces. Do not position a leg or post mortise beside a check merely to save an attractive edge.

Stage 1: rive and shave structural parts

Split along the log’s radial structure using the method Buchanan demonstrates. Stand clear of the splitting path, control wedges, and support billets securely. At the shavehorse, keep hands behind the drawknife’s cutting path and use controlled strokes that follow fiber.

Make the parts in batches but return each to one plan template or story stick. Pair legs, posts, and stretchers; mark front/back and left/right. Preserve extra material at tenons and bend zones until their operations occur.

Stop gate: every blank has continuous grain, matches its template allowance, retains orientation marks, and has no fresh split entering a working zone.

Stage 2: bend and dry the crest

Prepare the bending form directly from the plan pattern. Check printed scale, fair the curve, anchor the form, and stage clamps before steam. Cold-rehearse the transfer and bending sequence. The companion class places whittling, crest bending, and drying together ³.

Use Buchanan’s schedule and stock guidance, not a generic “hour per inch” slogan. Steam burns; wear suitable gloves and eye protection, open the box away from face and arms, and keep the path to the form clear. Abort for lifted fibers, a sudden hinge, or a split.

Record blank condition, actual steam and transfer times, days on the form, and springback at fixed stations. Keep drying parts labeled and supported.

Stop gate: the crest matches the plan template after the specified conditioning period, no tension failure enters the finished outline, and the post/crest joint zones remain sound.

Stage 3: lay out, bore, and ream the seat

Flatten and orient the seat enough that the plan can register reliably. Transfer centerline, outline, and all mortise centers while broad references remain. Extend sightlines beyond the drill footprint. Beside every line, write the baseline: “off vertical” or “off seat,” exactly as the plan defines it.

Make a scrap drilling block at the seat thickness and rehearse each distinct angle. Then bore the chair. A helper can watch one projection while the operator watches the other; agree on short correction words before the bit starts.

Ream in short passes. Insert the assigned leg, read it along and across the sightline, and compare the foot with the full-size projection. Galbert’s chairmaking reference is the deeper explanation of compound geometry and tapered-joint fitting ⁴.

Stop gate: each dry-fitted leg reaches its intended seating reference, has broad taper contact, and projects its foot to the plan location without enlarging the mortise mouth unnecessarily.

Stage 4: carve the seat without erasing structure

Mark the plan’s depth contours and preserve no-carve zones around mortises and edges. Secure the seat so a scorp, inshave, travisher, or drawknife cannot drive it loose. Keep both hands behind cutting edges and change tools when grain reversal makes a cut unsafe.

Work depth and fairness together. A single deep hole is harder to blend than a broad shallow hollow. Use templates, straightedges, and raking light rather than touch alone. Leave final edge treatment until the seat has enough shape to judge hand and thigh paths.

Weigh or photograph progress only if it helps repeatability; the plan profile matters more than reaching an arbitrary thinness.

Stop gate: contours agree with the plan, protected joint zones remain intact, the seat has no isolated tool trench, and all layout needed for assembly is still visible.

Stage 5: undercarriage dry run and glue-up

Fit tapered leg tenons and straight stretcher joints to the method. Number every joint. Prepare wedges with grain and orientation marked. Rehearse assembly with the actual mallet, glue, wedges, and cleanup tools arranged in order.

Time the rehearsal. If parts need damaging force dry, they will not improve under glue. If a stretcher must bow to find its mortise, recheck joint direction and length rather than hoping clamps will normalize it.

During glue-up, seat joints to their reference marks and inspect from multiple directions before wedges become irreversible. Do not chase squeeze-out while geometry is still moving.

Stage 6: posts, spindles, and crest

Fit the complete back dry. Use the plan’s method for post, spindle, and crest mortises. The crest should not be used as a clamp to drag misdirected spindles into a pleasant arc.

Check:

• both posts agree in lean and height;
• spindle spacing reads evenly from the intended view;
• crest shoulders or tenons seat without twist; and
• the back assembly enters the seat without opening a split.

Stop gate: the whole upper structure assembles without forced correction, and the chair remains square to its intended centerline.

Stage 7: level, finish, and prove

On a verified flat surface, shim the chair until the seat has its intended attitude. Scribe all feet from one floor plane, trim conservatively, and retest after rotating the chair on the same surface. Remember level the seat, scribe the floor, trim the feet.

Use Buchanan and Bizzarri’s milk-paint session if choosing that finish; it covers mixing, surface preparation, application, rubbing, and topcoat options ³. Test the complete finish on offcuts and follow product ventilation and cure instructions.

Load-test it with weights before anyone sits, stepping up the load and inspecting between steps.

Finally, record one variable for chair two—perhaps spindle taper, seat texture, paint layers, or a workflow improvement. Do not redesign five things at once. The capstone becomes a practice when the next chair is a controlled iteration rather than a victory lap.