In my post about Chair Number 9 I wrote about the Chair Number 8 disaster. I made so many mistakes on Chair Number 8 that I eventually cut it up and threw the pieces in the scrap box.

Well, once Chair Number 9 was finished I decided that I couldn’t stand to let those cut up parts go to waste. So I dug the seat, arm bow and crest rail out of the scrap box, sanded them down and cleaned them up. I had barely enough London Plane left in the shop to make new legs, sticks and stretchers. There are a few pin knots here and there, but nothing that would compromise the strength.

I made the new back sticks a bit thicker than the originals and gave all the sticks an octagonal shape below the armbow. I narrowed the arm bow and rounded it on top. I also took extra care to keep the legs and sticks aligned. This was challenging since I was now drilling through the original legs and sticks, the holes for the legs wound up much wider than normal.

The London Plane was very prone to blotching. So instead of using orange shellac I used colourless Osmo for the finish. I used hide glue on this chair, my first experience with that material. Glue up and assembly went well, and the finish shows no signs of blotching.

The weird grain and figure of the London Plane is there in all it’s glory.

London Plane from the VIWG wood rescue program, Osmo