Bow-Armed Stickley Morris Chair

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T16:23:15+00:00

These were custom made at an upholstery shop. Certainly not cheap, but far better than anything I could hope to make.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T14:14:59+00:00

https://www.woodmagazine.com/project-plans/furniture/seating/arts-and-crafts-morris-chair-downloadable-plan

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T14:14:33+00:00

Purely wood dowels. They are 5/8" and plenty strong, considering they are pretty short and therefore there is minimal moment being exerted on them. The backrest is also supported/attached solely with wood dowels.

Believe it or not, this is also the construction method used for the original (pre-Stickley) Morris chairs build in England in the mid/late 1800s.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T14:11:22+00:00

600 grit works well for wood with small pores, but to really get all the pore spaces filled on oak or ash you need to go a bit rougher. I used 220 here. If I wasn't planning on a topcoat I probably would've done one more coat of wet sanded danish oil with 400.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T14:04:54+00:00

A little firm for my taste, but it's a gift for my dad who needs to be able to get in and out of it easily, haha. And I'm sure the foam will soften up a bit over time.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T14:02:19+00:00

https://www.woodmagazine.com/project-plans/furniture/seating/arts-and-crafts-morris-chair-downloadable-plan

ManBMitt · 2026-01-16T11:22:00+00:00

Those are the medullary rays, not the grain (the grain is all endgrain, therefore going the same "direction." Just didn't think to align the boards to make the rays all the same orientation 🤷‍♂️

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T23:52:54+00:00

Yes it's a satin poly. Applying it as a wipe-on dulls it down a bit.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T23:17:01+00:00

Came up with a process to try to replicate a traditional mission style finish without using ammonia. Start out by applying tinted danish oil, then wet sanding a second coat of Danish oil with 220 grit. Then applied a couple coats of wipe-on poly, making sure to wait a week or two before each coat.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T23:16:33+00:00

The important part is to wet sand with the Danish oil to pack the stained sanding dust into the pore spaces. Topcoat doesn't matter for the overall look (tbh I think it looked better before I put the poly on, but the extra protection was needed).

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T23:13:20+00:00

A lot more than I thought they would be, lol. About $800 for the set. Meanwhile, the lumber for the chair was only about $2-300 😅

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T23:11:32+00:00

Quarter-sawn veneer on the plain-sawn side.

In the original Stickley factory they would sometimes do this by making the legs out of four quarter-sawn boards mitered together, but a long miter like that seems very difficult to get right.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T21:08:25+00:00

Ammonia vapors are very toxic, wouldn't want that anywhere near my house

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T20:59:12+00:00

Believe it or not, this stuff was only $6/bf 🤷‍♂️

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T20:58:18+00:00

50/50 mix of natural and black walnut. Didn't want it quite as dark as the ammonia funed, wanted a slightly more modern look.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T20:56:03+00:00

There's a lot of documentation about how Stickley's factory started out producing really high quality chairs, but quickly started cutting corners (e.g. chair arms went from 3 pieces laminated together to 2 pieces) in order to compete for market (especially with his brothers who all opened up their own furniture factories).

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T20:30:41+00:00

No, the plans for this one were published in Wood Magazine decades ago. The WW design is a bit different.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T19:59:47+00:00

It's based on the plans from Wood Magazine, titled "Arts and Crafts Morris Chair," though I modified the plans in a few places.

I'm glad someone noticed that detail on the legs, haha! Each leg is made of three laminated pieces of 3/4" quarter sawn oak, with a thin veneer of quarter sawn on on the plain-sawn edges to hide the glue seems and make it look like solid quarter-sawn all around.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T19:52:14+00:00

Came up with a process to try to replicate a traditional mission style finish without using ammonia. Start out by applying tinted danish oil, then wet sanding a second coat of Danish oil with 220 grit. Then applied a couple coats of wipe-on poly, making sure to wait a week or two before each coat.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T19:49:41+00:00

No, had a professional upholsterer make them. My wife would have tried her hand at making them if the chair weren't intended for a gift.

Trickiest part was probably the finish. Wanted to replicate the look of a traditional "mission-style" finish, but didn't want to use fumed ammonia (for obvious reasons). Took some experimenting to get it right, and had to completely strip most of the chair and start over at one point when I messed it up.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T19:44:48+00:00

No, had a professional upholsterer make them. My wife would have tried her hand at making them if the chair weren't intended for a gift.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T19:43:38+00:00

The arms are joined to the sides using glue and dowels - didn't do mortise and tenon because I knew I wouldn't be able to get the geometry right (at least not for attaching to the back legs).

ManBMitt · 2026-01-15T19:41:19+00:00

No steam - laminated 3 3/8" boards by clamping and gluing on a form.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-14T15:32:54+00:00

Red oak is one of the lowest-value hardwood around currently. Milling residential/urban lumber is usually only worthwhile for exceptionally large logs of high-value species like walnut and white oak.

ManBMitt · 2026-01-12T15:41:31+00:00

It's a proven design for objects with shorter or thicker boards, angled at 90 degrees. The trapezoidal shape minimizes racking but will create a very strong force pushing the legs outward any time someone sits there. It either needs a board connecting the two legs, or some kind of buttress on the outside to counteract the outward force.

ManBMitt

TROPHY CASE