Harper's indoor book for boys

by Joseph H. Adams

A Plain Chair

Of all the pieces of furniture in the house, chairs are the ones most used, and, as they are subjected to hard usage, they should be well constructed and the joints carefully made.

In the plain chair shown in Fig. 1 the front legs are sixteen inches high, the back supports are thirty-four inches high, and all of them are one and three-quarter inches square. All the side-rails and the four that support the seat are two inches wide and three-quarters of an inch in thickness, so that the laps cut in the corner-posts (Fig. 2, A and B) will correspond in width and depth. The cross-cuts are made with a fine saw, and the wood removed with a broad firmer-chisel, taking care, however, not to cut deeper than three-quarters of an inch when removing the wood. Use a mallet to help the chisel, but do not seek to take out too much at one time; better try three or four times, and take a moderate bite each time, than run the risk of having a large chunk come out and bring with it some of the wood that should be left for the rail-end to lap against.

The rail at the front is eight inches above the floor, and those at the sides are four inches. At the back the distance is ten inches from the floor to the under side of the cross-rail. Take care to make the saw-cuts inside the two-inch mark, so that the rails will fit snugly into the corner-posts without any play. There is nothing so annoying in a chair as to have it loose-jointed and rickety.

A wooden seat sixteen inches square, with the rear corners cut out to fit around the back posts, is nailed or screwed fast to the top edges of the upper rails all around; and for the back a twelve-by-sixteen-inch piece is cut and screwed fast in the laps cut at the upper ends of the back posts, as shown in Fig. 2 B.

To make a comfortable back and seat, cover the wood with curled hair from an old mattress, or some cotton and dried moss; then tack unbleached muslin over it to hold it in place. For the final covering use burlap, denim, cretonne, or other stout fabric, that can be had at a dry-goods store for fifteen or twenty-five cents a yard. Draw it down and turn it under all around the edges of the back and seat, fastening with small tacks driven at regular distances apart.

Large, oval-headed upholsterers’ tacks painted black will appear to good advantage if driven about two inches apart along the edge of the goods. If they cannot be had, or are too expensive, a very good substitute may be made from sheet-lead or an old piece of lead pipe split open and beaten out flat.

From the sheet of lead cut disks three-quarters of an inch round with a cold-chisel, on the upturned face of an old flat-iron. With a small hammer beat the edges to resemble a hand-wrought nail-head, similar to those you may have seen in an old hand-bellows in a blacksmith-shop. These are to be painted black, and applied to the wood with slim, steel-wire nails, the heads of which will be invisible if they are driven well into the lead. The heads of the screws that fasten the lap-joints can be hidden with these mock nail-heads, as shown in the drawing.

A good black paint for the metal parts of furniture is made by adding dry lamp-black to some brass lacquer or shellac, so it will have the consistency of cream. It is then applied with a soft-hair brush to the surface of the metal, on which it will dry quickly. It often requires two or three days for oil paint to dry on metals, and it lasts no longer than the lacquer or shellac coating. Several small nails driven around the edge of the mock nail-heads will hold them in place, and to all appearances they will look like the large-headed, wrought bellows-nails.