Sin City Woodworkers: Adirondack Chairs Meeting

Jamie "holding court" in her Lyptus Chair

At our Sin City Woodworkers meeting last Wednesday the featured topic was a show and tell of the recent class Jamie taught on making Adirondack Chairs. It seems only right that a very tired Jamie would run the meeting from her "Lyptus Throne" after several long days helping her students to get ready for the evening. The chairs were absolutely stunning and as a teacher I can really appreciate the work that goes into them and teaching all of the skills needed to the entire class -- well done Jamie!
Adirondack Chairs originated in the Adirondack area of upstate New York which was a playground for the rich and famous. Their design is perfect for kicking back and having your Manhattan iced tea or whatever else you like to unwind with. People who sat in the various chairs the class made all commented on how comfortable they are. Although the designs were similar, each chair was customized by the builders to reflect what they wanted. Materials were chosen by each student and price varied from from $100.00 or so for those made of Poplar or Alder, a Redwood example was around $140.00, Cherry @ $150.00, to Bobbie's Mahogany pair at around $250.00 each.

King & Queen Version by Bobbie

These chairs, although they look similar, have subtle customized features. One is slightly larger in width and since Bobbie and her husband have long legs they feature a deeper seat. The Mahogany used will be oiled and should be beautiful.

Nikki's Version

Nikki designed her's for an older friend who needed a somewhat larger version than the standard size. She also elevated the seat to make getting in and out of the chair easier. That was one of my concerns, I can imagine sucking up a bunch of libations to unwind and then not being able to get out of the chair. Guess that's better than an anti-drunk driving interlock device on my car!!

Lupe's Cherry Version in Foreground, Poplar Example in Back

Here is one made of Cherry and the example below is made out of Redwood.

Steve's Redwood Version

Members noted the subtle differences with each chair. The designs of the back slats gave each one a distinct personality. Inspiration for one of them came from a chair the builder remembered her grandmother had. Other ones varied the spacing between the boards but the most obvious change was how the tops of the boards were cut, angled, or curved. On average the chairs took about 25 hours to complete -- time well spent to create a beautiful, heirloom project.

Before we started our discussion/admiration session on the chairs we talked about our next meeting, the Christmas end of the year one. We'll have an informal show & tell from all of us where you can bring in a project you've completed and want to share with the rest of the group. We did this last year and it was a good opportunity to see what type of work we like to do.

SawStop -- who hasn't heard of this machine? Well, it should be a lot of fun to watch this hot dog cutting machine in action! Jamie has gotten an extra blade and cartridge so we'll all get to witness first hand how this technology can save our digits.

An other thing for the Christmas meeting is there will be some kind of raffle for paid up dues members. From what I know they will be gift certificates to our favorite woodworking stores. The last item that came up was some samples of Smoked Poplar that Peterman lumber brought over for us to look at. Not sure how the process goes but it's purpose is to mimic Walnut, it'll sell for around $4.00 b/f in 4/4 stock.

The meeting ended with trying out the various chairs and just talking wood! Here are a few pictures of us during the meeting: