CREATING A MEDIEVAL CHAIR - follow my step by guide on making your very own medieval wooden camp chair!

Here is a cool little project based on a historical chair (a Curule chair) that I wanted to try and recreate.

This is a original 15th-16th century piece that I have based my design off.

Id seen some similar reproductions and seen how the come together, and thought I recon I could reproduce this!

One day I was at Bunnings (our main hardware chain in OZ) and there was a sale on all these pieces of dressed pine DAR (picture). I thought hmmm lets give it a crack.

MATERIALS LIST
1- 13 x DAR (dressed pine) 45 mm x 20 mm x 1.8 m
2- 1 x hardwood dowel 15 mm diameter x 1.8 m
3 1 x 45 mm x 45 mm Dressed pine
4- nails
5- bees wax
6- 80 and 120 grit sandpaper
7- PVA glue

CUTTING THE PIECES TO SIZE

12 of the DAR were cut to 930 mm (these will be the 'frame')
the off cuts were cut at 45 degrees on one side and square at 90 degrees on the other for a total length of 300 mm (x 12). These will be the seat.

The 13th piece will be used for hand rail at the end.

Using a drill press ( the holes need to be perfectly perpendicular to the face of the wood) and hole saw attachment, I cut a 15mm diameter hole at the half way point and at the non angled end of the short pieces of wood and.

I next drilled a dowel hole at the half way point of the long pieces of DAR, and again 220 mm from the center point.

CONSTRUCTION
The next part would be much easier if I was an octopus! Get someone to help!

I cut the dowel roughly to length (for the four hinge points).
These then needed a bit of sanding and waxing to go through all 12 pieces of wood. This is where a drill press and exact positioning of each hole is really important. I was actually really worried about this in the planning stage, but besides not being an octopus this came together really easy!

You will need to run the first piece of dowel through the central hole of the 12 long pieces.

After alternating the shorter pieces so the bevel of the first piece is to the right, the next left and so on. run the dowel through the center hole.

The next part, with another pair of hands. You will next need to alternate the long pieces of wood. The picture below shows the layout.

Next run the dowel through the holes connecting the alternating long pieces with the short pieces.

You will now have your very own wooden hedgehog!

I was actually really excited when this worked first time...Work work projects never work the first time!

As this was a bit of a prototype, I next made very simple hand and leg rails.

Working with wood is tricky, being a natural product wood can have natural bends in it that can create challenges. If you can see the tops of the long pieces are not all lined up.

Fortunately being pine I was able to straighten out the wood so the arm rests lined up fairly evenly with the top of the 'frame' pieces.

The leg rails were made by ripping the 45 x 45 mm piece at 45 degrees. The 'frame was then attached as for the hand rails as per the picture below.

Finally the dowel was cut size with about a 10 mm overlap on each side.

I created some wooden knobs which I drilled and then attached and glued to the dowel.

After this I sanded the wood and applied bees wax with a cloth to finish it.

I was very surprised how easy this was to build! Its also one of the most fun wood working projects I have completed to date!

The initial plan was to build it for my eldest daughter who was 6 at the time, being pine I thought it wouldn't handle an adult. While away at a medieval event, a full size adult (>80 kg) sat in the chair (without asking!) and there was no issues. At the end of the weekend I stood on it and jumped a couple of times, just to see how strong it was, I'm about 88 kg, it didn't even creak, so its a very strong construction!

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Finally to look more like the original, a better quality wood could have been used, however the weight increase would be considerable. Putting a 45 degree cut before adding the hand rail would make the hand rails face upwards. That being said the angle is actually quite 'ergonomic' and pretty comfortable, Needs a cushion (especially for those of us blessed with a boney bum!). Adding a back rest is something that could be done quite easily and is something on my to do list.

REFERENCES
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Curule_seat

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/471204?rpp=60&pg=4&ao=on&ft=%2A&deptids=7&when=A.D.+1400-1600&where=Europe&pos=205t