As a full service furnituremaker, I offer you the following;

I handcraft each chair from start to finish, no purchased parts are used

I can create reproductions of the chair of your choice, or incorporate custom turnings as you wish.

Each finished chair is stamped, signed and dated by me.

As a furnituremaker, I can create other period peices from the seventeenth and eighteenth century to match your chairs.

Driving wedges into legs.

Making a traditional windsor reminds me a lot of that old recipe for Rabbit Stew. "First get your rabbit..." Each chair begins as a log of maple or red oak. I start with a straight grained log of maple. The log is cut with a chainsaw into lenghts each about twenty-four inches long. These sections are then split using an ax, maul and wedges into billets of the right size for turning. I turn each part individually on the lathe. While I work from master patterns, turning each piece by hand insures subtle variations in the finished chair that delight the eye. My seats are carved from a single piece of two-inch thick white pine, using a draw-knife, wide gouge and chairmaker's plane. Spindles and material for the chairs bows and crests are split out of a red oak log. The use of split-out stock allows me to make my spindles very narrow without sacrificing strength. The arms, bows and crests are shaped by hand and then steambent. The combination of steambent arms and bows with riven narrow spindles creates a chair which bends and flexes as you lean back it it. Strong yet supple, a perfect blend of beauty, strength, and comfort. I finish each chair with traditional milk paint in various colors.The chair is sealed with linseed oil after being burnished with steel wool.

My standard chairs all use a similar turning pattern for the legs and stretchers. This bold baluster style turning, a full two-inches in diameter at its widest, is typical of Windsor chairs produced in New York during the 1780's. To my eye, the New York style with its dramatic variations in thickness leave the thinner Philadelphia turnings looking pale in comparison. I have chosen to offer one turning pattern on my standard chairs because this was typical of chairs produced in one-man shops in colonial New England. I would be happy to include other patterns if it is important to you. Art historians today can tell you the specific maker of a particular antique chair often just by examining the peices turnings. I can only hope that years from now, my chairs will be identified as my work based on their distinctive design.

My children's chairs are highly detailed, scaled-down versions of the adult chairs and are suitable for children of one to ten years in age.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning the construction of my windsor chairs, please e-mail me at sbunn@suscom-maine.net. I look forward to hearing from you.