More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture: 30 Stickley Designs for Every Room in the Home

144 Pages·2002·27.26 MB·English

by  Robert W Lang

MORE SHop DRAWINGS

for
CRAFTSMAN
FURNITURE
MORE Shop Drawings For Craftsman Furniture
{30 Sibley Design for Every Room in the Home

(© 2002 by Robert W. Lang
All sights reserved

[No part of this Honk may be reproduced or tannin in any fm ot by any means, cleconc of mechanic
‘aca photcoping, contigo by any infrmatin storage ad etic stem, wot writen permiion
‘om the pblher cpt the nclaion of rq in ve

ISBN 1-892836-14-9
First printing: October 2002
‘Second printing: March 2004
Published by

‘Cambium Press

PO Bax 909

Bethel, CT 06801

203-778-5610

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lang, Robert W. 1953-

‘More shop drawings for Craftsman furniture: 30 Stickley designs for every room inthe
home

“/roeasured and drawn by Robert W. Lang.

pom.

Includes index.

ISBN 1-892836-14-9 (al. paper)

1. Puriture—Drawings. 2. Measured drawings. 3. Ars and crafts movement. I. Title

TT196 .L3497 2002

684.104—de21

2002151911

[Your safety is your responsibility. Neither the author nor the publisher assume any
responsibility for any injuries suffered or for damages or other losses incurred that may result
from material presented in this publication.
DEDICATION

1 would like to thank my wife Joyce and my
son Hunter for their patience, ive, and sup-
pore during this work. They ae the ones who
‘dd the hard work, and Tam truly grateful to
them as wel as for them
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 8
About the drawings 9
Construction Techniques
‘Making the quadralinear leg 10
Teinery deta B
‘Dust Panels 15
Glass doors 15
Laying et end making pts 16
non ig 7
Auembly 9
Upholstery 20
Index 144

No. 552
Gate Leg Table 28

No. 624
Hexagonal Table 32

ial

No. 353 Side Chair
No. 353A Arm Chair
36
No. 336 No. 347
Bow-Arm Eastwood
‘Morris Chair 80

Chair 72

kK
a

No, 1292

No. 323 oy

Rocker 76

Liprary & DEN page 117 Ty No72
Harvey Elis
2 Maguzine Stand
No.74 we
Bookrack with
Keyed Tenons
118
No. 644
Open
Bookcase
120 |
ry Noss7
TL Table 131

Limbert
Lamp Table 141
‘Mons Sor Daawines vox Cearrsway Furstrune

INTRODUCTION

‘Two years ago, on a perfect Indian-summer
aftemoon, Publisher John Kelsey and met to
decide which pieces of furniture to include in
my first book, Shop Drawings for Crafsman
Farnitare. We had spent the morning at an
auetion of genuine Craftsman pieces, ad had
enjoyed lunch at the Hancock Shaker Village
in western Massachusetts. It was a fiting
place fr us to meet, for it was here that Ejne
Handberg had measured the furniture for his
books of drawings of Shaker furniture.
“Handlerg’s work had a tremendous influence
fon me as a beginning woodworker, and the
thought that somebody should do a similar
‘book on Craftsman furniture led me to ereate
sy fet book.

ebecame immediately apparent that the task
‘was not to decide what pieces to include, but
‘what pieces to lave out. Thad been through
the reproduction catalogs and other sources,
picking what I thought were good examples
ofthe style. arrived witha list of more than
‘wo hundred pices that I thought worthy of
inclusion. Kelsey had his own favorites, and
there were some pieces at the auction that
‘neither of s had seen before. From this col-
lection of about two hundred and fifty excel-
lent examples of furniture, we figured that
about sixty pieces would make a good book.
‘We decided to group the furniture in cate~
gories: bedroom, dining room, living room,
Tibeary or den,

By the end of the afternoon, we had the lst
down to around one hundred pices of furni-
ture, and I made the final cut to sixty some~
thing over the next few weeks. It was difi-
‘alt. The final choices were based on what I
‘personally liked, and when I couldnt make a
‘decision, on what my wife liked,

A project like this cart be exhaustive. My

aim was to show enough examples of enough
different types of furniture for the reader to
Ivrnopuerion

get good grasp ofthis style of furniture, and
to be able to apply the construction tech-
niques to other projects, be they reprodue-
tions, adaptations, or entirely new designs.

[As Tworked on the drawings and the tex for
the frst book, we soon realized that there
‘was simply more good material than one
‘book could hold. We decided to divide the
‘material into two volumes.

‘This doesnit mean thatthe pieces of farni-
ture included in thie volume are also-rans to
the pieces in the first book. The process of
choosing sity good examples was difficult
cnough, but splitting that group in half was
‘even harder. In many cases, the fip of coin
decided which piece went first. Inthe end, 1
‘think tha cis grouping is equal to or better
than the one in the original book. I invited
visitors to my website to miggest pieces that
they would like to see inched in this or
furure works, and nearly all of the sugges
tions I received were already on my list.

‘The text portion in this book is also @ con-
tinuation ofthe first book, along with some
‘material inchided as a result of questions that
wwe have received, The reader who by chance
thas picked up this book first needs to know
that there is some important material in the
first volume, which does not reappear here.
"The firt book includes a detailed explana-
‘tion of how to interpret and work with these
drawings, techniques for making common
joints, and an introduction to material. This
‘book Focuses on assembly techniques, joinery
techniques, and upholstery.

‘The legacy of Gustav Stckley provides us
‘with much more than the opportunity t0
reproduce excellent examples of furniture
design. As Ihave studied his work and writ-
ings, [have also found a wonderful example
of the profound importance of the way that
wwe perform our daily work, and the impor-
tance of working with something genuine,
something that will carry the effort we put

into it well beyond our passing. Its my hope
that the current interest inthis furniture will
spark a renewed interest in the philosophy
and moral values that led to its original ere=
akon. In much the same way that Craftsman
furniture can fil a need in our homes, the
Craftsman philosophy can also fill need in
cour lives.

ABOUT THE DRAWINGS

‘A few reminders about the drawings are in
‘order, Firs of ll, we have given all measure-
‘ments in inches and fractions to the nearest
sixteenth, followed [in square brackets] by
the exact metric equivalent, down to tenths
cof millimeter This allows the metric work
cr todo his own rounding up or down, to the
degre of precision he finds most comfort-
able, Dimensions in the drawings are for
overall sizes, openings, and exposed areas.
For doors and drawers, the numbers give the
size ofthe finished opening, and the builder
must decide the actual size of the door or
drawer font. For panels the numbers show
the distance exposed between the stiles and
rails so the actual panel willbe slightly larg
rand the overall lengths must be longer t0
accommodate the joints. Inthe material lists
that accompany the drawings, there are notes
reflecting this. Also, in the material lists,
pieces with tenons will be listed with an
‘overall size, plus an “exposed” or “between.

tenons" dimension

1 tay to include dimensions for parts only
‘once in the view where they make the most
sense; for example, length in elevations,
‘width and depth in plans, ete ft seems that
a necessary dimension is missing, study all of
the views. In some cases you will have to add,
suberact, or divide the given dimensions to
find the size of an individual part. Time
invested in studying the drawings before
beginning construction willbe well rewarded
‘once you start to build
‘Mons Suor Daamines ror C

MAKING THE,
QUADRALINEAR LEG

As attractive as the fice of quarterswn white
‘oak can be, the edge grain tends to be down-
right ugly, particularly when seen next to a
beautify flecked surface. On table tops oF
‘ase tops, the edge generally doeset have
‘enough surface area for this difference in
appearance to be real aesthetic problem.
Square legs, however, are another story. The
Jeg looks funny ifthe quartersawn rays do
‘ot appear on adjacent surfaces, even though
icant possible to have rays on both the Face
and the edge ofa single board.

Gustav Stickley recognized this, and his
solution was simply to laminate ewo (or
more) pieces of quartersawn stock together,
then to veneer over the two side surfaces,
‘There are two ways in which this seemingly
reasonable solution can cause problems. The
first problem isin finishing — ifthe work is

Most shrinkage
In this direction

Most shrinkage
In thie direction

Plainsawn

to be stained or dyed, the veneer and the
solid wood will ach take the stain diferent-

require some extra effort to match the color-
ing on both types of surfaces. The same
problem will alo occur when faring — the
tannic acid content ofthe solid wood and of
the veneer will be different, unless the
veneers were cut fiom the same pieces of
‘wood used forthe solid parts. Again, this i
not the end of the world, but some amount
of toning or shading will ikely be necessary.

‘The second problem, which is more trouble-
some, is that of wood movement between,
the solid material and the veneer. Unlike
plain-sawn wood, the quartered pieces will
expand and contract more in thickness than
in width. This movement wos't match the
seasonal movement of the veneer, and it is
quite likely that the veneer eventually wil
crack. The majority of original Gustav
Stickley pieces that Ihave seen exhibit this
cracking. Usually its rather minor, occurring
for an inch or two near the bottom ofthe leg,
and I cant honestly say how long it may take
for thie cracking to develop, o if wll occur
at all, eis troubling, however, to see such a
flaw in an otherwise perfect piece of furni-
ture, even iit is close to one hundred years
‘old. A thicker veneer, sawn from the same
‘wood that is used forthe other parts of the
leg, might reduce the chances of cracking,
and might be a better match for color and
figure. There are now veneers avilable with
backings applied to them, either a second
layer of cros-griin veneer, o of paper, or of
paper impregnated with phenolic resin
‘These alo may educe the problem of crack-
‘ng, but will introduce their own problems of
‘matching the figure and color in finishing.

Leopold Stickley came up with a solution
that was both elegant in appearance, and
‘eminently practical for production ina facto~
ry setting. Figure 1 shows his method of
‘Maxine re Quapnatinzan Lee [1

*Quadratineae” construction, and one of
the pieces. Four pieces of solid quarter-

‘problems mentioned previously. The legis
all soli construction, the core canbe filled
with another piece of wood if there has to
bbe an exposed tenon, and with the
machinery available then, as well a today,

relatively simple to produce.

‘The same visual effect could be achieved if
the pieces were simply mitered, but with
Leopold’ ingenious system, the joints can
be clamped together without the rendency
to slide apart that simple miters would
have. Alo, all four pieces are machined
‘dentcally — there are no rights or lefts or
fronts of backs to keep track of so the set
‘up work for milling needs to be done only
‘one time for any number of legs.

‘My guess is cha these legs were originally
rlled in the factory in one pass on a
shaper or molder, a machine that was in
‘sein factories of the period, but is unfor-
tunately not affordable for the average
‘woodworker of today. This joint can easily
‘be cut on a tablesaw, and there are several
alternative ways to make a joint that i just
as easly assembled, with the same finished
appearance. The key to success in any of
these methods lis in careful stock prepa-
ration, and being absolutely sure that the
position of the stock does not change as
the wood moves past the cutter, Due to
the nature ofthis joint, any err will result
ina gap twice as large asthe deviation, For
cxample, if you try to make a long miter
‘cut on a board with a how of 1/32" over its
length the end result will bea 1/16" gap in
the finished joint. Similuey if the board
should rise up slightly while moving past
‘the sawblade, a gap of twice that distance
will result. Careful set-up, featherboards,
Ihold-downs, or a power feeder will go a
Tong way toward ensuring the succesful
milling ofthis join.

Figures 2, 3, & 4 show the sequence of
‘ute to make this joint with a tablesaw.
Fint, two grooves ae milled in the back
face ofthe board. Note that these grooves
axe offset; the exact distance will depend
‘on the thickness and width of the wood.
‘The groove that is closest to the edge
could be the width of the saw blade, but I
generally cut it with the dado head since
that wil bein the saw for cuting the other
groove. Next, a miter is eut from one out
side comer t0 the bottom comer of this
groove. Lastly, the opposite edge

‘mitered, leaving a flat-bottomed rabbet.
‘Take great care when cutting this last
miter, since the Mat surface that i left to
bear against the saw table is rather smal. If
a feather boar is used, locate it away fom
the fence so that it bears on the flat ofthe
‘workpiece. Use push stick, which should
also bear on the middle of the board.
Pressure on the board close to the saw
feoce will cause that edge of the board to

1