This is only the second chair I’ve ever made. The first? More of an art project than a chair—crafted from OSB, it wasn’t exactly designed to be sat in. That project was really about the labor required to elevate cheap materials.

Since then, I’ve built a handful of low stools—mostly in yellow pine to test my skills—and eventually one in maple, once I started gaining confidence. But I’ve always been a little intimidated by the angles and alignment required for a stick chair. It just looked… complicated. Then, after scoring a $150 lathe on Facebook Marketplace, I figured: How hard could it be?

Turns out, it wasn’t so bad. And now I have a long list of things I’d do differently next time—which, honestly, feels like progress.

This chair is loosely based on Chris Schwarz’s “staked chair” from The Anarchist’s Design Book (Chapter 17). I made a few modifications, like reversing the leg taper so they’re thicker at the bottom. That change gives the chair a more grounded, stable look—something inspired by UK furniture makers Bibbings & Hensby.

The leg angles follow Chris’s original design. I’ve misjudged the importance of leg splay before (visually and structurally), and his “resultant angle” method really helps simplify things. (You can see the layout lines in the photo below.)

For the leg joints, I used tapered tenons—a first for me, and something I really enjoyed. After hand-planing the legs into octagons, I used a spokeshave and chisel to shape the tenons into a round (dowel) shape, then tapering them almost like pencil tips with a large tenon shaper. I drilled pilot holes into the seat at the resultant angles on the drill press using Chris’s “banjo jig,” then reamed them out by hand with a bit brace and a tapered reamer (seen on the bench in the photo).

I made a few changes to the seat, too. It’s slightly narrower than the original design, and I added a tapered chamfer along the sides, which gives the illusion of the seat’s weight shifting toward the rear—sort of like it’s settling back.

Chris used oak (or pine) for his chair, which lends itself well to steam-bending. Cherrywood, on the other hand, hates to be bent. After ruining a couple pieces, I gave up and cut the crest rail from a solid board instead. Not ideal, but it worked.

In the end, I’m happy with the result. The chair is surprisingly lightweight and quite comfortable. If I had to do it again (and I will), I’d carve a deeper seat saddle and beef up the crest and back spindles a bit—they feel a little delicate.

One small detail I liked: the back spindles start out as wide octagons and taper into square tops that align flush with the front face of the crest rail. I might exaggerate that taper in future versions, and maybe even thicken the crest rail to better match the visual heft of the seat.