Class: Intro to Chair Making with David Ray Pine (6 Days)

Spend six highly-educational days building a country-style Chippendale chair with master craftsman, David Ray Pine. This country chair is based on a reproduction from an 18th century chair that David built for a historic church in Eastern Virginia, although this chair design has been simplified for students who are first-time chair makers. Students will use a mix of historic hand tools and modern power tools to build this chair in a quality manner, while maintaining strong joints and beautiful curves. Students can expect to learn to shape and blend the curves of the back legs, splat, and crest rail together into a harmonious whole. Also cutting and fitting both square and angled mortise and tenon joints both for the seat rails and the slip seat frame, which will be ready for upholstery.

About the Instructor:

Materials Fee:

The materials fee for this class will be $220, and is payable to the instructor before or on the day of the class. The wood species will either be Walnut or Sapele Mahogany, depending upon availability. The materials fee is quite high because of the quality of the wood required, but also because of the extensive prep work required by Ray to get pieces that are far enough along to make a six day class possible.

How to Get Here & Where to Stay:

The address of the school is 5700 Buffalo River Rd. Earlysville, Virginia 22936 (Google Maps here). The school is convenient to quite a few hotels, stores, and restaurants, and is only 8 minutes from the Charlottesville airport. Many more details are listed on the school’s main page here.

Class Policies, Liability Waiver, & Cancellations:

A PDF document with the full class policies and a liability waiver will be sent in the order confirmation email. All students are required to sign and return this document prior to attending the class. Anyone can cancel a class up to 2 weeks prior to the class for a full refund (minus a $25 fee that covers credit card processing fees and administrative work). Cancellations under two weeks before a class begins will be given a refund (less $25) if we can find someone else to fill the slot. If we have to cancel a class for an unforeseen emergency, inclement weather, or low number of registrations, a full refund will be given to students.

Student Tool Discounts from Lee Valley & Lie-Nielsen:

After you’ve registered for a class, you are eligible for a discount from Lee Valley (Veritas) and Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. Lee Valley offers a 15% discount, and a discount form PDF will be available for download in your Wood and Shop dashboard after your purchase. For a 10% discount from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, you need to place a phone order and tell them that you are a registered student at the Wood & Shop Traditional Woodworking School. The discounts aren’t available after the end of the class.