Purpleheart Argyle Chair

Welcome to my Purpleheart Argyle Chair Project.

I shared this project at the following website a while back: https://www.lumberjocks.com/projects/34419
I’m including much more detail and information with this posting.

I enjoy combining different types of materials with an historical design twist. Inspired by the high backed chair design of renowned turn-of-the-century furniture artist and architect Charles Renee Macintosh, this is my take on his beautiful Art Nouveau chair. Argyle is made of curly Purpleheart with fused purple Dichroic glass inset panels. I hope you enjoy what I thought up.

Purpleheart is nice stable hardwood from South America. The color you see actually natural, no stain! It is very rare to find ‘curl’ in Purpleheart. Curl is an uncommon surface pattern found in all woods, but most know it from curly Maple or tiger Maple. Curl produces a pattern in the finish that looks like cat’s eye- it shimmers like ocean waves. That is the large stripe pattern you see in my chair. The shimmering pattern is called ‘Chatoyance’. Dichroic glass is a type of fusing glass that also has a shimmering effect.

And now for the chair. I spent several weeks researching Art nouveau designs. And I measured several different chairs to get the dimensions I wanted. Designing is half the fun of a project. As this was my first chair and my first mortise and tenons, I did lots of research. Follow along as I make my chair....

Materials
• Lumber: 2 boards of 3/4” Purpleheart, 1 board 1-3/4”, each of the boards about 18” wide, 7 feet long.
• Titebond wood glue
• Wood biscuits
• Tung oil
• Various sandpaper, 120, 220, 320 grit
• Steel wool
• Briwax furniture paste wax
• 3 sheets of 12”x12” fusing glass. Iridescent clear base, purple Dichroic glass, clear cap
• Countersunk screws.

Equipment

• Tablesaw w/ tenoning jig
• Bandsaw
  
• Planer
• Miter saw
• Oscillating spindle sander
• Mortiser
• Biscuit joiner
• Palm sander
• Medium size glass kiln (or go to your local stained glass shop and use theirs)
• Glass score cutter
• Glass running pliers.

My research phase usually takes several weeks. I came across the above photo of MacIntosh’s chair and decided on those design elements. And since I enjoy the straight lines of Arts and Crafts furniture, I adapted those concepts to my argyle chair.

Once I had my fun designing my chair and had the dimensions I liked, now it was time to head to my local woodworking store that carries exotic woods. And as luck would have it, as I was perusing the stacks of Purpleheart, low and behold were two book matched sets of rare curly PurpleHeart 3/4” boards. That was the ah hah moment - because for me, the wood always makes the furniture piece. I set them aside and picked out a nice straight piece of 8/4 (just shy of 2 inches thick) Purpleheart.

Once I was back home, I rough cut them into boards to work with (1st photo). Then, I divided them into three sections: seat/back, legs, and back leg/slats. I ran each section through the planer to get the thickness correct.

Then, I fired up the tablesaw and dimensioned the width of the pieces.

Note: I have heard comments online that exotic woods are too hard and don’t cut or router easily. I don’t seem to have those issues, even on Purpleheart, which is extremely hard (you can’t scored it with your fingernail). I follow two self-taught rules. Use reasonably sharp tools (I keep my exotic wood bits and blades separate from those used in pine and plywood). And, I go slow and steady. That’s the key. Push the wood through slow and steady until done with the cut and it won’t burn or tear.

The third pic is my pile of dimensioned wood for the seat, style and rails.

For the seat, I took the front piece and drew a curve on the inside edge. If it’s just a one off curve, I tie a nail and pencil to each end of a string. Then, I experiment with drawing an arc in the position I’d like it to be. Once done I draw it hard into the wood. I drew similar arcs in the back leg and in the ellipse seat back.

Then, I took them to my bandsaw and carefully cut the arcs following the pencil line, slow and steady. Afterwards, I took each piece to my oscillating spindle Sander and smoothed out the edges.

The stile back legs were a tough cut. I had to think about how to cut them. First, I measured the angle I wanted the rear leg to lean back. Then, on my tablesaw, I cut one side for each angle, so cuts stopping at each angle. But, for the slight curvature at the end I stopped the tablesaw prior to cutting in that area. Then, I took the piece over to my bandsaw and carefully cut the curve to finish the piece.

For the back, the ellipse was easy to cut. For the inside arc though, I had to drill a pilot hole and then carefully cut the inside Arc with a jigsaw.

For the seat, after the inside curve was cut, I took the piece to my miter saw and carefully cut the 45° angles. And then using my biscuit joiner, cut the biscuit holes in the 45° angles.

There are lots of ways to cut Mortise and Tenons (rectangular holes and rectangular tabs). Since I wanted traditional Mortises with very close tolerances, I used a Mortise machine.

Now, there is that adage that says, Measure twice and cut once. Well, I take that to a whole other level! I Measure at least four or five times and then cut once. So, with my very first Mortise & Tenons, I carefully measured and drew out the lines on the stile and rails. Essentially, stiles are the legs and rails are the crossmembers that connect them. After 16 mortises, I was done with them. The tenons were cut using a tenoning jig on my tablesaw. You work slow and carefully shave off the wood of the tab. Once you get close, where it just fits in the hole, but is really tight. Then, you use a sharp chisel and shave the tenon until you have the fit that you like - not too tight, not too loose.

Now, I tested the fit of the assembled chair. See pics.

At this time, I also measured and cut the two Slats for the back. They had to be thin sliced on the bandsaw, then run through the planer. I cut a mortise at the top of the rear wide, curved rail. I mortised the bottom of the ellipse as well. While I was test fitting the slats, they kept moving side to side. Now, the slats were cut just thin enough to bend into place. But, it looks like I needed to secure them into place. I made two brackets and screwed then into place. And except for the plywood seat bottom, the only steel hardware in the whole project were those brackets and screws securing the ellipse back to the top of the rear legs. The ellipse back was attached with countersunk screws. I then plugged the holes with custom made purpleheart plugs.

The sanding process takes me about a week. I like to take my time because it is so important. I start with sanding each piece with 120 grit, making note of any pieces that need a little extra work. Then, on to 220. Finally, sand with 320 grit. As I am sanding, I bring it up to the light and look for any blemishes. Once done, I clean lightly with acetone as it does not raise the wood.

I then assembled and glued up the seat with biscuits. I then clamped it all on my tablesaw (4th pic), since space is a premium in my shop.

I then glued up each style and rail piece of the chair, working quickly. When I do a glue up, I use a damp rag as I go to clean up an glue that squeezes out. I clean up this way multiple times to ensure no glue dries on the piece.

Fusing glass in a kiln is a 3 step process.

First, you cut your glass to shape. To do this, you draw out your cuts, then you score your glass with a glass cutter, a handheld piece that has an oil reservoir that scores the glass. Then, you use running pliers to snap the glass to shape.

For my piece, I made the seat and the back arc with three layers. The first bottom layer was clear iridescent glass.
The second step is to lay out the design. Using the bottom layer as a base, I cut 3/8” x 1” pieces of purple dichroic glass in a sequential pattern. Once this was done, I carefully laid out a clear cap that I attached with a little watered down white glue.

For the 3rd step, I carefully laid out the piece in the kiln and did a fusing fire. A fusing fire melts at about 1100 degrees for about an hour, then cools for another 11 hours. A glass kiln is a digital kiln- you program it to rise up to temperature, stay there about 10-15min, then cool to 955 degrees. It stays there about 45 min to anneal, where it aligns back to a solid. Afterward, it slowly cools the rest of the time.

She is all ready to apply a finish.

First, I clean with a tack cloth from top to bottom.

Then, in a clean room, I layout newspapers on the floor. I set the chair down and rub tung oil starting from the top of the piece to the bottom. Once the first coat is done, I wipe up any excess with a cheesecloth. I then let it dry for 24 hours. The next day, I lightly buff with 0000 steel wool. Then, clean with a tack cloth again. I completed this process 4 more times for a total of 5 coats of satin tung oil.

The finishing touch is to inset the glass into the seat. The seat has a plywood under base to help support the glass. The glass is attached with E6000 adhesive. Same with the seat back arc. The wood seat back arc is tapered inside. The glass is set in snug and then thin wooden pieces are inserted behind to keep the glass in place,

Then the piece was then buffed with Briwax furniture paste to a gleaming glow.

I hope you enjoyed my first instructable and my first Argyle chair.