Danish Chair Building Extravaganza! - the Plan

Jonas during the first DCBE in 2014

This year's DCBE is going to be amazing. I just know it.

This is the third time we've gotten together at Jonas' place in Denmark to build chairs. The first time we had the general theme of Welsh stick chairs. Last time we made Roorkee campaign chairs. This time it looks like we'll be going back to some kind of Windsor type chair.

These rules have always been pretty loose, basically anyone is allowed to do whatever they want.

This year has been a bit hard to pick something, as I'm living in Spain temporarily, and bringing a chair back with me on a plane from Denmark is problematic.

That problem aside, I really need a proper office chair. So what should I make? 

Naturally, something completely unsuited for shipping or working in, a rocker!

Photo courtesy Elia Bizzarri. He built this stunning chair.

It's only been a couple of weeks since I've decided on it, but ever since I saw this chair called Velda's rocker on Elia Bizzarri's web site, I knew I had to give it a go. Jonas said if I finished it, I was welcome to leave it in his summer house until someday when I can go fetch it.

Who knows when that will be, as The Frau has no interest in a chair like this being anywhere in sight of anywhere we live.

I gotta be me. I've been dying to make a chair like this.

I'll not be sticking too strictly to the design, as all I have to go by is photos of Velda's rocker on the internet.

It turns out this chair was designed by Curtis Buchanan, whose chair making videos on YouTube I watch whenever I have the chance.

I sent both Elia and Curtis an email making sure there was no problem with me using the design. I even got a few tips from them both!

When it was first released, I bought Elia's video about building a continuous arm rocker, and have been wanting to build a chair like this ever since. I highly recommend the video. There are a lot of things in that video, as well as Curtis' YouTube videos that will help during this build.

My plan is to build a chair with similar lines to Velda's rocker, but with more of a stick chair feel that has been the mark of the chairs that I've built up until now. I think I'll turn very few parts on this chair, instead going for octagonal shaped parts, as I like that.

I'll be able to take a few tools in my checked luggage, including my tapered reamer, a roll of spokeshaves, a travisher, a two handed scorp, an adze, and whatever other bits and bobs I can fit in my suitcase. Hopefully Norwegian Air isn't too strict about their weight limit.

Jonas said he has solid, single plank seat blanks available in both elm and whitebeam. He probably also has some ash available, and an oak log. There also always seems to be a bit of apple flying about. We'll see.

Likely, all I will have to steam bend is the crest on this chair, which looks like it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I might do some bending to the spindles, too, but I think we'll see what the wood tells me I should do.

Stay tuned, as I plan to post daily about the event, as usual. Also, this time I'll be putting pics up on Instagram under #dcbeiii. Of course, I'm sure Jonas will also be posting on his blog, mulesaw.blogspot.com.

Wish us luck!