How to make a Chair leg
The bodger cuts a section of tree trunk in the center of the log using an axe. This releases the tension in the wood, causing it to change shape and preventing it from splitting. The tree trunk section is supported on a splitting-out block and cleft into small billets using a chair bodger's axe and a mallet. These billets will be worked to form chair legs. The bodger prefers to use green wood, free from heartwood, knots, bast or bark. Chairs legs made in this way are more reliable and hard-wearing than those turned from sawn wood as, in the process of cleaving, the grain is not cut across and the knotty heart of the tree trunk is discarded.
The bodger selects a billet, and cuts it to size on a sawing horse using a bow saw or cross-cut saw. The billet is sawn to a length slightly longer than a finished chair leg to allow for wastage.
It is then trimmed to a rough cylinder with an axe to make it easier to work.
Sitting astride his shaving horse, the bodger clamps the billet in the device's foot-operated vice, leaving his hands free to work the wood with a draw knife. The knife is used to shave the wood to a smoother cylinder shape. The wood is fairly easy to work as it is still fresh.
After shaving the cylinder of wood, the bodger takes the prepared billet to his pole lathe. He marks the center of each end of the cylinder using an awl, and lubricates the billet with vegetable oil to ensure that the wood will rotate freely on the lathe while it is being worked.
The wood is then positioned on the lathe, the cord of the pole is wrapped around its center, and the billet is secured in place using a screw clamp. The bodger presses the lathe's foot treadle to make the wood rotate. He uses a roughing out gouge to remove shavings from the cylinder, working from one end of the billet up to where the cord of the pole is wrapped around the wood. When one half of the billet has been worked to a smooth cylinder, it is removed from the lathe and turned through 180 degrees, so that the bodger can work on the rough section of the wood. As the gouge leaves ridges in the turned wood, a flat chisel with a bevelled edge is used to smooth the surface.
Using a ready prepared chair leg, the bodger then copies the outline of the leg's pattern onto the piece of wood that he is currently working, using a marking awl to prick the design into the surface. He takes care to copy the pattern accurately to ensure that the leg can be matched with other finished pieces to form a set of four legs.
A skew chisel is used to cut a beaded pattern into the wood, following the markings made by the awl.
The completed chair leg is rubbed with wood shavings, known as bodger's sandpaper, to smooth the surface of the wood before removing it from the lathe.
