I can also highly recommend Enzio Mari's Autoprogettazione furniture. Although slightly more involved in construction, all you need is standard planks, hand saw, a hammer and some nails. The instruction PDF can be found online (chairs in the latter half):
Just looking through that PDF, unlike the chair in the blog, some of that furniture is not as robust. Pages 46 & 47 the load rests on the corner of the wood, and pages 46, 47 & 52 add almost all load onto the screws.
The chair in the blog benefits from essentially having all load bearing done by the wood, any screws or nails would be superficial only. We have several good hard wood chairs here with dove tail joints and spring based cushions - and they are excellent.
The chair in the blog is not robust. It is simple, but not robust. It contains a hinge with an extreem amount of force placed on a small area of wood. It will deform very quickly, changing the angle of the recline. Similarly, the sharp points in contact with the ground will wear/weather quickly, putting it out of level. Rustic and utilitarian, but not meant to last. Imho.
I think you should check your own knowledge before double-guessing Enzo Mari - a designer who did the work and had extensive knowledge of form and materials spanning decades.
This is not an ""argument from authority" but "Chesterton's Fence".
Maybe Enzo's implementation was fantastic, but the problem with not specifying these things is that it's not clear if one or one hundred nails should be used to secure each part.
One thing to observe is that people were lighter traditionally (i.e. prior to 1974 when this was published), and the load bearing capacity of a chair was less important than it is today. Also bare in mind that wood has become far more expensive, and people of today would likely be using less dense wood.
On page 52 for example, each leg (E) is nailed/screwed into C by just three points. The C wood itself is in a strong configuration, but the legs are almost an afterthought. Without any lower support (e.g. as shown on page 56), the nails/screws will eventually be levered out. The actual loading on the leg itself is not great, with three nails/screws seemingly aligned with the grain. The result would be a split that runs along the grain, and that may have been what happened to the left leg in the picture.
Yeah, and not specifying them - as well as not specifying the assembly steps, which for some models isn't obvious; I know it, I build the bed frame on page 24 - is part of the learning process.
"Autoprogettazione" is not a DIY book, or a guide, or a procedure. It is a project to gift common people the insight of what goes into making an object. The result Enzo seeks is not that you end up with another object/furniture in your house, but that you end up with a new appreciation of what makes an object stand up in 3D and, for example, support your weight, or flatter your eye.
If you want to follow step-by-step orders, there was and there is already hundreds of books, and thousands of workers do the same in factories - just executing orders.
Two of the core ideas are that the majority of the work can be undertaken by a single person with basic carpentry skills, using readily-available materials in standard sizes so there is minimal cutting and waste.
Having built a couple of smaller structures, I don't see why these can't be done today. Ignoring the current trend of building for curb appeal instead of practicality, you can build a house using standard size materials (8/10/12/16 foot). Even studs come in 92 5/8" to accomodate for top/bottom plates in 8 foot walls.
I'm always intrigued by the Segal method, but it's so closely tied to the sizes of construction materials available at the time and I can't help wondering if anything has changed since.
I've been thinking about doing this, and my main thought is that the insulation standards were probably effectively non-existent at the time, beyond "as few draughts as possible"!
Edit: not sure if these will be geo-blocked, but there are a couple of programmes about that project here:
Oh, absolutely. It's just that I've seen some of the original buildings in south east London and they looked absolutely freezing - single glazing with metal-framed windows. The walls looked like thin painted plywood, but I don't think that can be the case. It looks like they've updated them now: https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/1615
Very nice! thanks for that. I really like basic agricultural do it yourself furniture. We should reclaim our furniture and be less dependent on IKEA et al. I'm defo going to try the adjustable table at the top of the pdf, thats a work of art.
Ironically, companies like Ikea have started selling products aimed at people making their own furniture; the "outdoor bench made from pallets" is pretty popular, and ikea & co sell cushions just for those.
I never understood those tbh, used pallets are splintery. I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
fake edit after a quick search: yup, you can buy readymade pallet benches or benches "inspired by" pallet projects.
Like Amazon continuing the DIY door desk long after it became more expensive than just buying desks. For some reason, people will pay a premium for the refurbished industrial look.
My understanding is that Amazon continues it for 2 reasons: it's similar priced, but more importantly they can get the doors at massive scale and they're the same. Styles, colors, materials with desks change over time. They have to source sometimes ~10k desktops in a quarter with little lead time. You can't do this with desks but you can with doors.
Or this is why they told us we wouldn't get white desks in Seattle when we had em in sfo. Even though we got the same legs.
> Can it be brutalist when you have the richness of wood in full display, veins, shimmer and knots all apparent?
Insofar as brutalism is about showcasing the raw building materials, yes, I think this is precisely what brutalism is about. Brutalism often uses concrete, but the big idea is to showcase the underlying material. (And if wood is more beautiful than concrete, great!)
IME, most people that complain about brutalism don't know what it is anyway and even if they roughly do, are only familiar with decades old ran down versions and not the original vision.
What is interesting also in Enzo Mari's concept is that there is no instructions, you have to figure out the best order of operations and how to offset some planks with others.
And and and last but not least, the great Christopher Schwarz and team at Last Art Press just got out a whole video serie and book on how to make a highly respectable chair design from very basic materials and tools:
I had never seen this type of chair before moving to Senegal as an expat. For several months, I didn’t try them because I assumed they must be incredibly uncomfortable. To be honest, most are made from thinner wood (people here are really poor!), so they didn’t look very sturdy either.
But a few weeks ago, I visited a local woodworker and ordered one of these chairs. I had to let go of all my previous prejudices - this type of chair is surprisingly comfortable and stable. And it's even useful for certain "other" activities :-D
Even though they are African in origin (perhaps as birthing chairs), a lot of people know these as 'viking chairs' or sometimes as 'bog chairs' and you see them at SCA events and various sorts of old timey reenactment type gatherings, often decorated with celtic knots and such motifs.
Crazy to see them warrant a posting here, I had assumed most people had seen them before.
This chair is made from pressure treated wood. Technically speaking, it is safe to sit on, but personally I'd like to avoid those chemicals against my skin if I could. Regular lumber probably would be preferable, especially when it would take $10 and 20 minutes to replace it after 5 years when it has rotted (or you could spring for redwood or cedar for an extra $10 and double or triple the life of your chair).
Most pressure treated lumber eschews the old arsenic method. Most only have copper and an anti fungal (Tebuconazole) in it. Perfectly safe for an outdoor chair.
The problem with using modern pressure treated wood for outdoor furniture is less any cancer risks like with the old CCA treatments, and more that it's just a bad choice for a bunch of different reasons.
Modern copper-based treatments--e.g. ACQ or CA--still cause skin and eye irritation. If you try to sand it so that people sitting in your new chair don't get a nasty splinter somewhere best avoided, you can compromise the effectiveness of the treatment (even when the treatment gets full penetration, it's still most effective on the outer layers you're now sanding away). Plus, while the dust you create when working with it might not include arsenic, it's still nasty to breathe in and can cause respiratory problems. Staining P/T wood can be a whole ordeal in itself, and because interact much more closely with furniture than say a deck, any imperfections will be more noticeable.
Even then, it's not like P/T furniture isn't going to require ongoing maintenance in the future. At which point, you're better off with something like cedar or white oak. Hell, with a decent outdoor grade finish and proper care, even untreated pine is going to last for years without rotting away underneath you.
Basic weatherproofing treatments for basic lumber ? There's tar, which nobody does at home. There's wood oil. What else is there ? Do I have other options ?
- My outdoor furniture use a wood oil plus polyutherane.
- My indoor furniture use just wood oil.
But that’s only in general. There are other considerations like impact resistance and spills that can stain the wood so you have to decide what combination of wood type and treatments work for your goal.
With a product this simple to make and prices of wood and finishing chemicals what they are I don't know if I'd even bother with finishing, but just remake.
We used to treat wood with oil (literally from kitchen oil to motor oil). Apparently the Japanese burn theirs to treat it [1]. I don't think you have to leave it to rot out.
Keep in mind Yakisugi ("shou sugi ban" is a Western misinterpretation circa ~1995) is traditionally performed on wood which is already weather resistant, particularly Japanese Cedar ("sugi" is cryptomeria japonica, a type of cypress endemic to Japan). Even then they still treat it with oil regularly to improve its longevity. So I wouldn't char some white pine and stick it outside and expect it to last.
Right, just look at our local playgrounds: no more wood anywhere in sight, just faux-wood plastic that never rots but just slowly sheds microplastics into the environment
I'd be less concerned about that than the fact that every car that drives by the playground is shedding pounds of tyre plastic into the air/water as a matter of course. At least the playground materials aren't designed to turn into particulates.
So true.. plus all the "plush" plastic pellet "landings" rather than simply dirt cause oh no: someone may get into contact with some microbes.. gotta keep those allergy numbers rolling. /s
Back in the olden days, pressure-treated wood contained compounds of arsenic and chromium. This made it pretty terrible to cut, sand, burn, etc.
The warnings persist in part because older wood still has that problem, so "reclaimed wood" projects can be risky. That said, since mid-2000s, wood in the US and the EU is treated primarily with much safer copper compounds. Copper isn't hugely toxic to humans at the levels you're likely to be exposed to from wood.
To be fair, the treatment often also includes an organic fungicide (the "azole" part in "copper azole"), which is probably not understood as well as copper.
That puts me in mind of old railway sleepers being used for garden projects like raised beds and low walls. They were treated with ??? something, in summer the black tar would leech out of them.
Is formaldehyde used in treating PT lumber? That link suggests it shows up in resins for engineered wood products, like particleboard for interior furniture.
I was of the impression that PT lumber to modern standards involved relatively innocuous copper plus an organic biocide like an azole (for antifungal purposes), no?
And I thought the formaldehyde-heavy resins were regulated into obscurity back in like 2009, were they not?
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
In my chairs I just sculpt the back out of eight quarter with an angle grinder. More production focused wood workers are using multi-axis routers/cncs.
The english term for what you are referring to in bent lamination which is done by taking a piece of wood, slicing it to sections with a thin kerf blade, soaking in water, and then clamping to a form and gluing back together. This is how Russ Filbeck creates his classic presidential rocker.
And you can bend surprisingly thick wood with steam. I attended a demonstration where someone bent a maple 2 by 4 (1.5" x 3.5"). It took about 6 people and two tries (the first one splintered, probably not steamed enough).
With pleasing circularity, the original post for this discussion, is referenced on the instructables page as one of the 17 people confirmed to have made it.
The ultralight community never ceases to amaze me.
I always thought it was all about travel as light as possible
But I think it's more about travel with as many things as possible - the lightness of the objects is just an emergent requirement in order to not break your back.
I've done my fair share of hiking, longest being a 90km 5-day hike in the Namibian desert, with no facilities save for a river. Weight was a big factor, because you needed to pack food for at least 8 days to be safe and there is nowhere to get food once you start the hike. What equipment you pack and the weight of said equipment weight had to be kept at a minimum.
Having said that...
A chair or other seating arrangement was by a large margin the lowest priority item on my list. There is one giant chair under our feet the whole time: the ground. And if that is not suitable, finding a stump or a rock or whatever to sit on is really not that hard and it's infinitely more environmentally friendly.
Glass half empty:
No sane hiker brings a chair along on a 4+ hiking trip.
Glass half full:
If I cut 14 oz of weight out of this pack by removing zipper pulls, straps, cords, carrying cases, and switch everything to 10x cost titanium, the chair is practically free.
Embers from a fire won’t burn the surface (If removed quickly).
I think that is true for many surface materials, and that "quickly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It also completely fails to communicate whether or not a carbon fiber chair is "safe enough" around an open fire. Annoying.
When I heard that a friend had bought one of these for a week long canoe trip we were going on I thought it was absurd. The idea of taking such a home comfort on a camping trip went against everything I felt camping stood for. Then I tried it, then I bought one, now I take it on every camping trip I make.
It's so light it adds basically nothing to your carry weight. It takes seconds to put together. It's insanely comfortable. Kicking back in it after a long day's hike or canoe whilst prodding at the camp fire is such a joy.
I put it alongside my thermarest as a thing I never felt I'd ever buy and now use on every trip.
Definitely worth having something other than the ground to sit on after a long day. I have a couple of light weight 3-legged stools, although they likely wouldn't be considered ultralight, that are light enough for the camping and hiking I do, although you have to sit just right to not crush your balls.
But, clicking around randomly, it seems that this video has been dragged out in length for no reason other than to be longer, presumably for YouTube financial (perverse) incentives.
I don't watch any reels/shorts/etc and find this style of bloated YT video unbearable. I am all for long form videos, but have the decency to go beyond an empty vessel for ads.
I agree, but would be even worse as a TikTok video.
Shorts are absolutely terrible as product reviews. The point of a product review is to explore different aspects and use cases, otherwise it is an ad. It doesn't mean that long videos can't be ads, but short videos can't be anything but ads (if positive).
Shorts have a place, TikTok is great for silly dance moves, magic tricks, or people working really fast. You can even have short form educative content, though it usually doesn't go further than random trivia. But product reviews just don't work, unless they are ads. And in fact, ads don't even work that well as people tend to forget about them quickly.
Not sure about TikTok, but in this video and YouTube in general, you can just directly go to where most people go, and this way (I'm always a bit amazed that this actually works) you can generally see the actually important points of the video.
TikTok caps video length. Indeed, the #1 issue with youtube is the videos are way too long. (Also the ads, and comments, recommendations, search, etc,) but video length is certainly why I haven't bothered to watch anything on youtube for a long time (edit: logged in. I still watch clips people send me ofc in the group chat ofc). I'd delete my account if it weren't tied to my email for some inexplicable reason.
Edit: Wait... Does everybody see this? It's not on all videos, but it's on most for me, but my girlfriend says she never noticed it. I can't find any articles claiming it was ever fully rolled out, so maybe it's a premium feature? Here's the vid if anybody wants to check:
That carbon fiber seat is cool. Could be made to integrate right into the back of a backpack (like the rigid frame), to help the backpack stay rigid during use, so it's kind of dual purpose.
In the book she starts with the basics and works up to assembly including woven seats. These are beautiful lightweight chairs. Even if you don't build the chair, it's a great lesson in wooworking.
Thanks for reminding me that I haven't been to the Lost Art Press site in a while. I have a few of their books; they are fantastic. If you are interested in quality woodworking tools and high-quality woodworking books (both in terms of content as well as binding and paper), check them out.
I hadn't seen their "Build a Chair from Bullshit" book before. I've always been a little intimidated at the thought of building a chair, but this one looks like it's easy to build and has nice lines. Definitely more involved than the OP's chair, but it still looks still approachable with basic tools and skills.
Edit: As mentioned in dlbucci's comment below, I forgot to mention that it's available for free as a downloadable PDF book as well as for purchase as high quality bound book on their site. If you have any interest in an easy to build chair with an attractive design, it's worth a look.
It starts out not much more complicated than this and builds to a surprising array of furniture projects with a very small number of techniques. Although the actual materials are a bit annoying: it leans heavily on cut nails and specifically not the more easy to buy wire nails you usually see in DIY shops.
But also, the book is a physically gorgeous artefact in its own right. The illustrations are delicious.
During peak COVID boredom, I made a pair of wine barrel chairs, using this design[1]. Old wine barrels can be found reasonably cheap and the pattern is easy - only a few cuts, a drill, and some screws.
When it comes to woodworking, I quite enjoyed watching some of the videos of Granpa Amu on youtube. When I seen him make table from one piece of wood, it felt like magic.
I have a lot of lumber from previous construction projects, and all the basic woodworking tools. I also have some relevant skills. Would I be able to build it right now? No, need a wide and sturdy board, widest I have is 150x30mm pinewood. Would I make one if I had a proper piece of wood? Also no, I just don't want to accept the structural weakness here. And this joint actually requires some precision, which is not trivial (at least for me) with handheld circular saw!
Haven't built a chair yet, but my go-to design would be something like Adirondack.
Nice! However some humans can be quite heavy. Depending on the wood species, the board may break, especially if they drop down into it. To strengthen it you can glue+screw a board on-edge to the middle of the bottom of both boards (running front-to-back, not side-to-side). This will significantly increase its bending strength but hardly be noticeable.
I built some Leopold benches a few years ago, great bench and nearly as simple to build as this chair. Maybe simpler as there is no cutouts or narrowing like OP.
Soon I'll be making a 2-piece footrest (imagine a T shape up-side-down leaning towards you - giving lower leg and foot sole complete support). A friend said it was a very comfortable (and instantly customizable due to tilt angle) design.
I've been a web dev for 8 years but my heart is in woodworking for the next many years :)
Been making things with wood for a while now, never used or heard of cut sealer! I usually put some type of finish on, maybe more on the ends as they absorb it better, but not just specifically on cuts.
With the long tail, maybe repeat the same slotted pattern forming a triangle (of sorts) so that the tail can be shorter (and will be elevated from the ground). Just be careful not to make it too narrow.
This chair looks really interesting. It's extremely simple, but also full of character. When you build something yourself, even if it's not perfect, it somehow feels more real than something you just buy.
Neat! I am jealous of people who make physical stuff with their hands, seems so satisfying. I grow some plants, which brings a feeling of joy compared to buying from the store, even though the latter is much easier.
If anyone is interested in chairmaking, I can recommend the book "The Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks. (/s)
I have the good fortune of working in an office, with easy access to never-ending physical labour options courtesy of relatives living in the countryside.
Every now and then the issues of IT projects make me say "screw it all, I'm going to be a lumberjack". And then I go work the chainsaw for a weekend, and come back thankful for the office chair in a climate controlled room.
Working with your hands is great meditation in small doses, but brutal when you need to do it enough to make a living.
I can also highly recommend Enzio Mari's Autoprogettazione furniture. Although slightly more involved in construction, all you need is standard planks, hand saw, a hammer and some nails. The instruction PDF can be found online (chairs in the latter half):
https://syllabus.pirate.care/library/Enzo%20Mari/Autoprogett...
Just looking through that PDF, unlike the chair in the blog, some of that furniture is not as robust. Pages 46 & 47 the load rests on the corner of the wood, and pages 46, 47 & 52 add almost all load onto the screws.
The chair in the blog benefits from essentially having all load bearing done by the wood, any screws or nails would be superficial only. We have several good hard wood chairs here with dove tail joints and spring based cushions - and they are excellent.
The chair in the blog is not robust. It is simple, but not robust. It contains a hinge with an extreem amount of force placed on a small area of wood. It will deform very quickly, changing the angle of the recline. Similarly, the sharp points in contact with the ground will wear/weather quickly, putting it out of level. Rustic and utilitarian, but not meant to last. Imho.
>It will deform very quickly, changing the angle of the recline.
Nah, I've seen a bunch of these over the years, they basically last forever.
I think you should check your own knowledge before double-guessing Enzo Mari - a designer who did the work and had extensive knowledge of form and materials spanning decades.
This is not an ""argument from authority" but "Chesterton's Fence".
Maybe Enzo's implementation was fantastic, but the problem with not specifying these things is that it's not clear if one or one hundred nails should be used to secure each part.
One thing to observe is that people were lighter traditionally (i.e. prior to 1974 when this was published), and the load bearing capacity of a chair was less important than it is today. Also bare in mind that wood has become far more expensive, and people of today would likely be using less dense wood.
On page 52 for example, each leg (E) is nailed/screwed into C by just three points. The C wood itself is in a strong configuration, but the legs are almost an afterthought. Without any lower support (e.g. as shown on page 56), the nails/screws will eventually be levered out. The actual loading on the leg itself is not great, with three nails/screws seemingly aligned with the grain. The result would be a split that runs along the grain, and that may have been what happened to the left leg in the picture.
Yeah, and not specifying them - as well as not specifying the assembly steps, which for some models isn't obvious; I know it, I build the bed frame on page 24 - is part of the learning process.
"Autoprogettazione" is not a DIY book, or a guide, or a procedure. It is a project to gift common people the insight of what goes into making an object. The result Enzo seeks is not that you end up with another object/furniture in your house, but that you end up with a new appreciation of what makes an object stand up in 3D and, for example, support your weight, or flatter your eye.
If you want to follow step-by-step orders, there was and there is already hundreds of books, and thousands of workers do the same in factories - just executing orders.
Both of those types of arguments are false.
I would argue that both are rhetorical heuristics rather than logical in the Boolean sense.
This reminds me of the Segal Method of housebuilding: https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Segal_Method
Two of the core ideas are that the majority of the work can be undertaken by a single person with basic carpentry skills, using readily-available materials in standard sizes so there is minimal cutting and waste.
Having built a couple of smaller structures, I don't see why these can't be done today. Ignoring the current trend of building for curb appeal instead of practicality, you can build a house using standard size materials (8/10/12/16 foot). Even studs come in 92 5/8" to accomodate for top/bottom plates in 8 foot walls.
I'm always intrigued by the Segal method, but it's so closely tied to the sizes of construction materials available at the time and I can't help wondering if anything has changed since.
I'm sure it requires a bit of rethinking here or there, but there's a group of houses in Brighton, UK, that did it in the late 90s, a long time after Segal's original ideas: https://www.granddesignsmagazine.com/grand-designs-houses/he...
I've been thinking about doing this, and my main thought is that the insulation standards were probably effectively non-existent at the time, beyond "as few draughts as possible"!
Edit: not sure if these will be geo-blocked, but there are a couple of programmes about that project here:
Build: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/...
Revisit 10+ years later: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/...
On https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Segal_Method it says it can achieve passivhaus levels. So I would say, insulation to modern standards is within its scope
Oh, absolutely. It's just that I've seen some of the original buildings in south east London and they looked absolutely freezing - single glazing with metal-framed windows. The walls looked like thin painted plywood, but I don't think that can be the case. It looks like they've updated them now: https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/1615
Very nice! thanks for that. I really like basic agricultural do it yourself furniture. We should reclaim our furniture and be less dependent on IKEA et al. I'm defo going to try the adjustable table at the top of the pdf, thats a work of art.
Ironically, companies like Ikea have started selling products aimed at people making their own furniture; the "outdoor bench made from pallets" is pretty popular, and ikea & co sell cushions just for those.
I never understood those tbh, used pallets are splintery. I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
fake edit after a quick search: yup, you can buy readymade pallet benches or benches "inspired by" pallet projects.
https://www.online-pallets.nl/products/pallet-bank-2-hoog-me...
https://www.karwei.nl/assortiment/wakefield-palletbank-lina-...
Like Amazon continuing the DIY door desk long after it became more expensive than just buying desks. For some reason, people will pay a premium for the refurbished industrial look.
My understanding is that Amazon continues it for 2 reasons: it's similar priced, but more importantly they can get the doors at massive scale and they're the same. Styles, colors, materials with desks change over time. They have to source sometimes ~10k desktops in a quarter with little lead time. You can't do this with desks but you can with doors.
Or this is why they told us we wouldn't get white desks in Seattle when we had em in sfo. Even though we got the same legs.
That may well be the reason now, but they were never cost effective in my time. They were representative of an ethos the company wanted to promulgate.
Built a few desks. Got a door desk award (not for my sub par carpentry).
From what I've read, pallets are treated with all kinds of nasty chemicals.
Use the ones with ht stamped on them. They are very common now. They are heat treated instead of extra chems.
> I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
thanks, i hate it ("it" being the recuperation of DIY)
It's like brutalism furniture design. woof.
Can it be brutalist when you have the richness of wood in full diplay, veins, shimmer and knots all apparent?
And nothing stops you to paint them or engrave them.
Is a wooden box "brutalist" too? It is a box. It is square. Is the the same as a square windowless concrete building?
> Can it be brutalist when you have the richness of wood in full display, veins, shimmer and knots all apparent?
Insofar as brutalism is about showcasing the raw building materials, yes, I think this is precisely what brutalism is about. Brutalism often uses concrete, but the big idea is to showcase the underlying material. (And if wood is more beautiful than concrete, great!)
IME, most people that complain about brutalism don't know what it is anyway and even if they roughly do, are only familiar with decades old ran down versions and not the original vision.
What is interesting also in Enzo Mari's concept is that there is no instructions, you have to figure out the best order of operations and how to offset some planks with others.
For those of you who start from really zero and have no idea how to start, here is a step-by-step for a couple of pieces: https://lieu-subjectif.com/documents/caue-22-rietveld-mari.p...
If really you want a "cheat sheet", there's whole book to help: https://filmandfurniture.com/product/hammer-nail-making-and-...
But try not to use it too much, because it really defeats the purpose of Mari, which it is to get people to "think with their hands".
Digging through the legacy and follow-ups of Autoprogettazione is also interesting:
https://lieu-subjectif.com/documents/autoprogettazione-revis...
https://greg.org/archive/mari-x-ikea.pdf
The "Harz IV" (Germany's working poors) furniture project: https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/lablog/hartz-iv-mobel-it...
Simple Japanese Furniture by Monomono / KAK Design Group: https://woodworkersinstitute.com/simple-japanese-furniture-c...
https://www.core77.com/posts/42562/Nomadic-Furniture-DIY-Des...
And and and last but not least, the great Christopher Schwarz and team at Last Art Press just got out a whole video serie and book on how to make a highly respectable chair design from very basic materials and tools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pWLHAJr5zI
Note also that Lost Art Press makes their books free after some time after first publication, and have a very interesting blog:
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2024/12/27/download-ingenious-...
https://blog.lostartpress.com/
And if you love the look but don’t want to build it and have a spare $18k laying around, just buy one: https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/tables/dining-room-tables/...
I had never seen this type of chair before moving to Senegal as an expat. For several months, I didn’t try them because I assumed they must be incredibly uncomfortable. To be honest, most are made from thinner wood (people here are really poor!), so they didn’t look very sturdy either.
But a few weeks ago, I visited a local woodworker and ordered one of these chairs. I had to let go of all my previous prejudices - this type of chair is surprisingly comfortable and stable. And it's even useful for certain "other" activities :-D
Even though they are African in origin (perhaps as birthing chairs), a lot of people know these as 'viking chairs' or sometimes as 'bog chairs' and you see them at SCA events and various sorts of old timey reenactment type gatherings, often decorated with celtic knots and such motifs.
Crazy to see them warrant a posting here, I had assumed most people had seen them before.
OK, I'll bite: what "other" activities? Am I being too dense? :O
I'd hazard a guess the other activities involve more than one person...
Imo, it looks a bit uncomfortable for chess, but whatever floats your boat dude
If you tilt it up 90 degrees, you can use it like a see-saw.
Yes, you’re being too dense ;)
They’re talking about the chair being useful during sex.
That chair is way too large to use for sex
This chair is made from pressure treated wood. Technically speaking, it is safe to sit on, but personally I'd like to avoid those chemicals against my skin if I could. Regular lumber probably would be preferable, especially when it would take $10 and 20 minutes to replace it after 5 years when it has rotted (or you could spring for redwood or cedar for an extra $10 and double or triple the life of your chair).
Most pressure treated lumber eschews the old arsenic method. Most only have copper and an anti fungal (Tebuconazole) in it. Perfectly safe for an outdoor chair.
The problem with using modern pressure treated wood for outdoor furniture is less any cancer risks like with the old CCA treatments, and more that it's just a bad choice for a bunch of different reasons.
Modern copper-based treatments--e.g. ACQ or CA--still cause skin and eye irritation. If you try to sand it so that people sitting in your new chair don't get a nasty splinter somewhere best avoided, you can compromise the effectiveness of the treatment (even when the treatment gets full penetration, it's still most effective on the outer layers you're now sanding away). Plus, while the dust you create when working with it might not include arsenic, it's still nasty to breathe in and can cause respiratory problems. Staining P/T wood can be a whole ordeal in itself, and because interact much more closely with furniture than say a deck, any imperfections will be more noticeable.
Even then, it's not like P/T furniture isn't going to require ongoing maintenance in the future. At which point, you're better off with something like cedar or white oak. Hell, with a decent outdoor grade finish and proper care, even untreated pine is going to last for years without rotting away underneath you.
Basic weatherproofing treatments for basic lumber ? There's tar, which nobody does at home. There's wood oil. What else is there ? Do I have other options ?
Varnish like polyutherane.
Here’s what I use for furniture that I build:
- My planters use red cedar, often bare.
- My outdoor furniture use a wood oil plus polyutherane.
- My indoor furniture use just wood oil.
But that’s only in general. There are other considerations like impact resistance and spills that can stain the wood so you have to decide what combination of wood type and treatments work for your goal.
You can buy normal wood, then apply treatments afterwards, then stain or what not.
Still trouble when the chair is at end of life, and you burn or bury it.
With a product this simple to make and prices of wood and finishing chemicals what they are I don't know if I'd even bother with finishing, but just remake.
In many parts of the world, an untreated wood outdoor chair would only survive a season or two before atmospheric moisture ruined it.
We used to treat wood with oil (literally from kitchen oil to motor oil). Apparently the Japanese burn theirs to treat it [1]. I don't think you have to leave it to rot out.
[1] https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Burn-Stain-Wood-Aka-Sho...
Keep in mind Yakisugi ("shou sugi ban" is a Western misinterpretation circa ~1995) is traditionally performed on wood which is already weather resistant, particularly Japanese Cedar ("sugi" is cryptomeria japonica, a type of cypress endemic to Japan). Even then they still treat it with oil regularly to improve its longevity. So I wouldn't char some white pine and stick it outside and expect it to last.
We still treat wood with oil. Your local home improvement store should stock a bunch and you’ll find more at a woodworking store.
You can also add a sealant on top like polyutherane if you want it to last even longer at the cost of imparting a different texture.
RE ...pressure treated wood.... In my country such timber is banned in certain situations - for example children's playgrounds ...
I'd rather have my kids play on pressure treated timber than rotting timber...
Fortunately those are not the only two options.
Right, just look at our local playgrounds: no more wood anywhere in sight, just faux-wood plastic that never rots but just slowly sheds microplastics into the environment
I'd be less concerned about that than the fact that every car that drives by the playground is shedding pounds of tyre plastic into the air/water as a matter of course. At least the playground materials aren't designed to turn into particulates.
So true.. plus all the "plush" plastic pellet "landings" rather than simply dirt cause oh no: someone may get into contact with some microbes.. gotta keep those allergy numbers rolling. /s
That's a false dichotomy and I'm sure you can do better.
As a parent you just spend a minute or two inspecting a playground. It's easy to spot something that is rotting.
I'm not familiar with this. What are the dangers?
Back in the olden days, pressure-treated wood contained compounds of arsenic and chromium. This made it pretty terrible to cut, sand, burn, etc.
The warnings persist in part because older wood still has that problem, so "reclaimed wood" projects can be risky. That said, since mid-2000s, wood in the US and the EU is treated primarily with much safer copper compounds. Copper isn't hugely toxic to humans at the levels you're likely to be exposed to from wood.
To be fair, the treatment often also includes an organic fungicide (the "azole" part in "copper azole"), which is probably not understood as well as copper.
That puts me in mind of old railway sleepers being used for garden projects like raised beds and low walls. They were treated with ??? something, in summer the black tar would leech out of them.
The are treated with creosote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote
> I'm not familiar with this. What are the dangers?
Wood is typically treated with nasty chemicals. For example, formaldehyde is extensively used in these applications, and it's linked with cancer.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/form...
Is formaldehyde used in treating PT lumber? That link suggests it shows up in resins for engineered wood products, like particleboard for interior furniture.
I was of the impression that PT lumber to modern standards involved relatively innocuous copper plus an organic biocide like an azole (for antifungal purposes), no?
And I thought the formaldehyde-heavy resins were regulated into obscurity back in like 2009, were they not?
A simple urethane or even latex paint would suffice to protect untreated wood from the elements
This is the first chair one can make, it's a common pre-industrial chair design. Search for "tribal chair" or "2-piece chair" for examples.
It gets even better with wood carving (rather than building out of straight planks):
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/chairs/african-sol...
How do you carve solid wood board ?
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
The traditional methods of "carving" I know about are using an adze [1] and controlled burning [2].
[1] https://engineeringlearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adze...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dwAu6RIQURo
In my chairs I just sculpt the back out of eight quarter with an angle grinder. More production focused wood workers are using multi-axis routers/cncs.
The english term for what you are referring to in bent lamination which is done by taking a piece of wood, slicing it to sections with a thin kerf blade, soaking in water, and then clamping to a form and gluing back together. This is how Russ Filbeck creates his classic presidential rocker.
Bending solid wood is something you do while it grows. See for example https://fullgrown.co.uk/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espalier or https://www.core77.com/posts/27263/Polands-Forgotten-Crooked...
I've seen people doing it with steam
And you can bend surprisingly thick wood with steam. I attended a demonstration where someone bent a maple 2 by 4 (1.5" x 3.5"). It took about 6 people and two tries (the first one splintered, probably not steamed enough).
And gets pricier too. The prices are absolutely eye watering!
The instructions, I think: https://www.instructables.com/One-Board-Minimalist-Chair/
With pleasing circularity, the original post for this discussion, is referenced on the instructables page as one of the 17 people confirmed to have made it.
Thanks for that! I like that hardware is getting covered on HN :-)
Here is an ultralight carbon fiber backpacking version:
https://youtu.be/-GEwwMbqU2o
The ultralight community never ceases to amaze me.
I always thought it was all about travel as light as possible
But I think it's more about travel with as many things as possible - the lightness of the objects is just an emergent requirement in order to not break your back.
I've done my fair share of hiking, longest being a 90km 5-day hike in the Namibian desert, with no facilities save for a river. Weight was a big factor, because you needed to pack food for at least 8 days to be safe and there is nowhere to get food once you start the hike. What equipment you pack and the weight of said equipment weight had to be kept at a minimum.
Having said that...
A chair or other seating arrangement was by a large margin the lowest priority item on my list. There is one giant chair under our feet the whole time: the ground. And if that is not suitable, finding a stump or a rock or whatever to sit on is really not that hard and it's infinitely more environmentally friendly.
> The ultralight community never ceases to amaze me.
The ultralight community doesn't typically touch this stuff. This is sold to traditional backpackers that are drawn to the allure of ultralight.
No sane hiker brings a chair along on a 4+ hiking trip.
Glass half empty: No sane hiker brings a chair along on a 4+ hiking trip.
Glass half full: If I cut 14 oz of weight out of this pack by removing zipper pulls, straps, cords, carrying cases, and switch everything to 10x cost titanium, the chair is practically free.
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Direct link to the chair:
https://rovagear.com/products/rova-chair
(Not an endorsement. Just if you’re curious.)
I find it weird that low weight is one of the main selling points of this product, but they don't say how much it is.
Yes, weird. I also liked this part:
Embers from a fire won’t burn the surface (If removed quickly).
I think that is true for many surface materials, and that "quickly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It also completely fails to communicate whether or not a carbon fiber chair is "safe enough" around an open fire. Annoying.
It's not made out of thermoplastic so probably you don't need to remove them that "quickly". Just not let them sit on there.
After digging around, the FAQ says "approximately 2 lb"
Obviously they don't put the weight on the product main page, that is absolutely heavy.
The Helinox Chair Zero is the standard by which all backpacking chairs are compared https://helinox.com/products/chair-zero - and it is 1 lb 1 oz.
And then some people mod these chairs, like this similar one that was reduced to 13 oz. https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/chair-enlightening...
When I heard that a friend had bought one of these for a week long canoe trip we were going on I thought it was absurd. The idea of taking such a home comfort on a camping trip went against everything I felt camping stood for. Then I tried it, then I bought one, now I take it on every camping trip I make.
It's so light it adds basically nothing to your carry weight. It takes seconds to put together. It's insanely comfortable. Kicking back in it after a long day's hike or canoe whilst prodding at the camp fire is such a joy.
I put it alongside my thermarest as a thing I never felt I'd ever buy and now use on every trip.
Definitely worth having something other than the ground to sit on after a long day. I have a couple of light weight 3-legged stools, although they likely wouldn't be considered ultralight, that are light enough for the camping and hiking I do, although you have to sit just right to not crush your balls.
For those curious, the price is US$350
Clear example of why people like TikTok. There's no reason that video should be 10 minutes.
I just watched the whole thing, and I didn’t mind.
I feel like people have just gotten so used to 10-second videos, and anything longer now feels like an eternity.
I really hope people don’t stop making longer form videos in favor of TikTok-sized videos.
But, clicking around randomly, it seems that this video has been dragged out in length for no reason other than to be longer, presumably for YouTube financial (perverse) incentives.
For sure, I’m not advocating intentionally lengthening videos for financial incentives, either.
I guess I didn’t immediately get that impression when I watched it, but I wasn’t watching it with that in mind.
My point is I don’t mind filler in videos, if it’s true to what’s naturally happening.
But intentionally adding filler is, indeed, poor form.
I don't watch any reels/shorts/etc and find this style of bloated YT video unbearable. I am all for long form videos, but have the decency to go beyond an empty vessel for ads.
I agree, but would be even worse as a TikTok video.
Shorts are absolutely terrible as product reviews. The point of a product review is to explore different aspects and use cases, otherwise it is an ad. It doesn't mean that long videos can't be ads, but short videos can't be anything but ads (if positive).
Shorts have a place, TikTok is great for silly dance moves, magic tricks, or people working really fast. You can even have short form educative content, though it usually doesn't go further than random trivia. But product reviews just don't work, unless they are ads. And in fact, ads don't even work that well as people tend to forget about them quickly.
Not sure about TikTok, but in this video and YouTube in general, you can just directly go to where most people go, and this way (I'm always a bit amazed that this actually works) you can generally see the actually important points of the video.
TikTok caps video length. Indeed, the #1 issue with youtube is the videos are way too long. (Also the ads, and comments, recommendations, search, etc,) but video length is certainly why I haven't bothered to watch anything on youtube for a long time (edit: logged in. I still watch clips people send me ofc in the group chat ofc). I'd delete my account if it weren't tied to my email for some inexplicable reason.
How do you "directly go to where most people go"? Assuming you don't have timestamps in the comments or video description.
The wave when you hover over the progress bar is a graph of popularity.
https://i.imgur.com/XO6cUo5.png
Edit: Wait... Does everybody see this? It's not on all videos, but it's on most for me, but my girlfriend says she never noticed it. I can't find any articles claiming it was ever fully rolled out, so maybe it's a premium feature? Here's the vid if anybody wants to check:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq_lJM1cKNQ
I don’t see it on mobile unless I turn off my ad blocking extension. Thank you! Never knew that was there.
Great video btw, two musicians with great communication and flow
There is a “ten minute rule” for youtube video to maximize reach / clout / whatever the kids are looking for.
Its ad revenue, I think. Yt pays out more for that length since it has midroll ads.
That carbon fiber seat is cool. Could be made to integrate right into the back of a backpack (like the rigid frame), to help the backpack stay rigid during use, so it's kind of dual purpose.
Anybody wanting to get started making regular chairs using traditional methods I highly recommend Make a Chair from a Tree by Jennie Alexander:
https://lostartpress.com/products/make-a-chair-from-a-tree
In the book she starts with the basics and works up to assembly including woven seats. These are beautiful lightweight chairs. Even if you don't build the chair, it's a great lesson in wooworking.
Thanks for reminding me that I haven't been to the Lost Art Press site in a while. I have a few of their books; they are fantastic. If you are interested in quality woodworking tools and high-quality woodworking books (both in terms of content as well as binding and paper), check them out.
I hadn't seen their "Build a Chair from Bullshit" book before. I've always been a little intimidated at the thought of building a chair, but this one looks like it's easy to build and has nice lines. Definitely more involved than the OP's chair, but it still looks still approachable with basic tools and skills.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BAC...
Edit: As mentioned in dlbucci's comment below, I forgot to mention that it's available for free as a downloadable PDF book as well as for purchase as high quality bound book on their site. If you have any interest in an easy to build chair with an attractive design, it's worth a look.
It's a new book (and free!). There's also a YouTube series where they build it, so I'm very tempted to make my first chair now.
Another "next step" to follow on from this is the Anarchist's Design Book: https://lostartpress.com/products/the-anarchists-design-book
It starts out not much more complicated than this and builds to a surprising array of furniture projects with a very small number of techniques. Although the actual materials are a bit annoying: it leans heavily on cut nails and specifically not the more easy to buy wire nails you usually see in DIY shops.
But also, the book is a physically gorgeous artefact in its own right. The illustrations are delicious.
During peak COVID boredom, I made a pair of wine barrel chairs, using this design[1]. Old wine barrels can be found reasonably cheap and the pattern is easy - only a few cuts, a drill, and some screws.
1 - https://hungarianworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/EZ-...
When it comes to woodworking, I quite enjoyed watching some of the videos of Granpa Amu on youtube. When I seen him make table from one piece of wood, it felt like magic.
Link for those interested: https://www.youtube.com/@GrandpaAmu
It's deceptively simple.
I have a lot of lumber from previous construction projects, and all the basic woodworking tools. I also have some relevant skills. Would I be able to build it right now? No, need a wide and sturdy board, widest I have is 150x30mm pinewood. Would I make one if I had a proper piece of wood? Also no, I just don't want to accept the structural weakness here. And this joint actually requires some precision, which is not trivial (at least for me) with handheld circular saw!
Haven't built a chair yet, but my go-to design would be something like Adirondack.
Cool to see that, those are very common for medieval groups at German medieval markets and music festivals.
Nice! However some humans can be quite heavy. Depending on the wood species, the board may break, especially if they drop down into it. To strengthen it you can glue+screw a board on-edge to the middle of the bottom of both boards (running front-to-back, not side-to-side). This will significantly increase its bending strength but hardly be noticeable.
I built some Leopold benches a few years ago, great bench and nearly as simple to build as this chair. Maybe simpler as there is no cutouts or narrowing like OP.
https://store.extension.iastate.edu/product/Woodworking-for-...
This excellent and free (pdf) book "The Stick Chair Book" might be of interest: https://lostartpress.com/products/the-stick-chair-book
Also there is the "Anarchist" wood working books that are also excellent and free on the same site.
I have one of these, the only issue is that you can't lean too much forward, otherwise you're going to fall :D
Soon I'll be making a 2-piece footrest (imagine a T shape up-side-down leaning towards you - giving lower leg and foot sole complete support). A friend said it was a very comfortable (and instantly customizable due to tilt angle) design.
I've been a web dev for 8 years but my heart is in woodworking for the next many years :)
Some ideas here! https://www.martinogamper.com/project/a-100-chairs-in-a-100-...
> I sealed up the ends using end cut sealer
Oh. Just realized I have a lot of unsealed end cuts on my latest projet
Been making things with wood for a while now, never used or heard of cut sealer! I usually put some type of finish on, maybe more on the ends as they absorb it better, but not just specifically on cuts.
I usually put an extra couple of coats of whatever the finish is on end grain. It does soak right in.
Fun little project but there's no way a circular saw is an incorrect tool, see for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3R856PUt1c
With the long tail, maybe repeat the same slotted pattern forming a triangle (of sorts) so that the tail can be shorter (and will be elevated from the ground). Just be careful not to make it too narrow.
With a lot of patience, you can also grow a chair. Check out the header image on https://www.pooktre.com
Equivalent of vibe coding a mini tool to replace some SaaS product you might have paid for
Grandpa Amu also makes a chair:
https://youtu.be/XWnC22NSk50?si=TSdYkqf1PZLLIkc3
This chair looks really interesting. It's extremely simple, but also full of character. When you build something yourself, even if it's not perfect, it somehow feels more real than something you just buy.
This guy is the best for basic woodworking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO6lATthAmE
Even the most mundane posts are a learning opportunity. While I already knew about this style of chair, I didn't know "end cut sealer" existed. TIL!
You’re already there with the cutter, I would cut more holes to allow different sizing.
The best part about this chair is that its design is timeless.
Looks like a minimalist Rietveld chair! Nice job
Minimal Viable Product obtained!
reverse image search shows this construction named "viking chair"
The FORTH of chairs.
Neat! I am jealous of people who make physical stuff with their hands, seems so satisfying. I grow some plants, which brings a feeling of joy compared to buying from the store, even though the latter is much easier.
If anyone is interested in chairmaking, I can recommend the book "The Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks. (/s)
I have the good fortune of working in an office, with easy access to never-ending physical labour options courtesy of relatives living in the countryside.
Every now and then the issues of IT projects make me say "screw it all, I'm going to be a lumberjack". And then I go work the chainsaw for a weekend, and come back thankful for the office chair in a climate controlled room.
Working with your hands is great meditation in small doses, but brutal when you need to do it enough to make a living.
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Please don’t do this.
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http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html
Because it got voted up by people who found it interesting
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