Adirondack Chairs - tick

New Year's resolution No. 4 was to build two Adirondack chairs (often called, incorrectly, Cape Cod chairs in NZ).  These chairs have been around since the turn of the 20th century and come in all shapes and colours.

So where to go for a good design?  The chairs are named after the Adirondac Mountains in upstate New York and are more carpentry than fine woodworking.  Possibly the most well known American carpenter is Norm Abram of the New Yankee Workshop fame - a legend in a plaid shirt.

He produced a version of the Adirondack chair on one of his shows and then subsequently America's Popular Woodworking magazine profiled it (and Norm) in one of their issues.  The article, with basic drawings can be downloaded free here.

To make this and any subsequent builds go as smoothly as possible I first made a full set of MDF patterns.

Next, the patterns were traced onto the timber using the most appealing grain and avoiding timber defects like splits and knots.

For this project I used macrocarpa (Cupressus macrocarpa) because... well, there is a sawmill down the road specialising in it.  But also because macrocarpa heartwood has natural durability and is easy to work.

And because when I was a boy my father made a boat from macrocarpa.  The distinctive smell of the wood still takes me back to the boatshed in our back yard, when as a 10 year old boy I watched this huge hull take shape.  I am still in awe at my dad's abilities to turn his hand to anything from fixing electronics to building an extension on the house.

The shapes were cut out with the bandsaw, sanded and rounded over with the router.

Next, a little assembly and dry fitting...

Followed by disassembly, gluing with a waterproof adhesive and reassembly, then a couple of coats of outdoor furniture oil.

And there we have it, ready for use.  A bit late for summer maybe, but no doubt ready for many summers ahead.