Another Movie Related Post

Re: Another Movie Related Post

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>His goal was to build a useful Windsor chair that weighed no more than three pounds. He had lots of failures in a pile at one end of the shop.

Thanks but.....

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

>....was there a useful reason for keeping a windsor chair under 3 pounds or was it merely a personal exercise on the character's part?

Tommy

Racing chair

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Remember, they didn't have titanium or carbon fiber back then. If he wanted any chance at all at the Tour de Windsor races, he needed a light chair.

Re: Racing chair

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

>Hadn't thought of that! LOL

Tommy

Re: Racing chair

Sam Simpson

>Hi Y'all,

It is very easy to build a wooden chair of almost any design if there is no weight constraint. A big ole bulky chair with thick slats and rungs with big ole fat legs wouldn't pose a problem of engineering. But a chair that was light weight and strong had to be well engineered, weather you knew much of what factors to look for in the equation or not.

At the time of the Patriot, Heplwhite was writing on the subject. (I'm only paraphrasing here) That a well designed chair should appear not able to hold ones weight.

The savvy purchaser of the day knew that wood needed to be well selected and that joinery needed to be well executed. But they had little ability to know what to look for in the materials selection, nor could they see how well fitted the joints where. Therefore I believe it reasonable to assume that the weight alone was the best selling point.

Regards Sam Simpson.

Re: Thanks but.....

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I guess you'd have to read the book to find out. I didn't, so what I am conveying is second hand information. Most of the details of that part of the story were left out of the movie, ending up on the cutting room floor. A lot of the story was based on a real person, Francis Marion, a.k.a. the Swamp Fox, but the movie makers also decided to downplay that part of the history when it became known that this guy had some politically incorrect bagage associated with his name. Some of the things that he is said to have done were a lot worse than just politically incorrect. It's not clear to me whether Francis Marion actually built chairs. I guess you'd have to read one of his biographies. If you are interested, Google will provide links to lots of information, but probably not anything that would make a FWW article :^)

Re: Another Movie Related Post

dennis mcdonaugh

>I don't remember that scene, but are you sure its a Windsor chair and not a rocking chair? He tests every rocking chair he comes across and laments he can't make one rock comfortably.

Ah...makes sense

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

>Sam,

Thanks. I had wondered if it was some such reason. That does ring a bell with me. Thanks!

Tom