After diving into a lovely ash log on Saturday, I spent yesterday morning removing the dry old bark then cleaving the 5 best sections to yield the back legs (and a pile of lovely kindling wood).

The legs have to be marked about 1cm away from the stained wood beneath the bark.

Half the legs have been shaved yielding a good pile of shavings

This morning I checked through the inner sections and found a couple more leg blanks. The rest were cut to length to yield crests and cross-rails.

Another section was cut into 30cm lengths, then cleft using a ‘push-knife’ giving the blanks for  the laths.

This lath was split from both ends

Laths cleft, shaved and ready for steaming

When I had enough bits prepared, they were loaded into the steamer.

The laths only needed 30 mins in the steamer, then after about an hour spent bending everything, they were loaded into the dryer, where they shall  receive about 20 hours in a circulation of warm air (about 30 degrees C).

The plan is to bend the same again for the next 3 days to complete the bent components needed to finish Peter’s 40 chairs.