Greene & Greene is Groovy!

Article - July 8, 2011

The Greene & Greene Adirondack chair continues with the construction of the front apron. This was a particularly fun part of the project because we pulled the concept right from the Gamble House Dining Table. The two grooves go all the way through the panel and there are steep bevels at the ends of each groove. Thanks to David Mathias for the photo.

I gave some thought as to how I would approach making these and ultimately came up with two ways. The first was more of a “brute force” method. I used a router to create the through grooves. I then used the dovetail saw to extend the walls of the groove into the bevel. And finally, a chisel was used to create the bevel itself. A fine rasp was then used to give everything that classic Greene & Greene softness.

The end result is a fairly close representation of the original. So what about the second method? Well, suffice it to say I was so focused on filming that I forgot to take a few photos. But the concept is fairly simple. Instead of routing the grooves, I simply rip the board into strips of appropriate size. The two strips that represent the grooves are then cut at the tablesaw to introduce the bevels. Once everything is sanded, the parts are then glued back together and the end result is nearly identical to the first version. Pictured left, you can see the “brute force” version on the top and the “rip & glue” version on the bottom.

With the aprons complete I was able to move onto the lower back support, which had its own fun and interesting challenges. Primarily cutting the contour shape and then adding a 7 degree bevel. Fun stuff. But the base is pretty much complete and next we’ll be moving on to the arms and top back support. An incredibly fun project so far!

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