How you can make a Windsor Chair.

Using traditional hand tools learn how to make a beautiful chair from green wood logs.

This is a 9-day course in which students are taught 18thC English woodworking skills. It involves birthing your chair from a local green tree using traditional hand tools and techniques.

On this course we use either our local red stringy-bark Eucalyptus macrorhyncha or robinia pseudoacacia sometimes called false acacia.

Solid seats are shaped from either camphor laurel, elm or ash, and we use ash or elm for the steam bent bows.

Because the components of the chair are split or riven and not sawn, the chair can be light but strong.

The green wood tenons of the legs, stretchers and arm posts are dried and shrunk in warm sand before inserting into a mortise that is still green wood. The moisture in the mortise swells the tenon locking the join and replicating a centuries old woodworking technique.

Tools used during the course include a pole lathe, operated with your foot; a shave horse; drawknife; adze; spokeshave; maul; froe; and hand plane; to name a few.

Price: $1800

Chair making students usually start with a double bow Windsor chair but be warned…. chairmaking can become addictive!

To enquire call 0427 677 226 or USE OUR CONTACT FORM

Accommodation: stay-and-visit/

A Review from “Amongst the Trees”

Among the Trees on Instagram: “One of our founders Luke recently went and did a Windsor chair making workshop out in Molong with Geoff and Colina Tonkin. He’s not been able to stop talking to the team here about it (and fair enough), and he wanted to share with you about why it was so special too. As lovers of hand tools, woodworking tradition, and finding the time to do things the right way, Geoff and Colina’s approach really speaks to us. If you’re looking for not just something to do but something that will stay with you for a lifetime, search Geoff Tonkin chair making online to learn more and book in with them! #windsorchair #courses #thingswelove @geoff_tonkin”instagram.com

A review from Steve Giannuzzi

Show More Show Less

A review from Steve Giannuzzi “I have just spent the most remarkable week with Geoff & Colina making a Windsor Chair using traditional methods. It was one of the most meditative/therapeutic experiences of my life. Something I very much needed and highly recommend. It has reinvigorated my love for wood working. Thank you Geoff & Colina for being such generous teachers and hosts. Truly honoured to finish chair number 200 in your brilliant course.”

A review from Jonathan & Holly “What a truly wonderful and rewarding course.  You were both fabulous hosts and teachers, always more than willing to assist but never overbearing, with no question too silly to ask. It made us feel very at ease as novices undertaking a new skill. We came away with new found respect for the chair and how it was crafted.”

Show More Show Less

The process in pictures:

Legs and stretchers riven/split from a log.

Components are shaped on a shave horse with a drawknife.

Legs and stretchers are turned on a pole lathe.

The seat is shaped.

Bows are steam bent.

Assembly of the chair.

The finished product.