Drilling the rear rung mortises into the rear legs is similar in many ways to drilling the front rung mortises into the front legs. The big difference is that, for the rear rung mortises, in addition to accounting for splay, I also have to account for the rotation of the rear legs by the slats.

One of the things that intimidates people new to chairmaking is the thought of drilling compound angled mortises into curved, bent chair legs. Although it may seem a difficult thing to figure out and execute, the principles used to determine each angle and the jigs used to drill each mortise are actually quite simple. 

Good joinery is key to building a chair that will stand up to the stresses of everyday use and stand up to the test of time as well. The primary joint in this chair — the joint between the rungs and the legs — is essentially a dowel joint, a round tenon in a round mortise. Although dowel joints are notorious for their high failure rate, it’s possible to make a dowel joint that is strong and long lasting.

A spokeshave hand made by Brian Boggs in the early 90s