In August, 2007 I attended Brian Cunfer's beginner Windsor chair class at his shop in Lancaster county, PA, where I built this bow back side chair.

The first pictures were taken in Brian's shop, fairly late in the chair building process. The remaining images show me applying oil to the chair after I painted it, and the finished chair.

I found it very helpful to work with a different instructor for my second chair. It showed me that despite some claims to the contrary, TMTOWTDI (there's more than one way to do it) when making windsor chairs. I'd be more likely to take another class with Brian at this point than at the Windsor Institute, but I hope to be able to at least start completing a set of bow back side chairs without any more classes.

In this class, we did all the turning ourselves instead of using pre-turned legs and stretchers. While I was building this chair, I knew the spindles weren't entirely straight and even, but I also knew that it wouldn't bother me when the chair was finished. As I was repainting the sack back, I had an opportunity to inspect it closely again, and I discovered that the spindles on that chair are far worse than the ones I made for the bow back.