Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/138

 122

��Popular Science Monthly

���The larger portions of each piece of furniture consist of disks of wood sawed from a large tree trunk, the other parts being made up of tamarack poles with their ends smoothed and oiled

��No mortising, as in ordinary furniture making, is needed. The lapping of one piece over the other, leaving the sawed ends exposed, is more in keeping with the nature of the work. These ends should be smoothed, oiled and varnished, the same as the disks. Some bolts were put in to fasten the arm pieces to back and seat of chair, and the legs to set supports. Smaller braces and rustic trimmings were nailed in position.

In the construction of a chair or settee the four most important pieces should be selected first — the rear legs, which also form the back, and the front legs. If pos- sible these should have slight curves. Plan and build the back first, arriving at the size and putting the cross-pieces in position. The front section should then be made.

��Nailing the arm-rests and braces into their respective positions will complete a solid, rigid chair.

Tables are easier to build than chairs or settees. Careful measurements and simple tools are all that are required, and a great variety of chairs, tables, settees, desks, rustic baskets, and other useful articles may be made. The material, in most cases, may be gathered during a tramp through the woods in vacation-time, or it may be purchased at little cost.

Branches from the wood lot, limbs pruned from fruit orchard or shade trees, small tamarack or birch trees and the ordinary willow from some swampy spot may all be used to good advantage. The making of the furniture is more of a pleas- ure than a task. — J. E. Whitehouse.

���Dimensions of each piece of furniture shown in the halftone illustration above. These dimen- sions are not arbitrary but merely give an idea of about the right proportions for comfort

�� �