The chair is almost finished, and finally partners penchant for going to estate sales paid off ;)

Okay, 9:00 Saturday morning, partner calls and says that there is an estate sale that I have to go to, and right away, they're selling tools. So I haul my lazy self out of my lounging mode and drive off to this "promising" sale. For once he was right, I found a few tools that I thought might be useful. (remember, clicking on the pictures makes them larger.)
3 Splitting wedges, an antique saw, 3 antique hand powered drills, abunch of drill bits and a bunch of files, most of which will need handles, we'll go into that some other time.

The one drill, a breast drill , I found quite useful today for boring the mortises for the back spindles of my chair.

And, as always, when working on a project, a bigger hammer is the answer.

The chair is now all glued together and needs only a little fine tuning and finishing.

There are two schools of thought on how many spindles there should be in the back. One says that an odd number is more asthetically pleasing. This however puts one of the spindles directly in the center, where your spine will rest. The other theory says that an even number of spindles is far more comfortable, I opted for comfort. I have sat in a chair that has a spindle right in the center, it does put pressure directly on the spine. I would really rather sit in a chair that has support on either side of the spine, which actually almost massages the muscles to either side of the spine and is so much more relaxing.

Now, for those who think the whole thing looks a little flimsy. Remember that all the pieces are hand shaved from wood that is split to follow the growth of the tree. Nothing is sawn across the grain of the trees growth. All pieces maintain the strength that a tree naturally has to resist the forces of wind, etc.
Chairs built in this fashion have lasted for over 300 years. When you sit in this chair, it flexes and accomodates you. I find chairs like these not only beautiful, but also desirable.