This turned chair has a beveled panel for a seat, captured in grooves in the thee seat rails. This requires that the seat rails all be at the same height. This is acheived by using interlocking tenons; in this case a rectangular tenon pierced by a turned tenon. Each seat rail has one of each tenon, and they chase each other around the chair frame.
I turn the parts on the pole lathe; the ash is riven, or split from the log. Nice straight-grained wood is essential. The rectangular tenons are cut with a saw, and split with a chisel.
![sawing a shoulder for the rectangular tenon]()
- sawing a shoulder for the rectangular tenon
![splitting the waste off the rectangular tenon]()
- splitting the waste off the rectangular tenon
- more to follow…