Paolo Frattari combined two skill sets in one when he collaborated with fellow craftsman Dario Alfonsi to make this armchair
A while ago, walking in the centre of Rome, I spotted one of the last artisan workshops there, home to countless chairs with leather seats and backs that had been lovingly assembled by the craftsman Dario Alfonsi. A friendship sprung up between us immediately, and we went on to collaborate on a piece: I would create the structure of a chair and he would make the backrest and seat. Many designers who love leather have passed through Dario’s studio with a variety of chairs to be crafted or restored. Not to be outdone, I wanted my chair to be high quality, but above all I wanted it to be a piece of work that represented both of our skills. And so it was: Dario’s ideas were added to my ideas and a light, elegant, rather unusual armchair was born with soft curves that make it look both ancient and contemporary at the same time.
The design
Our design presented some challenges: to create a leather seat, the frame had to be somehow detachable from the rest, so we needed to find a way to achieve this. For the backrest the solution was easier, as it was possible to insert it from the top and leave the two rear uprights free. Being able to dismantle the armchair would also make it easier to ship to buyers and significantly lower the related costs.
After some consideration, I started my design by drawing two vaguely triangular structures that make up the sides. These would be joined by two removable crosspieces; above them is the seat made up of the frame alone, which can also be dismantled, while at the top the two triangular structures end with two vertical uprights on to which the backrest will be inserted. A removable slat inserted between them prevents the top of the chair from folding inwards when you lean against it. The wood of the lateral structures is cherry, and for the crosspieces and the seat frame I chose more robust oak.
Making the side frames
I call the side frames triangles, but in reality they are the front and rear legs, which are joined at the top with a shaped crosspiece which also becomes an armrest that ends at the back in a vertical, where the backrest is inserted. At the bottom, however, the legs are joined by an almost straight crosspiece. These two identical frames do not need to be dismantled, so they are assembled with glue and clamps.
I left the boards in the workshop for a few days to acclimatise, then cut the pieces, leaving some excess margin, and left them a little longer to see if there were any movements in the wood. I have learned the hard way that this acclimatising time is absolutely necessary. Once I was sure the parts were stable, I planed them flush and to thickness and began construction. The 40mm board was very uneven and the thickness I ended up with was 32mm. The two armrests are the centre of the frame, where the joints for the two legs and the backrest are, so I started with them. On the two pieces I had prepared I planed one side, then with the mitre saw I cut the following side at 90°. These rectangular sides would act as a reference for the subsequent angled cuts. With tracing paper, I traced the shape of the piece directly from the large drawing, then cut it out and transferred it to the piece, aligning the lower part with the planed side.
I chose to use tenon joints, which are faster but above all easier – this was important given the complex angles I had to make. I started by preparing the joint of the backrest, cutting the rear part of the piece at approximately 24°. To do this I used the tablesaw with the mitre fence and a stop to reproduce the cut. Then I repeated the procedure to cut the two small uprights. The next cut I made was on the front leg, at the opposite end to the previous one. I set the angle guide at 14° because with this angle I could join the leg by cutting it off at 90°. I positioned the rear part of the piece against the fence and stopped on a stop block, against which I placed the previously cut surface.
The last cut was the one for the back leg and was best done on the tablesaw because the greatest area of support is on the wast side. To avoid problems I decided to make a partial cut. I should have left the piece entirely squared, so that the cutting would have been easier, but the tablesaw I had available did not allow for such large pieces. I set the mitre fence at around 35°. As for the previous cut, the calculation of the angle was what subsequently allowed the leg to be cut off at 90°. I began the cut, stopping it near the guide, and then completed the cut with a hand saw.
For complex jobs I prefer to square the mortises with a chisel, so I have more accurate control of the joint. Having done this and prepared the various tenons with a scrap of beech, I assembled the small square of the backrest with glue and clamped it. To maximise the grip of the clamp I sawed a notch in the waste part of the armrest, so as to make the ends parallel.In this and all the other joints that will follow I inserted two small dowels that pass through the false tenon at the ends to further strengthen the joint. In the two remaining mortises I inserted the false tenons and so was able to dry-assemble the legs with the armrest, holding everything in position with the clamps. On the almost complete structure I marked the heights of the legs with lines.
The line just drawn gave me the opportunity to define the position of the crossbar placed at the bottom between the two legs. I overlaid it on these at the required distance and was able to mark the angle of its sections. I made the two angled cuts with the mitre fence so that, if the work was carried out precisely following the lines, the result would be perfect.At this point in the process, the section of the crosspiece was 60 x 32mm – too large for a light armchair but it was what was needed to create the parts. I decided to trim it to 32 x 20mm, leaving the ends unchanged. Reducing the width and angle of the joints lessened the space for the mortise even more, so a scrupulous calculation of the measurements and positioning of the joint was essential.
For curved frames it is generally best to assemble the pieces first and then shape them, but in cases like this, where there is a closed internal space, it is advisable to shape first and then rectify the joints of the parts. The alternative is to cut them with the jigsaw after assembling them, but for substantial thicknesses and woods this method would not be accurate enough.I cut the internal curve of the armrest with the bandsaw and, in preparation for gluing, I checked the position of the clamps by making the ends parallel. Then, once the cuts were completed on the bandsaw, I moved on to finishing the shapes of the armrests and crosspieces with scrapers, planes and files. Everything was then glued and clamped to complete this part of the complex work.
Completing the frames
To get to the final shapes I had to cut the waste parts with the bandsaw and smooth the surfaces with various manual tools; if I had been faithful to the rules of woodworking, I would have made templates, and with the router I would have made the parts identical. But for me the true beauty of handmade objects lies in diversity, so I completed the frames while trying to respect the material and its grain. I started by tracing the tapers of the legs, which end with a thickness of 20mm, the same as the crosspiece, and I continued with the armrest. With the bandsaw I cut all the contours, carefully following the lines, and finished with a semi-round file.
I finished the work on the two adjacent frames by cutting off the legs. I aligned them with two clamps and marked the cutting lines. With the tablesaw and the mitre fence I made the cuts and divided the work into two phases, first the front legs and then, by modifying the angle of the fence, the rear ones. Two crosspieces connect the adjacent frames, they are made of oak and can be dismantled. I placed them in the centre of the thickness of the legs, just below the seat, and like the previous crosspieces they had a large initial section, 70 x 32mm, which was reduced in size in the centre.
To make the pieces easily removable I made a connection with two dowels and a screw in the centre. On the legs, between the two holes that house the dowels, there was a third hole, into which a threaded bush was inserted. The dowels aligned the parts and the screw in the centre joined them securely. To make these holes in a mirror image and with the same depth, I needed a template. The template I made was a square with three perpendicular and equidistant holes, with a vertical stop that was fixed on the pieces with a clamp. The square was as wide as the crosspiece, and was easily aligned on this, while to make the holes on the legs the alignment took place with respect to the marking.
I marked the position of the crosspieces on the legs, fixed the template on these and made the three holes with the drill equipped with a depth stop. I then repeated the operation on the crosspieces, drilling the two holes for the dowels. I then had to create the housing for the screw on these pieces. With the router I made a central recess on the internal side, extending it beyond the length of the screw so as to be able to turn it with the Allen key. I inserted and tightened the two crosspieces on the legs and with a hand plane I eliminated the slight misalignments that never fail to appear. To hide the recesses, which are partially visible even with the seat installed, I made some small caps, which were made from a rectangle of plywood fixed to a short pine square. The square was slightly tapered and was inserted by pressure. To make everything look more elegant, we decided to cover the plywood with thin leather.
The seat
The seat was made from oak strips and needed to be removable from the chair in order to be covered in leather. You might think that the seat, being upholstered, could be made with less attention but the leather was 3mm thick and could not be turned on two sides simultaneously. For this reason, it was cut leaving the corners uncovered for about 30mm and the uncovered part, even if small, would show off the craftsmanship of the underlying structure. A comfortable seat must be concave at the front. A final consideration for the seat was that leather does not like to rest on sharp edges, if the parts are well curved its durability increases considerably.
Late in life I developed the healthy habit of designing and measuring directly on the model. This means I can better evaluate the pieces and avoid recording the measurements, which often change during the subsequent steps. I fixed the 420mm-long side strip of the seat (section 20 x 30mm) with two clamps; being slightly angled backwards, its height at the front compared to the base was 450mm while at the back it was 435mm. For a comfortable seat the rear part must be at right angles to the backrest. To ensure that it was, I fixed a second strip to the uprights of the backrest itself to carry out the appropriate checks.
With the second strip opposite the first I was able to take the distance between the two and find the measurement of the front: 420mm. Before doing this, I had the foresight to place a small thickness of plywood between the two side strips and the legs to simulate the thickness of the leather, so that the seat, once covered, could easily fit into the frame. To join the strips I used a tenon joint. The small section of these forced me to use the 6mm cutter, which was sufficient especially considering the great resistance of the oak.
As I said above, a comfortable seat must have a concave frontal surface – a slight curve of approximately 20mm difference in height is enough. I drew the curve on paper, taking into account that the section of the affected strips, front and rear, was 50 x 20mm. I transferred the shape to the parts and was able to limit the mortises precisely. To make the most of the small sizes I was forced to make the mortises in the two side strips, positioning them vertically; the operation required inserting a rear stop to hold the piece still, a vertical one to align it at right angles and various clamps to tighten everything.
After making the mortises, I cut the curved parts of the strips with the bandsaw and smoothed the surfaces with hand tools. To make them identical I did these processes by joining them together with two clamps. With the joints made and the parts shaped and smoothed I was able to assemble the seat. In addition to the clamps, for this operation, a tape measure and square were essential to check for square. As with the other joints, I inserted dowels that passed through the tenons and strengthened the joint.
The time had come to shape the seat to make it suitable for the leather that would cover it but also show the meticulous workmanship in the exposed corners. I started with the side strips, and more precisely with the router table and a concave radius cutter with bearing, rounding the only mechanically workable side. I carried out all the other moulding operations by hand. With a plane I completed the upper part by eliminating a small portion of the internal side. In the lower part I rounded the external side with a plane larger than the previous one. To make the process easier I first marked out the surfaces to be removed with a pencil.
The last remaining side, the lower internal one which is also the least visible, needed more careful processing. To blend the part well with the front I preferred to cut in the centre for about 3mm and go up to the edge; this created a detail that is pleasing to the eye. The curve was concave and I made it with a Japanese tool that seems to be the forerunner of the plane, the Yari Ganna: the curved tip at the top creates a concavity that eliminates small parts of material. The tool was wide enough to provide a stable base when levelling the part. Those who have difficulty working with this tool can use a semi-flat gouge to eliminate the large areas and smooth the surface with a curved scraper. Then I rounded off the corners of the frame with a chisel, eliminating those sharp edges. The last parts to be bevelled to complete the seat were the front and rear crosspieces. On these, after having marked the parts to be removed, I carried out the work with a spokeshave.
All I had to do now was insert the seat into the frame. To obtain the removable fixing I once again resorted to the screw and socket system. I marked the four contact points and drilled the seat in the centre of them. By repositioning it once on one side and then on the other, I was able to transfer the drilling centres using the same drill bits. I then drilled the holes for the bushes on the sides; the rest are screws that insert inside and block the seat.
The rear crosspiece and finishing
It was not yet clear to me whether the crosspiece placed behind the backrest was useful or not, certainly the risk that the backrest could fold inwards, forcing on the two small uprights, should not be underestimated. I decided, in agreement with Dario, to add a thin, removable strip, which would strengthen that part of the structure. Two small oak blocks, rounded at the top, were fixed to the backrest with a threaded bush; another hole was made in them to accommodate the dowel fixed to the strip. The blocks have a square base of 20 x 20mm and were 15mm high. I moulded them with a plane, making the upper base 16 x 16mm. On these I made two 8mm holes in the longest diagonal, one for the dowel, the other for the screw that will be inserted into the threaded bush.
To move the strip away from the leather of the backrest and avoid uncomfortable contacts, I designed the piece with a sufficient outward curvature. I initially left it large, to be able to easily drill holes for inserting the dowels, then, after fixing it to the uprights, I traced the lines and finished it with the bandsaw and various sanding tools. To finish the chair, I used a random orbital sander where I could with 120-, 220- and 320-grit discs. Elsewhere I worked by hand with abrasive paper, all of this done with the parts disassembled. I then applied two coats of transparent water- based primer and two more of varnish, always transparent and always water-based, interspersed with a light sanding.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAOLO FRATTARI