Be Dumb it’s Smarter

Kale Vogt
August 18, 2025

The past two weeks around the shop could be measured in dog years. Since my recent post on the progress of my fourth apprenticeship chair, we have: suffered a flood in the basement of the Anthe warehouse (and subsequently removed the damaged books), installed a new toilet and sink (Anthe will now have two bathrooms – yay!), And (somehow) remained above water fulfilling orders of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest: Revised Edition.”

Yet through all the chaos that comes with being part of a small business, work on my fourth chair persists. Albeit, at a glacial pace.

The design process of building a chair (nearly) from scratch has taken me by storm. While I have a single inspiration photo that has aided me with proportions and splay, I’ve been left to my own devices for every other aesthetic decision, resultant angle, stick and leg girth etc.

After eventually landing on a seat shape, then changing it, altering it a bit, then changing it again, I’m now at a place where I feel I’ve finally hit my stride.

I’ve settled on a rake and splay that I’m happy with and that is different from all my previous chairs. And I’ve assembled a mock comb that I will be using as a guide while drilling the stick mortises in the seat (you’ll see it below the paywall).

The big decisions aren’t over yet; next steps are deciding an arm shape, calculating how to drill mortises for the arm (due to the dramatic angle of the sticks, sandwich drilling is not an option) and how I wish to saddle the seat.

And I haven’t shared this before now: The chair will be made from a combination of soft maple, hard maple and hickory. The finish will be a clear wax.

My hope is that by my next post, I’ll have finished parts to show and maybe, just maybe, an assembled undercarriage. Understanding that designing will only get easier from here is keeping my hopes high for future chair builds.

A couple days into my current chair build, I experienced a moment of dread – dread from the reality of my build hitting me all at once. And from the feared four-letter word that often comes with new woodworking projects: math.

However, if there’s anything I’ve learned in my year’s apprenticeship with Chris, it’s that if things get too complicated, think dumber.