How We Got the Wood for my Chairmaking Video Course

‘’But where are we going to find green wood in the urban area of Cincinnati?’’, I asked.

‘’I know just the place’’, Chris (Christopher Schwarz) replied.

We desperately needed green wood We were due to start filming that day and the only thing that was missing was the wood (minor detail).

As we were leaving, I vaguely heard Chris say something to Lucy about going to a ’’cebetary’’ but I didn’t know what the word meant (I am European).

We got off the highway and started driving around a wild nature area.

Then gravestones started appearing all around us.

Gravestones?

Gravestones.

We were at a cemetery.

I had never driven around a cemetery before (in Europe you can only walk around a cemetery). What a cool surreal American experience.

Some deer were running by as we drove deeper into the cemetery, and we parked at the far edge.

‘’This way’’, Chris said.

We walked along a creek, chain saw and tool bag on our shoulders. After some time, we climbed up a hill and found a suitable maple tree.

The tree was easy to cut down, but it fell on a different tree so we couldn’t take it back to the car just yet.

After a lot of wiggling and pulling, the tree came free and it bounced down. As it bounced down, the other end bounced up.

And it flew right past Chris’ face, missing him by mere inches.

We were off to a good start.

I cut the log into segments and we headed back to the Lost Art Press headquarters.

We filmed how the pieces were processed into chair legs, arms, sticks and the comb - all from fresh green wood.

The following days, we filmed the rest of the chairmaking process. And during it Chris somehow also managed to cook an extensive Thanksgiving meal.

If you are interested in processing green wood and making a chair, you will want to check out my chairmaking video:

https://lostartpress.com/products/make-a-chair-from-green-wood-with-rudy-everts

-Rudy