She Works Wood & Leather

I’ve had a request for more details regarding how I made my Roorkhee by hand. This post is an attempt at that, but some what repeating info in the previous post.

There are many inspirational photos of Roorkhee Chairs to inspire your own Roorkhee project. I collected a few here. Hopefully these photos will inspire you to be free to make your legs in the way you’re most comfortable. As in all things wood working, there are many ways to complete a project.

I made my chair out of some beautiful kiln dried Black Limba I found at Crosscut lumber. My leather was from the now out of business Sheraton Leather. My leather was 8 – 10 thickness.

I used Jason Thigpen’s photos as inspiration from my chair.

Stretchers pre-shaped on the table saw.

You can also shape the octagons with a hand plane.

I found it very helpful to have an example leg to use as a guide. One the first leg is done, I followed it to make the others.

I used my table saw to make stop cuts at transitions. At the top of the leg where the hand grips are formed and above the foot.

For the legs, pencil lines are super helpful.

I used my draw knife between the pencil lines to remove the waste.

Once close to the right shape I used my spoke shave to make the final shape.

Here how I used pencil lines to make sure the shape of the legs where similar. You can make out the pencil shading on the leg at the top of the picture.

I also used the draw knife to shape the feet. I have to admit that I ended up turning the feet on the lathe because I didn’t like how they turned out.