Now that I’m laminating the chair legs on the Adirondack Chair, it’s nice to find a board with some interesting grain to bookmatch.
Bookmatching just means that when I glue up three boards, then resaw them down the middle on the bandsaw to create two legs, I get two faces with similar figure. That’s because the middle board of the three-board sandwich provides a face for each leg.
I’ve included a pic of a set of legs I recently made with bookmatched faces to illustrate the point.
You can see how the cathedral grain at the top of each leg is similar; same for the the bullseye near the cutout for the front rail.
Cypress often has beautiful figure in it. Since many of my pieces employ curves, I like to take advantage of the natural flow of the grain when laying out a curve on a footrest or a bonsai stand. And when laminating parts, I can also take advantage of interesting grain by doing this bookmatching thing. Just another thing that makes woodworking so interesting.
Of course, this is outdoor furniture, and the figure will become muted as the wood weathers. But there’s still something satisfying just knowing that when the chair starts out, it’s got a matched set of legs that take advantage of a nicely figured board.
