I can also highly recommend Enzio Mari's Autoprogettazione furniture. Although slightly more involved in construction, all you need is standard planks, hand saw, a hammer and some nails. The instruction PDF can be found online (chairs in the latter half):
Just looking through that PDF, unlike the chair in the blog, some of that furniture is not as robust. Pages 46 & 47 the load rests on the corner of the wood, and pages 46, 47 & 52 add almost all load onto the screws.
The chair in the blog benefits from essentially having all load bearing done by the wood, any screws or nails would be superficial only. We have several good hard wood chairs here with dove tail joints and spring based cushions - and they are excellent.
sandworm101 · 1h ago
The chair in the blog is not robust. It is simple, but not robust. It contains a hinge with an extreem amount of force placed on a small area of wood. It will deform very quickly, changing the angle of the recline. Similarly, the sharp points in contact with the ground will wear/weather quickly, putting it out of level. Rustic and utilitarian, but not meant to last. Imho.
aredox · 1h ago
I think you should check your own knowledge before double-guessing Enzo Mari - a designer who did the work and had extensive knowledge of form and materials spanning decades.
This is not an ""argument from authority" but "Chesterton's Fence".
Two of the core ideas are that the majority of the work can be undertaken by a single person with basic carpentry skills, using readily-available materials in standard sizes so there is minimal cutting and waste.
turtlebits · 1h ago
Having built a couple of smaller structures, I don't see why these can't be done today. Ignoring the current trend of building for curb appeal instead of practicality, you can build a house using standard size materials (8/10/12/16 foot). Even studs come in 92 5/8" to accomodate for top/bottom plates in 8 foot walls.
regularfry · 11h ago
I'm always intrigued by the Segal method, but it's so closely tied to the sizes of construction materials available at the time and I can't help wondering if anything has changed since.
I've been thinking about doing this, and my main thought is that the insulation standards were probably effectively non-existent at the time, beyond "as few draughts as possible"!
Edit: not sure if these will be geo-blocked, but there are a couple of programmes about that project here:
Can it be brutalist when you have the richness of wood in full diplay, veins, shimmer and knots all apparent?
And nothing stops you to paint them or engrave them.
Is a wooden box "brutalist" too? It is a box. It is square. Is the the same as a square windowless concrete building?
WillEngler · 35m ago
> Can it be brutalist when you have the richness of wood in full display, veins, shimmer and knots all apparent?
Insofar as brutalism is about showcasing the raw building materials, yes, I think this is precisely what brutalism is about. Brutalism often uses concrete, but the big idea is to showcase the underlying material. (And if wood is more beautiful than concrete, great!)
globalnode · 13h ago
Very nice! thanks for that. I really like basic agricultural do it yourself furniture. We should reclaim our furniture and be less dependent on IKEA et al. I'm defo going to try the adjustable table at the top of the pdf, thats a work of art.
Cthulhu_ · 8h ago
Ironically, companies like Ikea have started selling products aimed at people making their own furniture; the "outdoor bench made from pallets" is pretty popular, and ikea & co sell cushions just for those.
I never understood those tbh, used pallets are splintery. I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
fake edit after a quick search: yup, you can buy readymade pallet benches or benches "inspired by" pallet projects.
Like Amazon continuing the DIY door desk long after it became more expensive than just buying desks. For some reason, people will pay a premium for the refurbished industrial look.
grogenaut · 4h ago
My understanding is that Amazon continues it for 2 reasons: it's similar priced, but more importantly they can get the doors at massive scale and they're the same. Styles, colors, materials with desks change over time. They have to source sometimes ~10k desktops in a quarter with little lead time. You can't do this with desks but you can with doors.
Or this is why they told us we wouldn't get white desks in Seattle when we had em in sfo. Even though we got the same legs.
GuinansEyebrows · 2h ago
> I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
thanks, i hate it ("it" being the recuperation of DIY)
aredox · 12h ago
What is interesting also in Enzo Mari's concept is that there is no instructions, you have to figure out the best order of operations and how to offset some planks with others.
And and and last but not least, the great Christopher Schwarz and team at Last Art Press just got out a whole video serie and book on how to make a highly respectable chair design from very basic materials and tools:
I had never seen this type of chair before moving to Senegal as an expat. For several months, I didn’t try them because I assumed they must be incredibly uncomfortable. To be honest, most are made from thinner wood (people here are really poor!), so they didn’t look very sturdy either.
But a few weeks ago, I visited a local woodworker and ordered one of these chairs. I had to let go of all my previous prejudices - this type of chair is surprisingly comfortable and stable. And it's even useful for certain "other" activities :-D
world2vec · 7h ago
OK, I'll bite: what "other" activities? Am I being too dense? :O
tasuki · 7h ago
I'd hazard a guess the other activities involve more than one person...
nomel · 17m ago
If you tilt it up 90 degrees, you can use it like a see-saw.
y-curious · 3h ago
Imo, it looks a bit uncomfortable for chess, but whatever floats your boat dude
quickthrowman · 7h ago
Yes, you’re being too dense ;)
They’re talking about the chair being useful during sex.
peter422 · 16h ago
This chair is made from pressure treated wood. Technically speaking, it is safe to sit on, but personally I'd like to avoid those chemicals against my skin if I could. Regular lumber probably would be preferable, especially when it would take $10 and 20 minutes to replace it after 5 years when it has rotted (or you could spring for redwood or cedar for an extra $10 and double or triple the life of your chair).
jdhendrickson · 12h ago
Most pressure treated lumber eschews the old arsenic method. Most only have copper and an anti fungal (Tebuconazole) in it. Perfectly safe for an outdoor chair.
Bluestrike2 · 8h ago
The problem with using modern pressure treated wood for outdoor furniture is less any cancer risks like with the old CCA treatments, and more that it's just a bad choice for a bunch of different reasons.
Modern copper-based treatments--e.g. ACQ or CA--still cause skin and eye irritation. If you try to sand it so that people sitting in your new chair don't get a nasty splinter somewhere best avoided, you can compromise the effectiveness of the treatment (even when the treatment gets full penetration, it's still most effective on the outer layers you're now sanding away). Plus, while the dust you create when working with it might not include arsenic, it's still nasty to breathe in and can cause respiratory problems. Staining P/T wood can be a whole ordeal in itself, and because interact much more closely with furniture than say a deck, any imperfections will be more noticeable.
Even then, it's not like P/T furniture isn't going to require ongoing maintenance in the future. At which point, you're better off with something like cedar or white oak. Hell, with a decent outdoor grade finish and proper care, even untreated pine is going to last for years without rotting away underneath you.
euroderf · 5h ago
Basic weatherproofing treatments for basic lumber ? There's tar, which nobody does at home. There's wood oil. What else is there ? Do I have other options ?
harrall · 3h ago
Varnish like polyutherane.
Here’s what I use for furniture that I build:
- My planters use red cedar, often bare.
- My outdoor furniture use a wood oil plus polyutherane.
- My indoor furniture use just wood oil.
But that’s only in general. There are other considerations like impact resistance and spills that can stain the wood so you have to decide what combination of wood type and treatments work for your goal.
bbarnett · 6h ago
You can buy normal wood, then apply treatments afterwards, then stain or what not.
Still trouble when the chair is at end of life, and you burn or bury it.
foobarian · 5h ago
With a product this simple to make and prices of wood and finishing chemicals what they are I don't know if I'd even bother with finishing, but just remake.
dcrazy · 4h ago
In many parts of the world, an untreated wood outdoor chair would only survive a season or two before atmospheric moisture ruined it.
bArray · 7h ago
We used to treat wood with oil (literally from kitchen oil to motor oil). Apparently the Japanese burn theirs to treat it [1]. I don't think you have to leave it to rot out.
We still treat wood with oil. Your local home improvement store should stock a bunch and you’ll find more at a woodworking store.
You can also add a sealant on top like polyutherane if you want it to last even longer at the cost of imparting a different texture.
asdefghyk · 16h ago
RE ...pressure treated wood....
In my country such timber is banned in certain situations - for example children's playgrounds ...
mbrock · 14h ago
I'd rather have my kids play on pressure treated timber than rotting timber...
adrianN · 13h ago
Fortunately those are not the only two options.
foobarian · 5h ago
Right, just look at our local playgrounds: no more wood anywhere in sight, just faux-wood plastic that never rots but just slowly sheds microplastics into the environment
Cthulhu_ · 8h ago
That's a false dichotomy and I'm sure you can do better.
sgt · 12h ago
As a parent you just spend a minute or two inspecting a playground. It's easy to spot something that is rotting.
keyle · 15h ago
I'm not familiar with this. What are the dangers?
steamrolled · 14h ago
Back in the olden days, pressure-treated wood contained compounds of arsenic and chromium. This made it pretty terrible to cut, sand, burn, etc.
The warnings persist in part because older wood still has that problem, so "reclaimed wood" projects can be risky. That said, since mid-2000s, wood in the US and the EU is treated primarily with much safer copper compounds. Copper isn't hugely toxic to humans at the levels you're likely to be exposed to from wood.
To be fair, the treatment often also includes an organic fungicide (the "azole" part in "copper azole"), which is probably not understood as well as copper.
Cthulhu_ · 8h ago
That puts me in mind of old railway sleepers being used for garden projects like raised beds and low walls. They were treated with ??? something, in summer the black tar would leech out of them.
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
hcarvalhoalves · 3h ago
The traditional methods of "carving" I know about are using an adze [1] and controlled burning [2].
In my chairs I just sculpt the back out of eight quarter with an angle grinder. More production focused wood workers are using multi-axis routers/cncs.
The english term for what you are referring to in bent lamination which is done by taking a piece of wood, slicing it to sections with a thin kerf blade, soaking in water, and then clamping to a form and gluing back together. This is how Russ Filbeck creates his classic presidential rocker.
And you can bend surprisingly thick wood with steam. I attended a demonstration where someone bent a maple 2 by 4 (1.5" x 3.5"). It took about 6 people and two tries (the first one splintered, probably not steamed enough).
cgio · 18h ago
And gets pricier too. The prices are absolutely eye watering!
Thanks for that!
I like that hardware is getting covered on HN :-)
verisimi · 13h ago
With pleasing circularity, the original post for this discussion, is referenced on the instructables page as one of the 17 people confirmed to have made it.
ReflectedImage · 12m ago
Minimal Viable Product obtained!
krunck · 7h ago
Anybody wanting to get started making regular chairs using traditional methods I highly recommend Make a Chair from a Tree by Jennie Alexander:
In the book she starts with the basics and works up to assembly including woven seats. These are beautiful lightweight chairs. Even if you don't build the chair, it's a great lesson in wooworking.
MaDeuce · 4h ago
Thanks for reminding me that I haven't been to the Lost Art Press site in a while. I have a few of their books; they are fantastic. If you are interested in quality woodworking tools and high-quality woodworking books (both in terms of content as well as binding and paper), check them out.
I hadn't seen their "Build a Chair from Bullshit" book before. I've always been a little intimidated at the thought of building a chair, but this one looks like it's easy to build and has nice lines. Definitely more involved than the OP's chair, but it still looks still approachable with basic tools and skills.
Edit: As mentioned in dlbucci's comment below, I forgot to mention that it's available for free as a downloadable PDF book as well as for purchase as high quality bound book on their site. If you have any interest in an easy to build chair with an attractive design, it's worth a look.
dlbucci · 4h ago
It's a new book (and free!). There's also a YouTube series where they build it, so I'm very tempted to make my first chair now.
ortusdux · 18h ago
Here is an ultralight carbon fiber backpacking version:
The ultralight community never ceases to amaze me.
I always thought it was all about travel as light as possible
But I think it's more about travel with as many things as possible - the lightness of the objects is just an emergent requirement in order to not break your back.
I've done my fair share of hiking, longest being a 90km 5-day hike in the Namibian desert, with no facilities save for a river. Weight was a big factor, because you needed to pack food for at least 8 days to be safe and there is nowhere to get food once you start the hike. What equipment you pack and the weight of said equipment weight had to be kept at a minimum.
Having said that...
A chair or other seating arrangement was by a large margin the lowest priority item on my list. There is one giant chair under our feet the whole time: the ground. And if that is not suitable, finding a stump or a rock or whatever to sit on is really not that hard and it's infinitely more environmentally friendly.
bradly · 5h ago
> The ultralight community never ceases to amaze me.
The ultralight community doesn't typically touch this stuff. This is sold to traditional backpackers that are drawn to the allure of ultralight.
cinntaile · 8h ago
No sane hiker brings a chair along on a 4+ hiking trip.
I find it weird that low weight is one of the main selling points of this product, but they don't say how much it is.
unwind · 13h ago
Yes, weird. I also liked this part:
Embers from a fire won’t burn the surface (If removed quickly).
I think that is true for many surface materials, and that "quickly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It also completely fails to communicate whether or not a carbon fiber chair is "safe enough" around an open fire. Annoying.
scotty79 · 10h ago
It's not made out of thermoplastic so probably you don't need to remove them that "quickly". Just not let them sit on there.
pnut · 9h ago
After digging around, the FAQ says "approximately 2 lb"
gibibit · 5h ago
Obviously they don't put the weight on the product main page, that is absolutely heavy.
Clear example of why people like TikTok. There's no reason that video should be 10 minutes.
jader201 · 17h ago
I just watched the whole thing, and I didn’t mind.
I feel like people have just gotten so used to 10-second videos, and anything longer now feels like an eternity.
I really hope people don’t stop making longer form videos in favor of TikTok-sized videos.
neilv · 16h ago
But, clicking around randomly, it seems that this video has been dragged out in length for no reason other than to be longer, presumably for YouTube financial (perverse) incentives.
jader201 · 16h ago
For sure, I’m not advocating intentionally lengthening videos for financial incentives, either.
I guess I didn’t immediately get that impression when I watched it, but I wasn’t watching it with that in mind.
My point is I don’t mind filler in videos, if it’s true to what’s naturally happening.
But intentionally adding filler is, indeed, poor form.
gherkinnn · 14h ago
I don't watch any reels/shorts/etc and find this style of bloated YT video unbearable. I am all for long form videos, but have the decency to go beyond an empty vessel for ads.
GuB-42 · 3h ago
I agree, but would be even worse as a TikTok video.
Shorts are absolutely terrible as product reviews. The point of a product review is to explore different aspects and use cases, otherwise it is an ad. It doesn't mean that long videos can't be ads, but short videos can't be anything but ads (if positive).
Shorts have a place, TikTok is great for silly dance moves, magic tricks, or people working really fast. You can even have short form educative content, though it usually doesn't go further than random trivia. But product reviews just don't work, unless they are ads. And in fact, ads don't even work that well as people tend to forget about them quickly.
seszett · 16h ago
Not sure about TikTok, but in this video and YouTube in general, you can just directly go to where most people go, and this way (I'm always a bit amazed that this actually works) you can generally see the actually important points of the video.
odysseus · 2h ago
How do you "directly go to where most people go"? Assuming you don't have timestamps in the comments or video description.
itishappy · 34m ago
The wave when you hover over the progress bar is a graph of popularity.
Edit: Wait... Does everybody see this? It's not on all videos, but it's on most for me, but my girlfriend says she never noticed it. I can't find any articles claiming it was ever fully rolled out, so maybe it's a premium feature? Here's the vid if anybody wants to check:
TikTok caps video length. Indeed, the #1 issue with youtube is the videos are way too long. (Also the ads, and comments, recommendations, search, etc,) but video length is certainly why I haven't bothered to watch anything on youtube for a long time (edit: logged in. I still watch clips people send me ofc in the group chat ofc). I'd delete my account if it weren't tied to my email for some inexplicable reason.
woleium · 17h ago
There is a “ten minute rule” for youtube video to maximize reach / clout / whatever the kids are looking for.
spencerflem · 16h ago
Its ad revenue, I think. Yt pays out more for that length since it has midroll ads.
quantadev · 16h ago
That carbon fiber seat is cool. Could be made to integrate right into the back of a backpack (like the rigid frame), to help the backpack stay rigid during use, so it's kind of dual purpose.
alistairSH · 8h ago
During peak COVID boredom, I made a pair of wine barrel chairs, using this design[1]. Old wine barrels can be found reasonably cheap and the pattern is easy - only a few cuts, a drill, and some screws.
It starts out not much more complicated than this and builds to a surprising array of furniture projects with a very small number of techniques. Although the actual materials are a bit annoying: it leans heavily on cut nails and specifically not the more easy to buy wire nails you usually see in DIY shops.
But also, the book is a physically gorgeous artefact in its own right. The illustrations are delicious.
Also there is the "Anarchist" wood working books that are also excellent and free on the same site.
odysseus · 2h ago
With a lot of patience, you can also grow a chair. Check out the header image on https://www.pooktre.com
denzil · 12h ago
When it comes to woodworking, I quite enjoyed watching some of the videos of Granpa Amu on youtube. When I seen him make table from one piece of wood, it felt like magic.
I have a lot of lumber from previous construction projects, and all the basic woodworking tools. I also have some relevant skills. Would I be able to build it right now? No, need a wide and sturdy board, widest I have is 150x30mm pinewood. Would I make one if I had a proper piece of wood? Also no, I just don't want to accept the structural weakness here. And this joint actually requires some precision, which is not trivial (at least for me) with handheld circular saw!
Haven't built a chair yet, but my go-to design would be something like Adirondack.
Semaphor · 10h ago
Cool to see that, those are very common for medieval groups at German medieval markets and music festivals.
imetatroll · 5h ago
With the long tail, maybe repeat the same slotted pattern forming a triangle (of sorts) so that the tail can be shorter (and will be elevated from the ground). Just be careful not to make it too narrow.
stronglikedan · 6h ago
Even the most mundane posts are a learning opportunity. While I already knew about this style of chair, I didn't know "end cut sealer" existed. TIL!
Eduard · 2h ago
reverse image search shows this construction named "viking chair"
Equivalent of vibe coding a mini tool to replace some SaaS product you might have paid for
Aziell · 11h ago
This chair looks really interesting. It's extremely simple, but also full of character. When you build something yourself, even if it's not perfect, it somehow feels more real than something you just buy.
vojtechrichter · 15h ago
I have one of these, the only issue is that you can't lean too much forward, otherwise you're going to fall :D
Soon I'll be making a 2-piece footrest (imagine a T shape up-side-down leaning towards you - giving lower leg and foot sole complete support). A friend said it was a very comfortable (and instantly customizable due to tilt angle) design.
I've been a web dev for 8 years but my heart is in woodworking for the next many years :)
The best part about this chair is that its design is timeless.
regularfry · 11h ago
The FORTH of chairs.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF · 15h ago
> I sealed up the ends using end cut sealer
Oh. Just realized I have a lot of unsealed end cuts on my latest projet
hereonout2 · 13h ago
Been making things with wood for a while now, never used or heard of cut sealer! I usually put some type of finish on, maybe more on the ends as they absorb it better, but not just specifically on cuts.
regularfry · 11h ago
I usually put an extra couple of coats of whatever the finish is on end grain. It does soak right in.
brador · 14h ago
You’re already there with the cutter, I would cut more holes to allow different sizing.
patapong · 12h ago
Neat! I am jealous of people who make physical stuff with their hands, seems so satisfying. I grow some plants, which brings a feeling of joy compared to buying from the store, even though the latter is much easier.
If anyone is interested in chairmaking, I can recommend the book "The Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks. (/s)
silversmith · 9h ago
I have the good fortune of working in an office, with easy access to never-ending physical labour options courtesy of relatives living in the countryside.
Every now and then the issues of IT projects make me say "screw it all, I'm going to be a lumberjack". And then I go work the chainsaw for a weekend, and come back thankful for the office chair in a climate controlled room.
Working with your hands is great meditation in small doses, but brutal when you need to do it enough to make a living.
https://syllabus.pirate.care/library/Enzo%20Mari/Autoprogett...
The chair in the blog benefits from essentially having all load bearing done by the wood, any screws or nails would be superficial only. We have several good hard wood chairs here with dove tail joints and spring based cushions - and they are excellent.
This is not an ""argument from authority" but "Chesterton's Fence".
Two of the core ideas are that the majority of the work can be undertaken by a single person with basic carpentry skills, using readily-available materials in standard sizes so there is minimal cutting and waste.
I've been thinking about doing this, and my main thought is that the insulation standards were probably effectively non-existent at the time, beyond "as few draughts as possible"!
Edit: not sure if these will be geo-blocked, but there are a couple of programmes about that project here:
Build: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/...
Revisit 10+ years later: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/...
And nothing stops you to paint them or engrave them.
Is a wooden box "brutalist" too? It is a box. It is square. Is the the same as a square windowless concrete building?
Insofar as brutalism is about showcasing the raw building materials, yes, I think this is precisely what brutalism is about. Brutalism often uses concrete, but the big idea is to showcase the underlying material. (And if wood is more beautiful than concrete, great!)
I never understood those tbh, used pallets are splintery. I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
fake edit after a quick search: yup, you can buy readymade pallet benches or benches "inspired by" pallet projects.
https://www.online-pallets.nl/products/pallet-bank-2-hoog-me...
https://www.karwei.nl/assortiment/wakefield-palletbank-lina-...
Or this is why they told us we wouldn't get white desks in Seattle when we had em in sfo. Even though we got the same legs.
thanks, i hate it ("it" being the recuperation of DIY)
For those of you who start from really zero and have no idea how to start, here is a step-by-step for a couple of pieces: https://lieu-subjectif.com/documents/caue-22-rietveld-mari.p...
If really you want a "cheat sheet", there's whole book to help: https://filmandfurniture.com/product/hammer-nail-making-and-...
But try not to use it too much, because it really defeats the purpose of Mari, which it is to get people to "think with their hands".
Digging through the legacy and follow-ups of Autoprogettazione is also interesting:
https://lieu-subjectif.com/documents/autoprogettazione-revis...
https://greg.org/archive/mari-x-ikea.pdf
The "Harz IV" (Germany's working poors) furniture project: https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/lablog/hartz-iv-mobel-it...
Simple Japanese Furniture by Monomono / KAK Design Group: https://woodworkersinstitute.com/simple-japanese-furniture-c...
https://www.core77.com/posts/42562/Nomadic-Furniture-DIY-Des...
And and and last but not least, the great Christopher Schwarz and team at Last Art Press just got out a whole video serie and book on how to make a highly respectable chair design from very basic materials and tools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pWLHAJr5zI
Note also that Lost Art Press makes their books free after some time after first publication, and have a very interesting blog:
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2024/12/27/download-ingenious-...
https://blog.lostartpress.com/
But a few weeks ago, I visited a local woodworker and ordered one of these chairs. I had to let go of all my previous prejudices - this type of chair is surprisingly comfortable and stable. And it's even useful for certain "other" activities :-D
They’re talking about the chair being useful during sex.
Modern copper-based treatments--e.g. ACQ or CA--still cause skin and eye irritation. If you try to sand it so that people sitting in your new chair don't get a nasty splinter somewhere best avoided, you can compromise the effectiveness of the treatment (even when the treatment gets full penetration, it's still most effective on the outer layers you're now sanding away). Plus, while the dust you create when working with it might not include arsenic, it's still nasty to breathe in and can cause respiratory problems. Staining P/T wood can be a whole ordeal in itself, and because interact much more closely with furniture than say a deck, any imperfections will be more noticeable.
Even then, it's not like P/T furniture isn't going to require ongoing maintenance in the future. At which point, you're better off with something like cedar or white oak. Hell, with a decent outdoor grade finish and proper care, even untreated pine is going to last for years without rotting away underneath you.
Here’s what I use for furniture that I build:
- My planters use red cedar, often bare.
- My outdoor furniture use a wood oil plus polyutherane.
- My indoor furniture use just wood oil.
But that’s only in general. There are other considerations like impact resistance and spills that can stain the wood so you have to decide what combination of wood type and treatments work for your goal.
Still trouble when the chair is at end of life, and you burn or bury it.
[1] https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Burn-Stain-Wood-Aka-Sho...
You can also add a sealant on top like polyutherane if you want it to last even longer at the cost of imparting a different texture.
The warnings persist in part because older wood still has that problem, so "reclaimed wood" projects can be risky. That said, since mid-2000s, wood in the US and the EU is treated primarily with much safer copper compounds. Copper isn't hugely toxic to humans at the levels you're likely to be exposed to from wood.
To be fair, the treatment often also includes an organic fungicide (the "azole" part in "copper azole"), which is probably not understood as well as copper.
Wood is typically treated with nasty chemicals. For example, formaldehyde is extensively used in these applications, and it's linked with cancer.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/form...
It gets even better with wood carving (rather than building out of straight planks):
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/chairs/african-sol...
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
[1] https://engineeringlearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adze...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dwAu6RIQURo
The english term for what you are referring to in bent lamination which is done by taking a piece of wood, slicing it to sections with a thin kerf blade, soaking in water, and then clamping to a form and gluing back together. This is how Russ Filbeck creates his classic presidential rocker.
No comments yet
https://lostartpress.com/products/make-a-chair-from-a-tree
In the book she starts with the basics and works up to assembly including woven seats. These are beautiful lightweight chairs. Even if you don't build the chair, it's a great lesson in wooworking.
I hadn't seen their "Build a Chair from Bullshit" book before. I've always been a little intimidated at the thought of building a chair, but this one looks like it's easy to build and has nice lines. Definitely more involved than the OP's chair, but it still looks still approachable with basic tools and skills.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BAC...
Edit: As mentioned in dlbucci's comment below, I forgot to mention that it's available for free as a downloadable PDF book as well as for purchase as high quality bound book on their site. If you have any interest in an easy to build chair with an attractive design, it's worth a look.
https://youtu.be/-GEwwMbqU2o
I always thought it was all about travel as light as possible
But I think it's more about travel with as many things as possible - the lightness of the objects is just an emergent requirement in order to not break your back.
I've done my fair share of hiking, longest being a 90km 5-day hike in the Namibian desert, with no facilities save for a river. Weight was a big factor, because you needed to pack food for at least 8 days to be safe and there is nowhere to get food once you start the hike. What equipment you pack and the weight of said equipment weight had to be kept at a minimum.
Having said that...
A chair or other seating arrangement was by a large margin the lowest priority item on my list. There is one giant chair under our feet the whole time: the ground. And if that is not suitable, finding a stump or a rock or whatever to sit on is really not that hard and it's infinitely more environmentally friendly.
The ultralight community doesn't typically touch this stuff. This is sold to traditional backpackers that are drawn to the allure of ultralight.
https://rovagear.com/products/rova-chair
(Not an endorsement. Just if you’re curious.)
Embers from a fire won’t burn the surface (If removed quickly).
I think that is true for many surface materials, and that "quickly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It also completely fails to communicate whether or not a carbon fiber chair is "safe enough" around an open fire. Annoying.
The Helinox Chair Zero is the standard by which all backpacking chairs are compared https://helinox.com/products/chair-zero - and it is 1 lb 1 oz.
And then some people mod these chairs, like this similar one that was reduced to 13 oz. https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/chair-enlightening...
I feel like people have just gotten so used to 10-second videos, and anything longer now feels like an eternity.
I really hope people don’t stop making longer form videos in favor of TikTok-sized videos.
I guess I didn’t immediately get that impression when I watched it, but I wasn’t watching it with that in mind.
My point is I don’t mind filler in videos, if it’s true to what’s naturally happening.
But intentionally adding filler is, indeed, poor form.
Shorts are absolutely terrible as product reviews. The point of a product review is to explore different aspects and use cases, otherwise it is an ad. It doesn't mean that long videos can't be ads, but short videos can't be anything but ads (if positive).
Shorts have a place, TikTok is great for silly dance moves, magic tricks, or people working really fast. You can even have short form educative content, though it usually doesn't go further than random trivia. But product reviews just don't work, unless they are ads. And in fact, ads don't even work that well as people tend to forget about them quickly.
https://i.imgur.com/XO6cUo5.png
Edit: Wait... Does everybody see this? It's not on all videos, but it's on most for me, but my girlfriend says she never noticed it. I can't find any articles claiming it was ever fully rolled out, so maybe it's a premium feature? Here's the vid if anybody wants to check:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq_lJM1cKNQ
1 - https://hungarianworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/EZ-...
It starts out not much more complicated than this and builds to a surprising array of furniture projects with a very small number of techniques. Although the actual materials are a bit annoying: it leans heavily on cut nails and specifically not the more easy to buy wire nails you usually see in DIY shops.
But also, the book is a physically gorgeous artefact in its own right. The illustrations are delicious.
Also there is the "Anarchist" wood working books that are also excellent and free on the same site.
Link for those interested: https://www.youtube.com/@GrandpaAmu
https://youtu.be/XWnC22NSk50?si=TSdYkqf1PZLLIkc3
I have a lot of lumber from previous construction projects, and all the basic woodworking tools. I also have some relevant skills. Would I be able to build it right now? No, need a wide and sturdy board, widest I have is 150x30mm pinewood. Would I make one if I had a proper piece of wood? Also no, I just don't want to accept the structural weakness here. And this joint actually requires some precision, which is not trivial (at least for me) with handheld circular saw!
Haven't built a chair yet, but my go-to design would be something like Adirondack.
I've been a web dev for 8 years but my heart is in woodworking for the next many years :)
Oh. Just realized I have a lot of unsealed end cuts on my latest projet
If anyone is interested in chairmaking, I can recommend the book "The Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks. (/s)
Every now and then the issues of IT projects make me say "screw it all, I'm going to be a lumberjack". And then I go work the chainsaw for a weekend, and come back thankful for the office chair in a climate controlled room.
Working with your hands is great meditation in small doses, but brutal when you need to do it enough to make a living.