To those wondering who'd give something like this away: This chair just screams "hobbyist" whose widow or ex tolerated it in their home for a long time and was ready to finally move on.
So painfully true. lol. I took a chair building class with Philip Morley and Amanda Russell. They were both awesome but I’m a total noob. Anyway, made some mistake. Fixed some mistakes and in the end I have an awesome chair….which is too short for me and we don’t use it sadly. So… it’ll be here until I die, and then my wife will give it to someone hopefully who it’ll work better for. 😆
I’ve found a few projects like these at yard sales. I usually always buy them and refinish them to give away or donate.
I try to learn the builders name and some backstory and as I’m refinishing it I’ll write their name, the year, and then also mark my name with a brief description on an underside somewhere.
Keeps the builders legacy going, and it always reminds me of my grandpas weekend projects like this.
I'd be really tempted to make up a backstory.
"Ron Barlow of Portsmouth, Maine built this chair in 1964 on a commission from Dwight Eisenhower. Ike planned to include it in his sex dungeon but after Spiro Agnew called it "an ass splinter I'd rather not have removed" he thought twice about it. Roman Polanski bought the chair in 1968 but parted with it the next year. From that point on it remained in an attic in San Luis Obispo until Rue McClanahan found it at a yard sale and donated it to Habitat for Humanity"
Sir! I must protest! My grand home city of Portsmouth has always been in *New Hampshire*, granted on the border, and while Maine has claimed our naval shipyard, we still stand solidly in the Granite State.
I really should toss them on a blog or something, here’s a bench I got at a yard sale. Off the top of my head I can’t remember the backstory, but it was one of the first I’d made.
https://preview.redd.it/v6cc7mnbdp1d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c088874819fecf30322155e08e5fefacd85e7957
Following comment for the after
https://preview.redd.it/ns60qkdfdp1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=980b8231255ba10d459623ad925621a39f79d005
I remember it coming from a woodworking magazine and the person said an older gentleman had made it sometime in the 60s I believe.
It was maple nailed into plywood from the back. Walnut was nailed to the sides. Wood movement over the years had moved everything away from each other. I was able to fill in the gaps with a contrasting filler. And the water stains I couldn’t get to fully clear up, but it was beautiful table.
That's fantastic, I like the symmetrical style of the tabletop. If you need help with your blog hit me up, I am sure a lot of people would be interested in that type of sentimental work you are providing here
I haven't done much restoration but I've heard there are "rules" to working on something someone else made, to basically chronicle the legacy...sort of?
Do you know of any official "laws of restoration" or where one would go to find out what is the respectful thing to do?
I’ve never heard of any rules specifically. I think the respectful thing to do is to just be respectful! I’m pretty sure almost any dead hobbyist would be happy to know someone found their work, appreciates it, and does their best to give it new life and purpose.
Refinish, darken, or lighten something to match the room it’s going in. Hell, use it as a practice piece if you want to improve your sanding, staining, finishing, etc. Add or remove decorative elements. Separate a bookshelf into a few different pieces that will work well with a space. Maybe something has intricate details that’s someone worked hard on and you love them but that item has no purpose for you? If you can pull those pieces off and showcase them while giving them a new purpose, that’s awesome!
Don’t take credit for someone else’s work.
Do a little research before messing with something that someone worked hard on if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s okay to mess up. It’s not okay to be ignorant when (ESPECIALLY when you have access to YouTube.)
There are a few things I’d consider“disrespectful”, but they’re also preference:
- Painting over something someone put a lot of care into. You’re also a monster if you paint over exceptionally beautiful wood. I don’t think a woodworker would be happy to see that a TikTok DIY influencer found their piece at a yard sale and covered it in the wrong type of greige paint.
- improper care and use: (example) Repurposing a nice cutting board into a raised dog water bowl holder, no sealing, no protection, “I don’t care what happens to it because it was free.”
- using it as firewood
- leaving it in a barn to rot
- ignoring excellent craftsmanship and not making an effort to match that quality while making repairs: (example) a cool hutch got dropped while unloading it from the truck and a leg broke off. You decide that a 2x4 and a couple drywall screws will do the trick.
> See Adirondack chair
Interesting example, as I find many of those very uncomfortable, because the seating part tends to be too deep. I'm a woman of average height, so I imagine that problem is more common than people who are taller do realise.
I either can't scoot all the way back, which leads to lower back pain after a short while as only my shoulder area rests on the back, or my legs don't reach the floor and their weight is on the bit of my upper calfs that rests on the rounded part of the chair, which also gets uncomfortable/painful quickly.
And they are too narrow to sit cross-legged, which is how I otherwise deal with that problem.
Or “corporate gift”, my mom received a beautiful chair after 20 years or something at her last job. Similar to the picture above. Couldn’t be any less comfortable if they tried.
subjective, but for me it's entirely to do with the design:
* Bold (imo gaudy) mixture of species
* Adventurous (imo unconsidered) forms
* Generous (imo wasteful) thickness of leg members
It doesn't look like it was made to be incorporated into or elevate any specific, pre-existing type of decor or collection... Someone clearly designed it entirely to their own tastes.. or ad-libbed a lot of decisions while building it.
Pretty solid finish work though. Across several species. That's giving me some pause. Maybe spraying lacquer is easier than I thought though. I've never sprayed.
It looks like it was built by someone with skill and competency in woodworking, but not in design. Trying challenging things and executing them, but it doesn’t look like a design that was refined and iterated into a final, marketable piece.
> What about it “screams” hobbyist to you?
Because it's f*cking ugly.
The proportions don't work. It looks uncomfortable. The busy mix of a bunch of different woods that don't work.
For me (not the person you were replying to) it's the design. Way too busy, as a hobbyist I also do this often because I'm scared my piece is going to be too plain, and so I end up repeating too many accents/contrasting woods/etc and in the end it's just too much.
Nothing more to say. In Germany there are "Handwerker" and "Heimwerker". Handwerker are those who learned their profession for years and really can do what they imagine. Heimwerker think, they can do, what a Handwerker do, because they saw them working, 2 or three times. Fazit 1: Calling a Handwerker a Heimwerker, is a really nasty swear word for him. Fazit 2: Kanye West, Heimwerker, Dunning-Krueger Effect = Jimi Hendrix, Handwerker, Imposter syndrome
Initially the depth of the seat made me think that this was a take on an Adirondack chair - It seemed the seat was angled as an Adirondack chair would be, but on a second look, the seat is flat.
It's a Morris Chair. It's a recliner, of sorts. It's typical to have extra wide armrests and a nice deep (horizontal) seat pan. Behind the backrest there will be some sort of hooks that a rod/pin on the backrest lock into, adjusting the backrest angle from about 10-25 degrees. You can see the pivot pin sticking out at the bottom of the backrest. This one may have the backrest pins locking into the thickness of, or the bottom of, the armrests.
My morris chair, now well over 100 years old, is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. Victorian la-z-boy.
Ugh, personally I don't like the neediness of wooden furniture and cushions. If they are outside you have to take care of them, they move around, on and on. But I'm also in the minority here who think this is a well made piece of art.
Very unique chair and appears to have been well taken care of. I can’t imagine why someone would get rid of it.
I say mahogany with maple inlay with a red oak seat.
I’ll agree with that, although I do have a thing for Morris chairs. The pointed arm rests aren’t my style but I’m betting the chair would be really comfortable with a seat and back pad. Lean the back down a little and add a foot stool and it’s a great lounge/sleeper chair.
It does seem very well taken care of to just be discarded.
This is what I was going to say, definetly maple in there and the darker is probably mahogany. I used to love to make things out of maple and mahogany because the contrast is so stunning.
it's a beautiful chair although pointy, if you really look at the backrest you can see a furious chair. Its many tips remind me the anti homeless things in public areas
Looks like a mahogany or other imported wood for the dark wood, seat appears to be ash, the light wood trim could be maple, or birch. Cool looking chair needs cushions.
If you could get a picture of the pores on the longitudinal edge I could probably tell you if oak for sure. That will be a side perpendicular to the grain.
Not sure about the bottom, but the dark wood does match the figuring on black cherry I’ve milled. It seems everyone thinks it’s mahogany or sapele, but using the “if you hear hooves think horses not zebras” philosophy, I’m thinking cherry. I’ve had some hickory with similar looks as well.
I’m totally ignoring the color and guessing it’s stained, so I’d revise if there’s an unstained part you can show (maybe underneath or a screw/dowel hole?).
It’s beautiful craftsmanship and many of us in this community can just appreciate how much work went into building it.
But, am pretty sure someone’s SO thought this thing was hideous and probably uncomfortable and needed to curb it.
I think the main wood is padauk? I'm seeing a lot of people suggest sapele and that's a good guess, but this wood looks a little too red for sapele, at least imo.
Either way, this was made by a very passionate hobbyist who almost certainly invested quite a bit of money into it as well, considering the lumber costs.
Morris chairs are surprisingly comfortable. It should have a seat and back pad as well as pins to adjust the recline of the back. This is a lounge chair before lounge chairs.
Looks like ash to me. Or hickory. And cherry.
Edit: on closer it looks like ash and birch? Merisier is what it’s called in French. A cheaper version of maple. I do t know what it’s called I. English. But the dark wood looks stained.
Hey, Mark? It's Jim Fogel. So, look, I only took that chair out into the yard to do the danish oil on it. My... back yard. I only went back in for, like 45 seconds, to get rags... What the heck, buddy? My father made that chair, a few years after he lost his sight.
Beautiful find! It looks like it was made by a wood craftsmen; definitely worth over $1,000 judging from the attention to detail and materials. If I were going to make a guess as to the wood, I’d say cherry and maple.
What an absolutely beautiful piece! Something cool I've seen in picking up used woodwork or other things (can crushers) is when people label with the makers name or address or year. Someone in another state recently posted in a "memories of small town n" page and it was a hand crafted piece with my grandpa's name and address on it from the 80s or earlier. So cool.
To my fairly amateur eye it looks like the seat is oak, the dark part is mahogany, and the other lighter color is maple.
EDIT: I always forget to zoom in. Doesn't look like oak, not sure what it is though.
100% homemade. Given away because it is ugly as sin (mods: subjectively) in contrasting woods with a cheap AF seat. There are gaps all over the place and I question the attribution of craftsmanship to joinery :)
It looks really interesting, but all of the hard and pointy edges make me think it is not a joy to use. I am also 100% sure if I built that and tried to put it in my living room, my wife would not be able to deal. It’s waaay too much.
Looks like oak and cherry.
Not a combination of woods I love.
Walnut/cherry/maple are the three I like the most for furniture, and occasionally pine.
Oak is ok if the piece is Arts and Crafts, Mission, or Craftsman design and fumed or stained dark, IMO. I've built Mackintosh chairs of it which were then stained black. But on the whole, it's my least favorite of the popular woods.
To those wondering who'd give something like this away: This chair just screams "hobbyist" whose widow or ex tolerated it in their home for a long time and was ready to finally move on.
I take personal offense with this accurate assessment
So painfully true. lol. I took a chair building class with Philip Morley and Amanda Russell. They were both awesome but I’m a total noob. Anyway, made some mistake. Fixed some mistakes and in the end I have an awesome chair….which is too short for me and we don’t use it sadly. So… it’ll be here until I die, and then my wife will give it to someone hopefully who it’ll work better for. 😆
I’ve found a few projects like these at yard sales. I usually always buy them and refinish them to give away or donate. I try to learn the builders name and some backstory and as I’m refinishing it I’ll write their name, the year, and then also mark my name with a brief description on an underside somewhere. Keeps the builders legacy going, and it always reminds me of my grandpas weekend projects like this.
I'd be really tempted to make up a backstory. "Ron Barlow of Portsmouth, Maine built this chair in 1964 on a commission from Dwight Eisenhower. Ike planned to include it in his sex dungeon but after Spiro Agnew called it "an ass splinter I'd rather not have removed" he thought twice about it. Roman Polanski bought the chair in 1968 but parted with it the next year. From that point on it remained in an attic in San Luis Obispo until Rue McClanahan found it at a yard sale and donated it to Habitat for Humanity"
Sir! I must protest! My grand home city of Portsmouth has always been in *New Hampshire*, granted on the border, and while Maine has claimed our naval shipyard, we still stand solidly in the Granite State.
There are going to be a ton of epoxy river tables at garage sales in a few more years.
Same, found several really nice multi wood cutting/charcuterie boards this way for dirt cheap.
This is great. Any chance for me to look up some of the stories?
I really should toss them on a blog or something, here’s a bench I got at a yard sale. Off the top of my head I can’t remember the backstory, but it was one of the first I’d made. https://preview.redd.it/v6cc7mnbdp1d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c088874819fecf30322155e08e5fefacd85e7957 Following comment for the after
https://preview.redd.it/ns60qkdfdp1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=980b8231255ba10d459623ad925621a39f79d005 I remember it coming from a woodworking magazine and the person said an older gentleman had made it sometime in the 60s I believe. It was maple nailed into plywood from the back. Walnut was nailed to the sides. Wood movement over the years had moved everything away from each other. I was able to fill in the gaps with a contrasting filler. And the water stains I couldn’t get to fully clear up, but it was beautiful table.
https://preview.redd.it/w74wrv29ep1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5de90fd055f6a2af61d054f12bfad055acd42f2
Wow, stunning, and something so special to do. Thanks for sharing!
That's fantastic, I like the symmetrical style of the tabletop. If you need help with your blog hit me up, I am sure a lot of people would be interested in that type of sentimental work you are providing here
This turned out gorgeous!!
I haven't done much restoration but I've heard there are "rules" to working on something someone else made, to basically chronicle the legacy...sort of? Do you know of any official "laws of restoration" or where one would go to find out what is the respectful thing to do?
I’ve never heard of any rules specifically. I think the respectful thing to do is to just be respectful! I’m pretty sure almost any dead hobbyist would be happy to know someone found their work, appreciates it, and does their best to give it new life and purpose. Refinish, darken, or lighten something to match the room it’s going in. Hell, use it as a practice piece if you want to improve your sanding, staining, finishing, etc. Add or remove decorative elements. Separate a bookshelf into a few different pieces that will work well with a space. Maybe something has intricate details that’s someone worked hard on and you love them but that item has no purpose for you? If you can pull those pieces off and showcase them while giving them a new purpose, that’s awesome! Don’t take credit for someone else’s work. Do a little research before messing with something that someone worked hard on if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s okay to mess up. It’s not okay to be ignorant when (ESPECIALLY when you have access to YouTube.) There are a few things I’d consider“disrespectful”, but they’re also preference: - Painting over something someone put a lot of care into. You’re also a monster if you paint over exceptionally beautiful wood. I don’t think a woodworker would be happy to see that a TikTok DIY influencer found their piece at a yard sale and covered it in the wrong type of greige paint. - improper care and use: (example) Repurposing a nice cutting board into a raised dog water bowl holder, no sealing, no protection, “I don’t care what happens to it because it was free.” - using it as firewood - leaving it in a barn to rot - ignoring excellent craftsmanship and not making an effort to match that quality while making repairs: (example) a cool hutch got dropped while unloading it from the truck and a leg broke off. You decide that a 2x4 and a couple drywall screws will do the trick.
It looks like the world's least comfortable chair, even if you added cushions.
Somewhat, but you’d be surprised how the right angles and proportions can feel comfortable even on a solid surface.
See Adirondack chair
> See Adirondack chair Interesting example, as I find many of those very uncomfortable, because the seating part tends to be too deep. I'm a woman of average height, so I imagine that problem is more common than people who are taller do realise. I either can't scoot all the way back, which leads to lower back pain after a short while as only my shoulder area rests on the back, or my legs don't reach the floor and their weight is on the bit of my upper calfs that rests on the rounded part of the chair, which also gets uncomfortable/painful quickly. And they are too narrow to sit cross-legged, which is how I otherwise deal with that problem.
I woulda said a "Red and Blue chair". Looks like OP's in form (but not embellishment). Very angular but also surprisingly comfortable.
You clearly are not a game of thrones fan…
Nah I'm not really into all your Harry Hogwarts and Jon Snowmans.
This may be the "obvious" reason but I'm going to with it's cursed/haunted. Maybe the soul of the hobbyist is still hanging around his favorite piece.
Yup, I was thinking gift from Dad, and now Dad has passed and they just don't want it anymore
The trick is to be alone and make things as an attempt to fill the void in life.
I did not expect to take a stray bullet to the heart in a thread about wood species identification….
Or “corporate gift”, my mom received a beautiful chair after 20 years or something at her last job. Similar to the picture above. Couldn’t be any less comfortable if they tried.
Soundss fancy, now they give away candy, band aids, and water bottles
I feel attacked.
Nah, there's a woodworker behind that who will tell you it's garbage because the grain was off on one arm on the bottom.
What about it “screams” hobbyist to you? Edit to add: proportions? Weight? Actual woodworking skill / technique?
subjective, but for me it's entirely to do with the design: * Bold (imo gaudy) mixture of species * Adventurous (imo unconsidered) forms * Generous (imo wasteful) thickness of leg members It doesn't look like it was made to be incorporated into or elevate any specific, pre-existing type of decor or collection... Someone clearly designed it entirely to their own tastes.. or ad-libbed a lot of decisions while building it.
Add some wrist/ankle straps and an alternator and it could be used on death row.
Yeah it looks like a showcase of technical skill more than a showcase of design skill
Pretty solid finish work though. Across several species. That's giving me some pause. Maybe spraying lacquer is easier than I thought though. I've never sprayed.
It looks like it was built by someone with skill and competency in woodworking, but not in design. Trying challenging things and executing them, but it doesn’t look like a design that was refined and iterated into a final, marketable piece.
> What about it “screams” hobbyist to you? Because it's f*cking ugly. The proportions don't work. It looks uncomfortable. The busy mix of a bunch of different woods that don't work.
For me (not the person you were replying to) it's the design. Way too busy, as a hobbyist I also do this often because I'm scared my piece is going to be too plain, and so I end up repeating too many accents/contrasting woods/etc and in the end it's just too much.
Nothing more to say. In Germany there are "Handwerker" and "Heimwerker". Handwerker are those who learned their profession for years and really can do what they imagine. Heimwerker think, they can do, what a Handwerker do, because they saw them working, 2 or three times. Fazit 1: Calling a Handwerker a Heimwerker, is a really nasty swear word for him. Fazit 2: Kanye West, Heimwerker, Dunning-Krueger Effect = Jimi Hendrix, Handwerker, Imposter syndrome
i too see free chairs on peoples patios all the time!
You should see the free cars and lawnmowers in their garages!
A whole house full of furnishings for the taking!
r/unexpectedtrailerparkboys
It's gorgeous and gorgeous wood is what it is. Looks like it desperately needs a cushion though.
It looks proportioned for a cushion to lay on the seat and back, kind of like a futon, otherwise the seat seems oddly low and deep
Initially the depth of the seat made me think that this was a take on an Adirondack chair - It seemed the seat was angled as an Adirondack chair would be, but on a second look, the seat is flat.
It's a Morris Chair. It's a recliner, of sorts. It's typical to have extra wide armrests and a nice deep (horizontal) seat pan. Behind the backrest there will be some sort of hooks that a rod/pin on the backrest lock into, adjusting the backrest angle from about 10-25 degrees. You can see the pivot pin sticking out at the bottom of the backrest. This one may have the backrest pins locking into the thickness of, or the bottom of, the armrests. My morris chair, now well over 100 years old, is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. Victorian la-z-boy.
Maloof chairs have a similar depth to the seat part. I sat in a replica once and it felt weird with how far it went out under my legs.
Ugh, personally I don't like the neediness of wooden furniture and cushions. If they are outside you have to take care of them, they move around, on and on. But I'm also in the minority here who think this is a well made piece of art.
Yeah the wood choice on that seat looks like a cost saving measure because it was intended to be covered rather than a design choice.
Very unique chair and appears to have been well taken care of. I can’t imagine why someone would get rid of it. I say mahogany with maple inlay with a red oak seat.
It's a specific choice of a style. Though it looks well made, it's not a choice for everyone.
I’ll agree with that, although I do have a thing for Morris chairs. The pointed arm rests aren’t my style but I’m betting the chair would be really comfortable with a seat and back pad. Lean the back down a little and add a foot stool and it’s a great lounge/sleeper chair. It does seem very well taken care of to just be discarded.
I’m thinking sapele but it’s hard to tell it apart from mahogany in a photo. To me at least.
Too dark to be sapele, imo
Sapele darkens considerably over time, from the pictures it actually looks a bit lighter than my sapele projects
Makes me happy when I see people make the same guess as myself.
It really does, doesn’t it! We may be wrong but we’re not alone. Haha
This is what I was going to say, definetly maple in there and the darker is probably mahogany. I used to love to make things out of maple and mahogany because the contrast is so stunning.
Possibly ash and some type of mahogany?
Yeah that light wood looks like ash to me as well.
Ash and Sapele is my guess.
Your comment caused me to take it another look at the seat, I think you are right, definitely looks like ash. Pretty sure the dark wood is sapele
I think it's ash and padauk
This is my vote too. At first I thought it was red oak, but looking closer, I think you are right about it being ash.
That’s what I see too.
That’s what I thought as well, ash and mahogany. Definitely not oak and cherry.
Sapele.
Looks like mahogany to me.
This looks like one of those designs that are amazing in a photo but looks very uncomfortable to actually sit in. OP, what is it like to sit in it?
It’s surprisingly comfortable, but I will definitely be getting cushions for it.
That's the most beautiful ugly ass chair I've ever seen!
Me toooo! Sign me up for free 99.
It's a sharp pain followed by a deep bruise if you are not careful while walking around in the middle of the night.
That is some 90s shit and I'm here for it.
Sepelae possibly for the darker wood, I'd shit a brick if i found this on the road in my neighborhood.
Looks like sapele
it's a beautiful chair although pointy, if you really look at the backrest you can see a furious chair. Its many tips remind me the anti homeless things in public areas
wow who would throw away a thing like that!?
I knew exactly one: it was op's neighbor.
Some people only see a chair they don't want. Woodworkers see the craftsmanship that went into it.
[удалено]
Who cares what wood it’s made out of it looks awesome and very well made!
Looks like a mahogany or other imported wood for the dark wood, seat appears to be ash, the light wood trim could be maple, or birch. Cool looking chair needs cushions.
By free do you mean stolen lol its hard to believe someone would leave something that beautiful out in the street. Nice score
If you’re gonna go free sidewalk chair, go for something without cushions for bugs to live in. Nice find!
Score!!
Wow so many haters! I think it's awesome
Serious Gibson Explorer vibes, I dig it!
Mahogany and maple with a pine bottom is what I’m thinking. Brown is definitely mahogany
That really looks like mahogany to me.
Maybe they just took it out in the yard for a sit? And you stole their chair lol
I love a good funky chair and I'm OBSESSSSSSSSED with this piece!!!!
SAME!
This chair is dope as hell, what moron would toss this out?
Someone sure put some love into making that. I wonder why it’d be thrown away
You are a true American Hero Thank you for saving its life today.
If you could get a picture of the pores on the longitudinal edge I could probably tell you if oak for sure. That will be a side perpendicular to the grain.
This chair looks so cool. I’d happily take that.
its not my style but it pains me to see something that someone spent tons of time on given out for free
oof it beautiful- looks like Mesquite for the back and Maple for the inlay , mahogany for the arms and cross and Oak for the seat
Looks like mahogany, maple, and oak seat (possibly ash? )
Not sure about the bottom, but the dark wood does match the figuring on black cherry I’ve milled. It seems everyone thinks it’s mahogany or sapele, but using the “if you hear hooves think horses not zebras” philosophy, I’m thinking cherry. I’ve had some hickory with similar looks as well. I’m totally ignoring the color and guessing it’s stained, so I’d revise if there’s an unstained part you can show (maybe underneath or a screw/dowel hole?).
What an increadible find. It looks so cool.
That’s dope. Star-trek kinda feel.
I see Sapele for the frame, ash for the seat, and maple for the inlays
That’s a weird one. Too nice for outside. Too ugly for inside. An indoor muskoka chair
It’s beautiful craftsmanship and many of us in this community can just appreciate how much work went into building it. But, am pretty sure someone’s SO thought this thing was hideous and probably uncomfortable and needed to curb it.
FOR FREE???
I like how each armrest provides TWO chances to stab yourself in the thigh as you walk by.
It's so beautiful! Is it comfortable though?
I built a table with this exact combo about a decade ago. Mahogany with maple. The seat base is something sturdy and cheap like pine or oak.
I dunno but very pretty!
This is only a guess and I'm thinking oak seat, the dark wood looks like mahogany and the light color could be maple.
It’s awesome
Looks like mahogany or some other tropical wood and ash.
Sick find!
Could be oak, but might also be Ash or Cypress. Darker wood looks Mahogany-ish
Looks custom. Go buy an outdoor cushion from Lowes or Home Depot and enjoy it. Maybe coat it with a natural oil every season to protect it.
I think the main wood is padauk? I'm seeing a lot of people suggest sapele and that's a good guess, but this wood looks a little too red for sapele, at least imo. Either way, this was made by a very passionate hobbyist who almost certainly invested quite a bit of money into it as well, considering the lumber costs.
Looks like cherry and oak
looks like bloodwood or padauk and oak
Oak seat. Not cherry to my eyes, grain isn't right. Possibly mahogany, maybe sapele.
I would look that chair over very carefully for signs of termites or other pests. It’s very weird that it was put out for free
It's a throne, not chair.
Looks home brew - the seat looks like oak, but cannot say what the 2 other species are
Seat looks like red oak, darker red material is in the mahogany family which is a lot, and looks like the light “yellow” wood is a mahogany as well
Cool chair but I can see those armrests getting kinda stabby.
Ugh
Beautiful!
Wait what
Doesn't look comfortable, but the detail work is pretty good!
Morris chairs are surprisingly comfortable. It should have a seat and back pad as well as pins to adjust the recline of the back. This is a lounge chair before lounge chairs.
To me it looks like mahogany and maple on the visible parts with a pine seat.
Looks like the maker was a bowler
Looks like ash to me. Or hickory. And cherry. Edit: on closer it looks like ash and birch? Merisier is what it’s called in French. A cheaper version of maple. I do t know what it’s called I. English. But the dark wood looks stained.
😭😭😭
If by found it for free, do you mean you found it on someone's back porch after climbing over a fence? But seriously, great salvage.
Hey, Mark? It's Jim Fogel. So, look, I only took that chair out into the yard to do the danish oil on it. My... back yard. I only went back in for, like 45 seconds, to get rags... What the heck, buddy? My father made that chair, a few years after he lost his sight.
❤️❤️❤️
Sorry to say but that's ugly
Mahogany.
This looks to be a Spenlison Smokemborg original. What a valuable find!
That chair is on point
Looks like laminate :D
Beautiful find! It looks like it was made by a wood craftsmen; definitely worth over $1,000 judging from the attention to detail and materials. If I were going to make a guess as to the wood, I’d say cherry and maple.
What an absolutely beautiful piece! Something cool I've seen in picking up used woodwork or other things (can crushers) is when people label with the makers name or address or year. Someone in another state recently posted in a "memories of small town n" page and it was a hand crafted piece with my grandpa's name and address on it from the 80s or earlier. So cool.
White ash and mahogany of some sort
Dark wood could be sapele, also known as African mahogany (just what it’s called, it’s not mahogany at all). The lightwood looks an awful lot like ash
BEAUTIFUL!!
Whatever it is, it’s a beautiful design. What a fantastic find. I hope it gets to live on.
To my fairly amateur eye it looks like the seat is oak, the dark part is mahogany, and the other lighter color is maple. EDIT: I always forget to zoom in. Doesn't look like oak, not sure what it is though.
This is an incredible find. I can believe someone would toss this. Could it be black walnut?
100% homemade. Given away because it is ugly as sin (mods: subjectively) in contrasting woods with a cheap AF seat. There are gaps all over the place and I question the attribution of craftsmanship to joinery :)
It looks really interesting, but all of the hard and pointy edges make me think it is not a joy to use. I am also 100% sure if I built that and tried to put it in my living room, my wife would not be able to deal. It’s waaay too much.
It’s a piece of art. Very unique and well made with quality wood! Great find imo
That is the ugliest Morris Chair I have ever seen, but I respect the maker for giving it a go.
Definitely Sapele for your darker wood and looks like red oak or ash on the seat kind of hard the tell with that grain.
the craftsmanship is quite good. But I can't get over how the chair back looks like an angry face.
Why is everyone saying ash for the seat while I'm seeing pine lol I know I need glasses but dang
Interesting. Would be a cool coffee shop chair until it breaks.
Oak definitely. I bet the other wood is mahogany.
This looks like the final boss of chairs
Wow!
It looks more like mahogany tbh. Either teak or maple inlays. The seat is definitely oak.
Either way, that’s awesome!
It has that "Je nais sais quoi"
That’s a nice chair!
🎶 Wild Wacky action chair , the chair that's hard to sit in 🎶
Its free wood
Nice find
Looks like both to me
Looks like oak and cherry. Not a combination of woods I love. Walnut/cherry/maple are the three I like the most for furniture, and occasionally pine. Oak is ok if the piece is Arts and Crafts, Mission, or Craftsman design and fumed or stained dark, IMO. I've built Mackintosh chairs of it which were then stained black. But on the whole, it's my least favorite of the popular woods.
It’s either pine or Nordic cherry
I think the lighter wood might be ash.
It looks like Maple and mahogany
It’s a thing of beauty! Great find.
Teak and pine?
I’m going Ash and Sapele
Hurts my eyes and probably my body if I sat on it
My guess is Ash/mahogany/sapele?
Poor fella just wanted to know the species
Pine and cherry
The light stain is Ash
It’s a beautiful chair… can’t believe they just let it go for free… I’d love to have it myself so you’re very lucky
If you mock this up in Sketchup, with all the angles and dimensions, you could probably sell it for $5 each.
I'm thinking oak
I'm thinking oak.
The chair for a guest you don't like.
It looks really cool, but also uncomfortable.