"Most woodworkers think it would be easier to grow a third arm than to build a chair. From the outside, it seems like you need to harvest special wood from the forest, buy a bunch of exotic tools, master a lot of crazy angles, and learn high-tolerance joinery to make a chair that is comfortable, strong and approaches sculpture. The truth is that everyday woodworkers--farmers, amateurs and people in other trades--made wonderful chairs using a handful of common woodworking tools and whatever wood was available: dry, wet, soft, hard or the branches pulled from a tree. The Stick Chair Book explores the craft of these "hedge carpenters" or dabblers who built chairs for the everyday home. The chairs they made weren't designed to impress the neighbors--they were designed to be comfortable, stout and (if you have a good eye) nice to look at. After 18 years of building vernacular stick chairs and studying historical examples in the U.K., Europe and North America, author Christopher Schwarz has figured out how anyone can design and build these chairs without a lot of gear."--Publisher's website.