Building Staked Sawbenches at Highland Woodworking

Posted January 17, 2015

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This weekend I am experimenting on guinea pigs. Scratch that. I’m experimenting on American pigs. Wow. That’s doesn’t sound good, either. OK, I’m teaching a new class on a new topic that has been bottled up inside me for four years now.

You’ve probably never heard the term “staked furniture,” but that’s because the term and the joinery technology behind the furniture has largely been shoved to the side or relegated to a small segment of the chairmaking world.

Staked furniture is essentially a way of making any piece of furniture that is a platform using a conical tenon that pierces a thick slab of wood.

I’ve been studying and building this kind of furniture for several years now, but I finally started teaching it this weekend at Highland Woodworking in Atlanta, Ga. This quick two-day class introduces students to the wood, tools and joinery technology for building staked furniture. We’re building a pike of sawbenches using the technology, but that is a small small part of what you can do with it.

In the coming 11 months, I’ll be writing a lot more about this technology and its history, which stretches back more than 600 years. In the meantime, check out the short video about our first day of class.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Christopher Schwarz

Chris is the former editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine. He continues to blog and publish woodworking books at Lost Art Press. He's a hand-tool enthusiast (though he uses power tools, too).