The Frustrating Bias Against Strut-leg Chairs

Today, a class of 12 chairmakers had to make a decision: Was anyone willing to build their comb-back chair without stretchers between the legs?

After a moment of looking around the room, two people raised their hands.

“Wow,” I said. “Worse than I thought.”

Stretcher-less stick chairs – what we call “strut-leg” chairs – have survived just fine for centuries. Some of my favorite Welsh chairs lack stretchers, including the first stick chair I built in 2003.

Yet, few people want to make them. And some of my customers are worried they won’t hold as much weight, or they will break easily. It’s an easy assumption to make – the additional bracing seems like it should add strength.

And perhaps it does. But that’s not the point.

For me, it’s like evaluating the strength of glue. If all the typical wood glues are stronger than the wood itself, then it doesn’t matter if Brand A is 10 percent stronger than Brand B. They are all stronger than the material they bond.