It’s been a long time since I’ve done a woodworking project with one of my children, probably a couple of years. Now that they’re a bit bigger, they aren’t all that interested in what I do, meh, that’s kids I guess. 🤷♀️
My nephews though, don’t hear my awful dad jokes all day every day, so they still enjoy spending a bit of time with me. They’ve both mentioned recently that their schools have a woodworking program, but that it was a bit boring, so I thought it might be a bit of fun to work on a project with them.
I thought about a bunch of different projects, but in the end decided on this Viking chair. It’s big, which is always fun for kids, it’s very easy to make, and it’s very forgiving. There is one big mortise and one big tenon, everything else is decoration. The two pieces are designed to slip in and out, so a tight fit isn’t required, indeed, isn’t even desired. I’ll give Mark Dainer credit for the idea, as I stole it after watching his awesome Viking Chair build last week.
Now, while I wanted to make these chairs with the kids, it required a little prep work that wouldn’t be so fun for them, so before they came around, I had the 4 blanks glued up, and good to go. I used some 35mm pine from bunnings, and then cleaned up some rough messmate for a couple of accent pieces.
Joinery on these is just a mortise, and a tenon, easy!
The boys had to layout the mortises themselves, then they drilled through its 4 corners, and used the jigsaw to cut the waste out. Each time they touched a tool I forced them to stop and think about the cut, and where their hands would be the whole way through it. No close calls all day which was great (but fully expected to be fair).
They then got to use a chisel and mallet to clean up the edges of the mortise a little, learning to chop halfway through each side, then flipping and finishing on the reverse side to avoid chip out.
Laying out the lines for the tenon was a little tricky, probably my fault due to how I glued it all up. Eventually we decided to just find the centre line on both pieces, lined them up, and then used the actual mortise to leave a knife mark on the tenon piece.
At this point, they asked if I could cut the sides of the tenon on the tablesaw, to make sure it had a nice straight cut. I had planned on clamping a straight edge on the boards and having them use the jigsaw, but they wanted to see the big blade spinning around, so I indulged them (and myself) a little.
Honestly, at this stage I thought perhaps they’d had enough and wanted to finish, but they plugged their ears and watched, wide-eyed, as I made the cuts.
With the tenon sides cut, the boys used then used the jigsaw to cleanly cut in 90 degree and to finish off the seat.
Naturally the pieces didn’t go together smoothly, which was great! It meant the kids could grab their choice of rasp and file, and go to town widening the mortise until the tenon slipped in and out.
Once the two pieces slip in together, that’s it, you’re done making a chair. The guys then started adding some decorative touches, and learnt a few more woodworking skills – how to layout curves by following a paint can, how to break the sharp edges of a board with rasps and files, etc.
We paused there for a spot of lunch, and mainly because I knew that the next step was sanding. 😂
As expected, sanding wasn’t very popular, but to their credit they got through it. They then finished the project off with a coat of Garden Furniture Oil. Nothing special, but it did add that nice golden colour to the wood.
Long story short, the boys made their own Viking chairs, and they look awesome! We all had a great time, they got to make something themselves that they can take home with them, and maybe in a couple months they might want to come back and make something else. Good time all round.
I’m not sure of what the next project to make with the young ones will be, I was thinking a chopping board but I think the glue up there will take too long. I’ll have to have a think, if you know of any projects that are suitable for teaching kids – that you can knock out in one day – yell out, love to hear about it!