Welcome to Chairs by Paulson and J.D. Paulson Furnituremakers!
Hi. I'm Rev. Jim Paulson and I make Handmade Windsor Chairs for my family and upon request. I've been a passionate woodcarver for over 27 years and I've been a serious furniture maker for most of my life. I also enjoy reading about history, especially about the period of the American Revolutionary War. Occasionally, I'll volunteer as a re-enactor in period clothes so I can demonstrate turning a Windsor chair leg on my foot powered lathe.
As an ordained Lutheran pastor I often reflect on how the Almighty inspired our ancestors to design and build beautiful Windsor chairs and how blessed we are now as chair makers to offer diligent reproductions of those chairs. This website provides a portfolio of my work as a Windsor Chairmaker and gives examples of other furniture and carvings I've done over the years. My hope is that you might love to own one of these chairs as much as I do making them.
Photo by Barb Paulson
Rev. Jim Paulson was filmed by Channel 2 WKTV Autumn celebrated 18th Century style at the Herkimer Home. See Link below.
What makes the type of chair I make distinctive is that it is a detailed 18th Century reproduction of a Windsor chair made in the tradition of shaping wood with hand tools. For legs, bows, arms, and spindles, I start the wood crafting process using wood that I hand split from logs. After I have used wedges and a froe to split the wood, I use a hatchet to shape the split pieces into a turning blanks for the lathe. In contrast to large furniture factory operations, I don't resort to using lathe duplicators to crank out identical chair parts with great efficiency. Instead, I make each chair leg one at a time on the lathe and I delight that they are slightly different. It was the same way for 18th century chair makers who made the original Windsor chairs in small shops. For an example, when I make a Sack Back Windsor chair I turn thirteen parts on the lathe (4 legs, 3 stretchers, 2 posts, and 4 short spindles) and that doesn't include the seven handcrafted tapered spindles that make up the back of the chair.
When one of my customers spends time marveling at the evidence of tool marks on a chair seat, I know that it was because I followed the time honored tradition of building an authentic Windsor chair. Since I build each chair at the workbench, these are bench made Windsor chairs not mass produced ones.
As a chair maker I am quite particular about the woods I use to make furniture. I use several species of wood that are native to the State of New York. I also prefer to use thick pine boards for the seats and various straight grained hardwoods for the other chair parts. I make each chair right here in our small shop.
Barb and I care about preserving the environment for future generations and we cherish the gift of making hand crafted furniture from solid wood. Our wood waste is either composted or used for heating in our wood stove. We are careful in our selection and use of furniture finishes. It is our practice to utilize environmentally friendly products, whenever practicable. Our work environment is equipped with a commercial grade Oneida Air products dust collection system to provide safe conditions when machinery is being used.
For a small shop, this is a big deal for us to make beautiful milk painted Windsor chairs one at a time. If you like antiques and the craftsmanship evident in a chair made in the 1700's, you'll like what we offer.
Free woodworking plans and projects info. Updated daily - We are the woodworking industry's LARGEST private collection of woodworkers and do-it-yourself (DIY) furniture projects and plans information available on the Internet. http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/
