I glued and wedged the ash legs into the elm seat boards and when dry, began the saddling process.
My arms could be best described these days as ‘frangible’, so I used a series of carving discs mounted on an angry grinder to perform the donkeywork. I then followed up with a few swipes with a travisher and finally, scraped everything smooth (figs.1 & 2).
Fig. 1. Hollowed elm seat.
Fig. 2. The two chair bases… with tempting legs.
Jack Plane
Pegs and 'Tails 
May I ask why you hollowed the seats after fixing the feet?
I also am suffering frangible arms after a life time of hard work, especially in the elbows – you have my sympathy. And so I found the “Arbortech Turboplane” very useful, if a little tricky to get the hang of.
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Sometimes I attach the legs to the seat prior to hollowing it and on other occasions I hollow the seat first.
Working at the bench, I can hold a seat board securely with just a holdfast and a dog; however, I performed the hollowing of these seats outdoors on a trestle so as not to create a mess indoors with the angry grinder.
I can only clamp the seat to the trestle, so the preassembled legs act as stops to prevent the seat moving around. I bottomed this seat first. Different ways on different days.
I start off with an Arbortech chainsaw type disc and follow that with a Saburr disc.
JP
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Yes, it certainly is messy with power tools; I find a modified Workmate perfect for holding the seat while “Bottoming”.
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Shame on you guys for using a powered tool for hollowing out the seats.
Actually, I’ve been using one for 25 years. Not because I’m a wimp and afraid to do hard work or my arms are weak but I’m worried about chopping off my toes with a adze.
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The ‘toe hoe’ is indeed a formidable weapon.
JP
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and would you believe – I don’t use a treadle lathe either!
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Haha isn’t that just the way of things. Here I was thinking “excellent! maybe ole’ Jack Plane will have a brilliant, historically accurate, method to simplify hollowing out the saddle”. Angry Grinder then scrape it smooth…
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Quite… and my maxim of never permitting a machine or power tool within two stages of a finished surface still applies.
You can see my bottoming (Ooh-er missus!) in more detail here.
JP
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