Pt 1: Understanding Chair Joinery: Tapered Round Joints | [ FREE 6 Part Video Course]

This video is part 1 of a 6 part course:

Gearing Up For Chair Making: Pt 1

Look out for a new part every Thursday – Don’t forget to subscribe!
Follow on YouTube

My goal for this course is to equip you with the knowledge and tools to design & build your own chairs from scratch.
Once this is complete, I’ll come up with some projects so we can put it all into use.

These six videos will get you well prepared.

The full (free) 6 part course at a glance:

‘Gearing Up For Chair Making’

• Pt 1) Understanding Chair Joinery: Tapered Round Joints
• Pt 2) Reamers & Tenon Cutters: Use & Applications [Shop bought vs Homemade]
• Pt 3) The ‘V-Block’: A Simple Workholding Gizmo for Chair Making
• Pt 4) Perfect Spindles Without A Lathe: Making the ‘Chair Maker’s Shooting Board’
• Pt 5) Making Your Own Reamers: Two Variations
• Pt 6) Making Your Own Tenon Cutters

Subscribe or follow on YouTube to stay updated – a new video will be added here every Thursday.

Original music, copyright 2026 | taken from Richard’s archive.

— This Video: Chapters

00:00 – Intro
08:55 – Catastrophic failure
13:44 – Quick demo: a tapered round tenon
15:15 – A chat on taper angles
23:00 – Drawing the templates: an aid for chair design
31:14 – Intro to using the templates for designing chair joinery

Browse the video courses.