How the Olsen armchair is made

Here is how 1 is made, over 6 days, from a board in the drying shed to a numbered chair on the van.

Day 1: the board

It starts as an oak board, 50 mm thick, that has dried in the shed behind the workshop for 2 years. We cut the parts from the straightest grain, the arms and the back legs first, because they take the most load, and mark each one with the chair’s number.

Day 2: the router

The CNC router cuts the curves and the joints to a tenth of a millimeter, which is what lets 2 people on different days make parts that fit each other. It runs for about 40 minutes a chair. Then it stops, and the rest is hands: the edges are rounded on the bench, and the tenons are trimmed with a chisel until they slide in with a push and hold without glue.

Day 3: the glue-up

The frame is glued and clamped in 1 go, so every joint pulls up square at the same time. It stays in the clamps overnight. In the morning the pegs go in, oak through oak, which is what makes the joint ours rather than the glue’s.

Day 4: the finish

3 coats of oil, 1 a day, rubbed back between coats. Oil rather than lacquer, because oil can be repaired with a cloth and lacquer cannot. The chair you buy will pick up a mark in 5 years; with oil, you take it out in 5 minutes.

Days 5 and 6: the cushions

The seat and back are cut from a foam block, wrapped in a feather envelope, and covered on the upholstery bench next door. The wool is cut so the weave runs the same way on both cushions, which is the kind of thing nobody notices unless it is wrong.

Every Olsen leaves with its number on the underside of the seat. Send it to us when the chair is 10 years old and we will tell you who made it. The Juno, the Arlo, and the Pebble come off the same bench, the same way.