L. Paul Thomas fashions Windsor chairs the old-fashioned way

Niagara Frontier Publications, September 28, 2007

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While L. Paul Thomas was introduced to Windsor chair making on a fluke, the products he builds are the real deal.

Thomas, 64, a former civil engineer, belongs to an exclusive club of woodworkers who construct the native English chairs using the same techniques craftsmen used two-and-a-half centuries ago. Using the tools of the past, an aesthetically pleasing, almost unbreakable piece of furniture is birthed.

According to Thomas, “The Windsor chair is identified by its design, wherein the seat, normally a wooden plank about two inches thick, separates the undercarriage or legs from the arms and back. Unlike other chair forms, where the backs of the chairs are extensions of the back legs and most of the parts are mortised together, the legs of a Windsor are socketed into the seat from below and the arms and back from above the seat. This results in a remarkably strong construction, which accounts for the relatively large number of 200-plus-year-old Windsor chairs still in use today.”