At first glance, it looks like you have to get special wood from the forest, buy a bunch of exotic tools, master a lot of crazy angles and learn high-tolerance carpentry to build a chair that is comfortable, stable and looks like a sculpture. The truth is that ordinary woodworkers, farmers, amateurs and people in other professions have made wonderful chairs using a handful of ordinary woodworking tools and any wood available: dry, wet, soft, hard wood or branches torn from a tree. The chairs they made were not meant to impress the neighbours, they were meant to be comfortable, sturdy and beautiful to look at. After 18 years of experience building chairs and studying historical examples in Britain, Europe and North America, author Christopher Schwarz has figured out how anyone can design and build them without a lot of materials. The Stick Chair Book