On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 17:28:59 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:


Splats may well have been oak, if that was to hand. Probably still more
common as ash or beech though. It's (possibly) an indication that a
"Windsor" with an oak splat was made by a generalised furniture maker or
joiner who had the timber on hand, not a chairmaking specialist.
Chairmaking historically was a high-volume batch trade. Very few people
assembled chairs, most of them just turned out spindles or whatever and
passed the parts along to the next chap. They did tend to be very good
and very quick at making one type of thing, but they did everything in a
consistent manner - they would use the same timber for all parts that
they made, simply because they hada lot of it and it's all that they
had.


They were the original "Bodgers" More accurately "Chair Bodgers"

A Bodger being a workman who starts a job but doesn't see it finished.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-bod1.htm

DG