Finn Juhl Chieftain chair arm rest replacements  

@halcyon You could try and contact Niels Roth Andersen, who is still around. You could also ask House of Finn Juhl, maybe they can help out? Or let's ask @cdsilva who probably is the biggest expert for Chieftains here.

Thank you! I have written an email to NRA, I hope he replies to my cold call. 
house of Finn Juhl staff has expressed they are not keen to help, as they do not want to supply parts to other chairs. I have been in contact with Carl too, the experts have been very helpful!! 

Well, I'll give Kai Lee credit. She is going to all the right places to learn what the best options are. It is a nice story that would be good to get on a thread here for the record. I'll let her fill in the blanks on background for a very interesting chair.

Thanks Carl, I learnt so much about this chair from experts like yourself! Everyone has been very helpful. So for the audience of this forum, this is what I picked up from an Indiana warehouse last week. It was sold as a Baker chieftain chair frame but I got it home and realized it is a Niels Roth Andersen. The signature on the chair back belongs to John Black who was VP of Design at Baker in the 90s, and spearheaded the Finn Juhl remakes. Hypothesis is that this chair was acquired by Baker as either a reference chair for their remake or for display. There is almost no evidence that this chair was ever upholstered. It is missing arms so I am hoping to complete it again. 
Thanks for tuning in and happy to hear any thoughts! 

Wow, that's amazing! I'm sure you can and will revive it. But my wisdom ends here. I'm not even sure what NRA's armrests were made of originaly. Some kind of plexiglass? I guess a skilled woodworker  could rebuild it from whatever material. Maybe it's a case for a restoration wizard like Thomas Johnson?

@herringbone

As much as I admire his skills and enjoy watching Mr. Johnson on YouTube, I'm not sure he'd be the one to do this type of work. But, WOW is right. What a find!

Weren't the arms on these made from steel wrapped in leather?

@tktoo Vodder made them of steel but I think even he changed after a couple years to something else. Maybe plywood? @cdsilva knows it.

@herringbone

Ah, articles on this site seem to confirm that the armrest design and materials did evolve over time as different producers experimented with alternatives and NRA choosing fiberglass. Thanks!

http://www.thechieftainchair.com

Fiberglass. Not plexiglass. But I was close. 😅

Here is an NRA armrest being reupholstered. It is indeed fiberglass. A former Baker designer recently commented that she had seen fiberglass armrests in the Baker factory in '97. Whether these were bought from NRA, or Baker was testing making fiberglass forms themselves, plywood was eventually selected for the Baker reissue due to cost reasons.

I am enjoying this thread. Very interesting. Thank you to all posters.

Lexi.

@cdsilva

Fascinating! Thx for posting that.

The armrest in the photo appears to be made by either the "chopper gun" method (in which chopped glass fibers and liquid resin are sprayed together onto or into a mold) or by a "loose mat" technique similar to that used by Herman Miller for earlier Eames fiberglass chairs.

Either way, reproducing new armrests presents a challenging, multistep project for sure. Finding the appropriate, accurate measurements and/or existing model, and then creating the necessary templates, patterns, and molds (x2, one for both left and right-hand pieces) would be daunting at best. Modern CAD, 3-D scanning, and CNC production methods could help to streamline the process, but still...

@lexi

Agreed! Best DA thread in a long time!

If I can get my hands on a 3D scanner I might need to go visit @cdsilva 🙂

Once a CAD image is acquired, I could send it off for metal 3D printing or machining? 

Feeling like I need to join a 3D printing forum too https://store.peel-3d.com/

😎

What about plywood? How difficult would it be to press a piece of plywood in shape? Or steel: Vodder had it simply hammered or planished I think, by a blacksmith. Not as fancy as printing but couldn’t it also be an option?