hat is Rivened Wood?  Plainly speaking, rivened wood is wood that is hand split from the log with an axe and froe, rather than cut with a mechanical saw. Hand riving causes the wood to split along its grain rather than cutting through the grain as a blade would. It is the strongest wood available, yet because it is rived, is the most supple and flexible.
   Cutting wood with a saw blade exposes end grain along the lengths of the wood. When a piece of wood is bent, such as the arm and bow of a sackback for example, the end grain lifts and splits the wood rendering the piece useless. In the interests of time, production and other shortcuts detrimental to the structure of the chair, a chair factory today laminates thin strips of wood together in the shape needed. Commonly known as veneering, no one is usually the wiser until the glue begins to fail, causing delamination of the piece resulting in a very loose, or in a worst case, broken chair.
   Conversely, rivened wood is an absolute straight-grained wood that readily bends once steamed and because it is not glued, does not delaminate. This is the method that original 18th century chairmakers have use as far back as 1740. It is the same method that as a trained master Windsor chairmaker, I still use today to make my Windsor chairs.
   Spindles shaped with a drawknife and spokeshave from a rivened oak blank will bend and flex with the stresses placed upon it. Spindles turned on a lathe using a sawn blank, which factories use, will snap rather than give.
   I use nothing else but rivened wood in all of my spindles arms, bows and crests.