Windsor Chair Shop - Ralph & Caron Quick

Who would have thought that a 330 pound, long haired tattooed biker would become a Windsor chairmaker? That is a question that many of his friends and customers have asked Ralph Quick. Why Windsor chairs?

It all started about 8 years ago when Ralph was in a serious truck driving accident. He drove an 18 wheeler for Federal Express. Ralph broke his left leg in a dozen places. He had crushed ribs, broken fingers and cuts from glass all over his face. He was a mess, but lucky to be alive. Ralph's career as a truck driver was over.

After his accident he badly needed something else in his life. After about two years of rehab, he and his wife Caron started looking for another profession that would enable him to sit or stand when needed. In 1998 when Caron was reading an issue of Early American Life magazine, she read a feature about The Windsor Institute in Hampton, New Hampshire. It was a school that taught people to make Windsor chairs by hand the old fashioned way. Caron enrolled Ralph in the class and he returned after a week with his first chair and a grin ear to ear, he was hooked. After five years of school they decided to make Windsor Chairs full time and opened their business in 2002. They joined the Best Of Missouri Hands in 2003 and were chosen by Early American Life magazine as one of the Top 200 Traditional American Craftsmen for 2004, an honor they are proud of.

In their shop, The Windsor Chair Shop, Ralph does most of the physical work such as splitting the logs and riving the wood. Caron, a chairmaker too, does most of the carving to the hands and crest for the chairs when those features are requested by customers. She also does all of the painting to every chair with old fashioned Milk Paint, a technique that she also teaches.

They both chop out the seat blanks, drawknife and spoke shave spindles and steam bend any chair parts needed, working toget