ROCKING CHAIR NEWS

A Story About Two Friends Building Rocking Chairs

http://www.columbusandthevalley.com/archives/nd09/rocking_chairs.html

I'm going to finish a rocker started by Sam Maloof

This is like Gabby Hayes (forgive my geriatric simile) singing a voice over duet with Elvis! 

Just recently, Chris Bagby at Highland Woodworking asked me to work on a project for him. They have accumulated a cache of items and parts produced by Sam during the many demo classes he taught there over a twenty year period beginning in 1983. Contained in this collection is a rocker in the rough (see picture). It is in need of a headrest, spindles and shaping. The owner’s desire is to display the completed rocker in the store’s book and DVD section with a set of low back dining chairs that Sam produced in other workshops. The low back dining chairs are complete structurally but Sam only shaped half the chair. The concept is to show the stages of construction. The rocker is to be displayed structurally complete with rockers, headrest and spindles attached. Half of the chair will be left in the rough without final shaping or faring of the joints. I will finish shaping and carve half of the rocker to a hand scraped finish. The juxtaposition of the sides should be very illuminating for woodworkers to observe. This week I made some spindle and headrest patterns from a rocker that Sam completed in 2002. I also took a gallery of pictures of the rocker to use as carving and shaping models. 

The Maloof rocker used for the carving and replication study is owned by Harvey Darden of Hogansville, Georgia. Tha nk you Harvey!

Parts of the project will be videotaped and posted in "Chuck's Studio."