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One of my retirement objectives is to reproduce a number of Charles Rolhfs' decorative chairs. This is my first, a reproduction of Rohlfs' "1899 oak rocking chair", a birthday present for my daughter.

The chair is made from 3" x 3" oak timbers that were used to stack truck frames when they were on the rail car going to the assemby plant. They were rescued from my father's firewood pile. I cleaned , resawed, jointed, planed and glued them up them to make the various parts for this chair. As much as possible I tried to quarter saw the timbers.

The original Rohlfs chair had an upholstered seat and what appeared to be a short straight back. The reproduction has a carved wood seat and the back is curved and a little taller to improve comfort. I left the rockers longer than the original chair. The overall dimensions are 25" wide, 38" high and 40 "deep.

The chair is finished with Lee Valley Fumed Light Oak Analine Dye, several coats of Miniwax Tung Oil and a few coats of beeswax.

Gallery

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This is a unique style ,a wonderful job Peter.
 

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Thanks Jim. Rolhfs, although an arts and crafts era furniture maker, had a unique and perhaps a bit eccentric style compared to his contemporaries. I like his stuff, its quite interesting to build.
 

· In Loving Memory
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Excellent work on this Peter. It is an unusual and very nice design, well worth restoring to honor Rolhfs. That said, I especially liked that you improved the design without destroying it for more comfort and I bet nicer looks too.
 

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captivating work! Great, just a great looking chair!
 

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Beautiful Reproduction! It looks nice and heavy, it should last for a couple hundred years.
 

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Has an archetectural feel, and I'm sure the future owner will appreciate the modifications.
 

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cool.
I'm a Rolhfs fan also!
Not many examples to see, but his story is interesting
good work.
I'd like to do one like was on the PBS Antique Roadshow, the high-backed sculptured chair with the carved lattice that looked sort of like a lava lamp looks.

good posting, good work,
M
 

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Hello Mark, thanks. Hopefully this week I will make a start on the Rohlfs" desk chair (which is the one shown on Antiuqes Roadshow). After that I want to reporduce his "tall back chair. I find his works so different.
 

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Wonderful chair,Peter!!!
 

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Gorgeous! You have done an excellent job with this. Did you have any plans or measured drawings? Is the circular latice work in the sides made seperatly and added in or is it cut in situ?

David
 

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David, thanks for the kind words.

All I had to go on was a picture of the chair and a picture of the lattice work, as well as the overall height width and depth of the chair. From the photos and the plans for a craftsman style rocking chair I did my best to scale the other dimensions. From this I made some sketches, a full sized plan, and a MDF mockup. After I completed the mockup I felt the chair was a bit too low and stretched the drawing to raise the height of the seat.

To make the medallion I traced the shape from the picture and then enlarged it to the correct size with my printer. Like the original, the medallion, which is 15 inches in diameter, is a separate piece. It is held in place with 3 splines inserted in a grooves that are routed into the inside of the chair and the medalian. Two of the splines are coverd by the seat. The one spline at the bottom of the medallion is just visible in picture 6 .
 

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Kudos! Great look and very nice fit and finish.
 

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Great story!
Beautiful chair!
Wonderful craftsmanship!

Pb.
 

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Yeah dude, this is a STUNNING piece… I looked up the original chair after checking out the one you made-you completely NAILED it… it's amazing and a true heirloom/ standout piece.

That is a chair for the next couple centuries. Wonderful.
 
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