More Children... More Shaker Children's Rockers

Well… The family is growing again. And it was time to make some more children’s rocking chairs.

I made one for my great-niece & one for my, soon to arrive, granddaughter. (I suppose that will make those little girls third cousins.) Both of the rockers are made of pine. But the one on the left has a bit of a story with it… My nephew’s home caught fire this past Christmas night. Thankfully everyone was safe but there was a lot of damage.

There were four long 1” X 12” shelves that were only smoke damaged. So, of course, my nephew figured that I could use them for some project. I immediately thought of the Shaker styled child’s rockers that I make because he has a toddler daughter.

When I got around to preparing the wood to make the rockers I found that because the shelves weren’t attached they had bad splits going the length of each one. The only solution was to cut the boards to length, rip the splits out as scrap then joint & glue the boards back together. As it turned out these four long boards only yielded the uppers for two rockers instead of the usual three.

After the glue up I stripped the blue paint off with a torch & scraper. I left the scorched look & the blue paint in the knots, dents & scraps for effect. Then I used my belt sander to hog off left over paint, some scorch & level the glue lines.

One of the names that I personalized the rockers with was done with hand carving tools. The other name was “carved in” with my new trusty Dewalt Compact Plunge Router. (Sweeeeet Router!)

I had to use newer clear 2” X 8”s for the rocker portions & had to “distress” them with a hammer, a scraper & some blue paint to make them match the uppers. After assembly & finish sanding I used a maple stain & had to put two coats on the rocker portions to make them match the uppers.

I added a photos of a couple of the rockers that I’ve made in the recent past. Notice that the only things that I change from rocker to rocker is the the color, the font for carving in the child’s name & sometimes the shape of the hole for the handle.

Uh-Oh! I do believe that new granddaughter is going to need a toy box! I better get to work!

-- Frank, Florissant, Missouri "The New Show-Me Woodshop"