Walnut Rocking Chair #6

Wow. That is a gorgeous rocking chair. Your selection of wood, attention to detail, and craftsmanship are impeccable. Thank you for sharing.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

Got to love Walnut !!! That seat glue up is excellent and it looks like a very comfortable chair overall ... what type of finish did you apply and how many hours did this one take you to complete ?

-- When did quiet and quite become the same word ? I'm guessing about the same time as your and you're did.

Awesome chair! That will be one satisfied customer!

-- Fred.... Poconos, PA ---- Chairwright in the making ----

Gorgeous work!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I use the Deft Natural Oil. That is becoming more difficult to acquire. I finally found it in the gallon cans from a basket-weaving supplier. My first gallon lasted me 2 years of projects.

The overall project took 6 weeks, probably about 40-50 hours of labor. 1 week was dedicated solely to the finish being applied. With these chairs, unless you build more than one jig, it takes 4 days to glue up the back-braces alone. The seat takes about 6-8 hours to carve and sand by hand.

Working full time on it the chair could be built in a week and then another week to 10 days for the finish to be applied. Though I find that I can work about 2 hours, take a 30 minute rest, work another 2 hours, rarely do I work more than 4 hours in a day, after that I lose the edge and start to get sloppy. Not disciplined enough to spend 8 hours a day on it.

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

Beautiful work.

-- Shawn, I ask in order to learn

Excellent work!

-- John -- Racine, WI -- Woodworking..."It's not just a Hobby, it's an Adventure"

Very nicely done! I love the walnut. What size is your chair? I’ve done one so far, in cherry. Now that I’ve got the forms and jigs, I hope to do more. It’s good to hear that you’ve been able to shorten the time to 40-50 hours. You’re right, the plans and advice from Hal Taylor are priceless. The details in his instructions are very thorough.

-- Calgary Bill

Bill,

That is a medium. Medium is the most popular size. I did my first one as a large for myself, did my wife’s as a medium and found I was equally comfortable in either one. I am 6’1” and she is 5’6”. My mother-in-law tried both sizes and wanted a large, she is closer to 5’10”. The remaining 3 that I sold to public customers all wanted medium.

I did the first one step-by-step, meaning I did one step and waited a day until the glue dried before moving on to the next step. Also with the first one I was building all the recommended jigs and fixtures, so one step might take me a day or more to do anyway. After doing one or two I figured out everything that could be done in tandem and streamlined the process. A lot of it depends on how your shop is set up and how much you can do in a day. I also jump around with the order from the list Hal puts in his book.

So far I have done 3 walnuts, one with ash accents in the rockers and head-rest screw plugs (back braces on 2 of the chairs). A cherry, a mahogany and a curly maple round out the list. The curly maple I put walnut accents in the rockers, back braces and head-rest plugs. It came out looking like a piece of chocolate nestled in whipped cream, the customer loved it.

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

Beautiful.Wow, very, very nice. Thanks for sharing

-- Allison, Northeastern Ca. Remember, Amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic!

Great work!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- For wood working podcasts with a twist check out http://thetimberkid.com/

Very Nice… The finish turned out excellent.

Grant

-- www.woodshopdude.com

Awesome job!

-- Les, Wichita, Ks. (I'd rather be covered in saw dust!)

Rich that is truly stunning! You have quite a talent and I absolutely love this type of rocker. This is definitely going on my growing list of projects. I’m adding this to my favorites.

Thanks for posting it.

-- Martin, Kansas

WOW. Nice choice of wood (walnut). Great design and craftsmanship. That rocks. Pun intended.

-- Tim from Iowa City, IA