 |
| Sam Maloof Rocking Chair |
Building a Maloof style sculpted rocking chair has been on
my “bucket list” of things to do for a long time. I just never had the time or what I felt was
sufficient skills to pull it off. This
fall while searching the internet for something else I came across one of these rocking chairs made out of cherry whose auction estimate was $40,000 -
$60,000. Since I had finished up most of
the projects that needed to be done this brought up the thought of trying to
build one of these chairs again.
I was pretty sure that to pull this off I needed plans and
preferably some sort of how-to sculpting guidance. Research brought up two authors, Charles
Brock and Scott Morrison both of which had plans and a DVD. I ended up going with the Scott Morrison
materials because the videos he posted on YouTube presented things in a clear and
concise way. Also, a few years ago while
my dad and I were at the St Louis Woodworking show Scott was there discussing
how to build one of these chairs and I felt that he knew what he was talking
about. The plan consists of a 2’ x 7’ paper sheet with various pieces drawn out to full scale. That along with 3 DVD’s made up the set.
Next up – Material Selection
Very excited to see how this project turns out...
ReplyDeleteHi Dave. Like you, this chair had been on my bucket list for years, and I finally, with considerable trepidation, decided to take the plunge. Almost 10 years after you completed yours, and taking me a year to finish, I now have a beautiful, exquisitely comfortable rocker in my home. This was a really gratifying project and your kindness and professionally produced blog were of enormous help and inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind that I have interspersed comments in various episodes that I thought might help the next brave traveller along this road. I did not have as well-equipped shop as you, and wanted to reassure others that it is possible to get by without a lathe, pneumatic tools, and a drum sander, as I was worried about that when I started down the path.