Another rocking chair

[lowell holmes]

If your interested, this chair is inspired by two Paul Sellers designs. The first is the Craftsman rocker.
See the class at this link. http://www.sustainlife.org/blogs/woodworking/upcoming-craftsman-rocking-chair-course/

That is the first chair I built at Homestead Heritage in 2002. Paul Sellers was teaching the class at that time.

The second chair is shown here. I built the Brazos Rocker in 2004 at the first Brazos Rocker class. 336690 336691
The class was also at Homestead Heritage It is a Paul Sellers design.

There are design elements from both chairs in the third chair. The last chair is the most comfortable rocker I've built.
I call it Lynne's Rocker.The basic structure is the same as the Brazos Rocker. It is quarter sawn white oak.
The Brazos Rocker is mesquite.

I have a sketch plan for Lynne's Rocker if anyone is interested. It is a dimensional sketch, not a tutorial

[Curt Putnam]

Very, very nice! I hope to someday have the time it takes to build a chair, let alone a rocking chair.

[Frederick Skelly]

These are both beautiful Lowell! The Craftsman rocker really connected with me - between the shape, color and finish, it just makes me want to reach out and touch it.

A quick question on your brazos rocker - how did you find mesquite to work with? Was it tough to work? Did you find it dulled your tools more quickly than other woods? I ask because I was reading a back issue oof Woodwork that said mesquite could be pretty abrasive on your tools?

Fred

[lowell holmes]

I built the chair at a Paul Sellers class conducted at Homestead Heritage in Elm Mott, Texas (near Waco).
The mesquite was available to the class and I chose it.

Mesquite is easy enough to work, it is hard, but so is white oak. Mesquite is not especially hard on tools. If you got some that had sand in it, it would be.

The only thing about mesquite is it stains your hands purple. We removed the stain by washing our hands with concentrated lime juice.

Both Houston Hardwoods and Clarke Hardwood Lumber Company in Houston, Texas have mesquite.

It is interesting that mesquite has a very low moisture content. It does not absorb water that easily.

[Phil Mueller]

Beautiful chairs Lowell. I also particularly like the shaker...a bit softer design, to my eyes anyway. A lot of angular joinery going on...kudos for the skill and patience that must require.

[David Eisenhauer]

Dead solid stupid question - Would the chair work without the rockers? In other words, if one would eliminate the rockers and (if required) add in the height of the rocker to the leg lengths, would the same geometry/design or whatever it is called still work to result in a comfortable, useable chair? I like the chairs (second chair in particular), but don't generally care for having or sitting in rockers.

[Prashun Patel]

Not a stupid question. You may have to tweak the leg height of the rear legs relative to the front ones. Some rockers lean back farther than a dining chair to.

[Pat Barry]

Nice work Lowell. I really like the first one. Really nice fit and proportions and finish to my eye. How does it ride??

[lowell holmes]

The chair built in 2004 is Paul Seller's Brazos Rocker. If one wanted to build that chair, I suggest contacting Paul and see if he could provide you with a plan.

If you want to build one without the rockers, I would build the chair to put the front of the seat at 17-18". I would first make it level, and then I would cut off the back legs.
I would start by cutting off 1 1/2" off of the back legs. I would then cut 1/2" segments of of the back legs, sit in the chair, and continue doing that until it sits like you want it.

I spend hours in the Brazos rocker. It is incredibly comfortable. The second chair is just as comfortable. I lucked out on the minor changes in geometry. I made that chair for a friend.
As I said before, I have built chairs for all of my children and now a grandchild. All of the chairs, built on these designs are comfortable. As I mentioned in another post, I have two great grandchildren being rocked .

Thanks for the kind words.

An interesting sidelight, in another string a discussion took place concerning chopping mortises with bevel edge chisels. IIRC, there are 42-44 mortise and tenon joints in these chairs and they were all chopped with bevel edge chisels. The first chair was chopped using blue handled Marples chisels.

[David Eisenhauer]

Thanks Prashtun and Lowell for the info. I have built outdoor patio chairs with redwood frame/cypress slat components for the backs and seats, but have wanted to build a more traditional-seat, wide, comfortable, sturdy (heavy) chair with vertical back slats (don't care for ladder-back style look) for a particular purpose and the second chair in particular looks along the lines I have envisioned. I have used a 5-6 deg "layback" of the back (seat-to-back at 90 deg) on previous chair builds and bet the 1-1/2" cutoff on the back legs (plus a little more) works out somewhere around that amount.

[lowell holmes]

I was perusing rocking chairs, ran across this string and thought you might enjoy it again.

[John Kananis]

Very nice work, Lowell. How long were those classes?

[lowell holmes]

John, it was a long time back, but I remember the class as a two week class. It may very well have been a one week class. If you check the Homestead Heritage web site they probably
have a schedule for the classes.

For what it's worth, Paul is in England, but I know the current instructors and some of them learned from Paul. If you are interested I would go for it. I've attended more than one
session there, and it is a quality program.

[John Kananis]

Thanks for the info, Lowell - something to think about for the future; right now, I'm lucky if I get an hour or two to myself each week.

[lowell holmes]

If you visit Homestead Heritage, there may be a culture shock for you. :)

It is in Waco Texas on the Brazos River. It is the home of Baylor University. There is a Texas Ranger Museum there, complete with display cases of fire arms and Ranger Badges.

I enjoyed my visits to New Jersey and I'm sure you will enjoy Waco if you come here.

You will see the river with rowing teams practicing , water fowl, and an abundance of parks and restaurants.