Rough lumber -- any way to check in the rough?

[Jim Becker]

Glenn, I even had issue with my hands breaking out...I used a respirator while sanding, too.

[Patrick Walsh]

All three boards are rough sawn. No. Sanding no planing. As you can see the figure and grain show clearly.

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Now with laquer thinner..

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The group,

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[Prashun Patel]

I also echo the dust concern with the Maloof rocker. Especially if you are angle grinding the seat.

I would not worry so much about the face grain; if you buy extra, you will certainly find enough small sections to make up an attractive seat that matches. The head rest and arms also require only a small amount of good looking stock.

What you really have to watch for is grain direction on the spindles and the rear legs. I was cavalier about that but got lucky. You should not be. You can learn most of what you need to in this regard from the edges and ends of the boards. Shorts will have one end unsealed and possibly neatly cut, so look for that end. Bring a block plane to skip the edges to make sure the grain has minimal run out.

When making a rocking chair, my advice is to buy extra and don't be afraid to waste (which I like to call making a lot of extra stock for tool handles or bowls)

[Larry Frank]

Good advice about the dust. Using an angle grinder to shape the seat creates lots of dust. I did mine outside. I also setup the piping from my dust collector so I could be close to where I was shaping the chair parts. This along with a very good dust mask rated at N100.

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[Kenny Andersen]

Appreciate the responses. I've never worked with these guys before but I guess I can show up prepared and see what they will let me do. Bubinga, at least to me, tends to be one of those woods that can vary considerably. Some of it is crazy awesome and some a bit less so. At $6/bf I think the risk is on the low side. Plus I'll get enough wood for 3-4 chairs + so I should be able to sort through and get something nice for the seats and head rests.

What is the longest piece I would need to get out of the stock for the Hall Taylor or Bill Kappel chairs. Since they are 'shorts' I want to make sure some are as long as they will need to be!

[Kenny Andersen]

Nice wood Patrick! That's what I'm looking for!

[Patrick Walsh]

It better be...

It's wasn't even close to $6bf..

[Patrick Kane]

haha yeah, geez at $6 how picky can you be? Other than my wholesaler, everyone around here has walnut $6+.

My wholesaler doesnt even let me pick the boards, let alone go in there with planes and mineral spirits. I always laugh a little to myself when i see magazines and youtubers suggest planing all the boards on site. I imagine i would be escorted out along with a few "wtf" looks from everyone. With most woods, you just need to practice enough to see the grain and color in the rough. i know its not perfect, but that is why you buy extra. I almost exclusively buy whole packs anymore, which typically means im buying 1 or more whole logs. 9 times out of 10 boards from the same log should match one another.

I havent carved anything yet, but i imagine its going to be a bugger with bubinga. Definitely worth it, but you are going to curse that wood choice a few times during the process, i imagine.

[Kenny Andersen]

Point well taken that's why I'm going all-in on the bubinga -- at $6/ bf it's a steal. Also, yours aren't shorts either! I did notice some of the boards looked pretty dark -- I want sure what that might indicate. The color of Bubinga does very, but also expose to UV might affect the color as well.

[Kenny Andersen]

Talked to Hal -- not sure how his plans vary from someone of the others. Longest piece was 42" seat is around 21" wide. The bubinga lumber I got was all 6' in length and most was nearly 11" wide so hopefully I can make the seat with just one joint. I picked up about 140 bf -- Most of it looked pretty good and some looked to have fairly nice grain patterns. I should be able to get 3 chairs out of it. I think we'll worth the $6/bf! If you are in the Dallas area it seems like a deal!