Rocking Chair Seats
The figure, color, and character displayed in the rocking chair seats are prominent in the final composition of the chairs. The deep and shapely scoop relieves pressure on the hipbones.
We laminate each seat from seven pieces selected, cut, and organized from the same larger board or tree. The laminating makes the seats stronger and more stable. The selecting and organizing make the figure, color, and character of the seats more interesting and lively. We study the growth rings to predict what figure will be later revealed by the scoop.
We cut eight pieces from the same board to select seven for the seat, because:
- The possible combination of seven boards taken seven at a time is 5,040.
- The possible combination of eight boards taken seven at a time is 40,320
Gary matching a seat.
boards selected and ordered for a seat
We flatten and true the seat boards on the jointer.
We bore holes in the edges for the dowels that align them and reinforce them.
The seat boards are marked and band sawn in angled carriages to remove most of the wood from the scoop.
This is Austin rough cutting the scoop at the bandsaw and a stack of seats, rough cut.
After the seat is glued up, it is sanded to thickness on the wide belt sander, cut square, notched to interlock with the legs (photo below), mortised for the splats, cut to shape, edged, and sanded to fit the notches of the leg...among many other things.
Austin notching a rocking chair seat to receive the legs.
With the disc grinder and coarse abrasive, we "true up" the scoop. This work is not for the inexperienced or the unskilled. Less than impeccable workmanship will leave ripples and waves in the contours of the chair scoop. You could see and feel these anomalies in the finished chair seats...if they were there.
Is your derriere flat and square?
This page describes the way we notched, mortised, and trued the scoop of our rocking chair seats for two and one-half decades...more than 5000 chairs. Enough is enough. We have entered the current century and are having Michael and Camello Colca do the bulk of this work on their CNC. We'll leave this overview of the manual steps online for its small shop, and historical, interest.
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