Another Rocking Chair

 This is the 3rd Rocking Chair made mostly of Rewarewa, By the time I gave a thought to photos I had already cut out the back legs, this is all the Rewarewa wood I have and some of it has woodworm in it that I am trying to avoid using.

I have a number of adjustments that I want to make while making this chair there are also some changes as to how I actually go about putting it together, all of this Rewarewa is thicker than the Rimu I had for the last chair so that is making a difference too, each chair is very unique even though they all look the same when finished.

The seat has been carved out using a very different method to the last 2 chairs  so that has been a learning experience and one that I like, we will have to wait and see if the sitting experience is any different.

The front legs are (according to instructions) made of 2 pieces of wood glued together but because I had a larger piece they will each be made of one piece.

I am already a few weeks into this build, I have lost a few days due to machinery that stopped working and a mistake that I made, it is now winter and we are having some cold mornings so its not the best time to be out in the garage, the afternoons also suddenly become cold, I feel that I rushed the first 2 chairs so now I think I can take a little longer or just as long as it takes I am not keeping a track of time on this chair so it is what it is.

The back braces were made for the last chair but I had a change of mind so these one were made ready and waiting for me to use, the wood on the front and back is Rimu with 2 lamination's inside of Tawa the contrast will be good and the rockers are the same.

16 Days and 4 Turnings

 That has all happened so very fast, I did not realise it is only 16 days since I finished the last rocking chair.

This piece of wood was given to me and I was told it is Matai, swamp Matai so its dark colour is due to it laying underground for a long time, there are a few cracks in the wood so I have been lucky that the wings have stayed intact, the size is 80mm high and from wing tip to wing tip it is 230mm wide so it is probably a bit high for its width.

The wood was a pleasure to turn apart from having to constantly glue up the cracks.

I then took the chainsaw to a big piece of kauri I had been given and out popped this, again there are a few splits or cracks and some worm holes but it is very nice kauri so I did not want to waste it, some of the growth rings are 1mm apart which means the tree grew 1mm in girth in that year, the wood as I was given it shows it is a long time since it was cut up so like the matai above it must be very old.

The diameter of the bowl is 190mm, the thickness of the block would have been about 95mm before I started to turn it and I consider this too high for a bowl of this diameter so I set up the bowl saver cutting device I have and took the lid out from inside the bowl, in this picture it shows just how the lid was before I cut it out so the knob on top of the lid was inside the bowl.

The lid and the bowl I consider to be 2 turnings as there is just as much work in making a lid as there is in making a bowl.

The finish on all these items is Osmo Oil, I find that with the high solids product I only need one coat of the oil.

There was a piece of pohutukawa on the floor that I had been moving about each time I cleaned up I have no idea where it came from but it was very dry being dark in colour it is old wood or should I say its from an old tree and as a difference from the pieces above there was no cracks or splits making this piece of turning a pleasure to work with.

Its size is 245mm from wing tip to wing tip and 65mm high, making bowls with wings involves a lot of hand work and most of it is sanding, finishing with a 400 grit sandpaper.

This piece of turning is not square, the original block of wood was not square so after the initial turning and cutting off the unwanted wings I trimmed it keeping it out of square.

I am very fortunate to have such wonderful wood to play with.

 

All Native Chair Finished

 I have finished the second chair and I am well pleased that I have done what I set out to do.

I have changed the joint at the back of the arm rest into the back leg with what I think is a more attractive and stronger joint I also kept it more square which I think blends better with the back legs.

At the top of the back legs I have made a softer looking radius that is in keeping with the radius on the inside.

The back braces are made of Tawa so are a stronger wood than the previous chair this made me more comfortable shaping the top of the back braces as per the instructions, the  shape lends a whole new look and being in a contrasting wood just adds to the beauty, I also managed to coordinate some of the spalting in the Tawa into a pattern looking from the back of the chair.

The rockers are also spalted Tawa with a single lamination of Matai, so we have three native woods Rimu, Tawa and Matai.

I started with a board of 50mm Rimu that the legs, seat and head rest came from this has given me a seat that is thinner than I would have liked, I also made a slight upwards roll on the front edge so that looking from the front the seat has a very fine look.

The arms and front legs have been recycled from an old house that at some time had been on fire I know this because some of the wood had charcoal on the outside and there is still evidence of nail holes that I could not eliminate altogether.

The finish is Osmo Oil.

Second Part, Chair Two

The first chair is very good for a first effort however I always said that I would make more.

The first photo I took

 I had just been given a very nice plank of Rimu be it very sun damaged on one side so it became a chair of NZ native woods, the back braces and rockers will be Tawa and the rockers will have a stripe of Matai in the lamination's.

Due to the sun damage of the plank of Rimu I decided the construction would be different to the instructions in fact there are now a few differences, the Rimu is a very different wood to work with than the Macrocarpa of the first chair.

When I started the first chair there was a lot of time spent making jigs and molds, as I started this chair I had forgotten what I had done so it was in some ways like starting all over again, I was so engrossed in what I was doing I forgot to take photos.

 This joint on the back end of the arm rest is probably the most visual difference I have made, the original instructions were for a butt joint with a long screw I think this is more in keeping with the theme of the chair, as there is very little wood left on either side of the tongue I have also put a dowel inside the joint.

 At this point the chair is loosely sat on the rockers and there are still packers to go between the leg ends and the rockers.

After this photo was taken I spent 4 days grinding and sanding, now I am looking at making a slight alteration to the seat front before I sand that area I then have to turn my attention to the rockers and on mounting them to the legs before I start the sanding again.

First Part Finished

 The first chair is finished, I am so pleased with the final result, as promised by the designer Hal Taylor it is very comfortable to sit in, the lumber support is the best I have ever experienced the braces at the back are free to move and are  flexible so will contour to suit whoever sits in the chair.

The wood I used was a park bench in its last life so had been outside for a long time this left it very damaged so it has been a challenge to work around all the defects some found there way into the finished chair just to add   character.

It is booked to appear in two exhibitions over the next few months until then I will have it to refer to as I start on a second chair, again due to the wood I have available there are going to be some changes but I hope the end result will be the same.

New Project

 I have been gathering wood and wondering what to do with it, the wood turning I do is too hard to sell not that a rocking chair is going to be easy however at the moment there is no intention to sell I would like one in the house, this chair is made from macrocarpa and in a previous life it was a park bench and had become very weathered, dirty with lots of splits and cracks so what I can rescue is is only a small part, this type of chair creates a lot of waste wood and is better suited to a harder type of wood however for a first time following some instructions it is a good exerciser before I get into a higher valued timber.

This is a take off of the Sam Maloof chair that was first made in the 1950s, then Hal Taylor took Sams look and developed it over a long time before making plans available for sale, so it is Hal Taylor drawing that I have bought and am following.

The plans lay it all out in detail, made for those with less experience, it is still a challenge and a good one to work through, the top picture is taken with the back braces just stood in place, the legs are just pushed into the joint and the whole thing is just sat on the rockers, it still needs some packers making that lifts the chair higher and are positioned on the bottom of the legs, there are also arm rests that need making and are quite a feature of the finished chair, all the corners have a big radius on them so the look is very slender and different to what is seen here.

The benefits of back ache

 I had done a few stretches but had not been for my morning walk then I went out and started painting a window it was too low and I was bent over trying to control the brush, by the time I came in I had back ache, in the possess of changing my shorts I bent over and the ache became something more serious, I knew I was in for a few days of pill popping and laying on the floor to get the muscle spasms to settle down, new years eve and I am in bed early unable to stand up any longer.

January 1st and it seems a good idea to sit and not do anything that puts too much strain on the back, I did manage a short walk.

This bowl has been saying colour me in ever since I made it, there were some muddy looking areas in the grain that needed to be hidden, ever since I bought my pyrogrophy machine I had wanted to try and bring some scales into the center of a bowl in an organized way, I had also promised myself I would try doing color over the osmo oil, today in the process I had to try do the burning over the color.

In my eyes, today, it is just the best, and on a day spent trying to do very little but recover I am particularly pleased with myself we will see what the people at the market say.