Matt’s Sculpted Rocking Chair

Viewer Project - By Matt from California
Added on September 15, 2009

Your website is great! I very much enjoy the videos, commentary, etc. I’m a finance guy by day and woodworker all other times. I’ve been woodworking for almost 3 years now and can’t get enough of it. It started off with Legos and Lincoln logs at age 3, one semester of Wood Shop in grade school and then I decided to buy my own tools a few years back. Now I’m a proud Festool addict!

I thought I’d pass along photos of a rocking chair I made out of curly and quilted maple from Hal Taylor plans and made some changes as I saw fit. It took me about 90-100 hours to build one chair after making all the necessary jigs and buying all the necessary drill bits, tools, etc. I found it to be a very interesting and fun project to build and frankly thought it would be way over my head.

Discussion

Jeremy Meeks September 15, 2009 8:21 am

I love the lines of this chair. It’s really nice work! Your choice of wood was great. The wood patterns are really fun!

Reply
Jeff September 15, 2009 8:38 am

Matt, very nice chair. I think you did a wonderful job? Does it slide backwards when you sit in it? Sliding backwards is one of the hardest parts of making this chair.

Marc, a long, long time ago we were talking about a
“hip joint”. His first two pictures are a hip joint.

Jeff

Reply
- Matt September 15, 2009 12:29 pm
  
  Hi Jeff,
  Thanks for your nice comments. The chair does not slide backwards and rocks very smoothly.
  Matt
  
  Reply
runningwood September 15, 2009 8:54 am

Beautiful job ! What kind of finish did you use ? I too love your choice of woods.

Reply
- Matt September 15, 2009 12:30 pm
  
  Thanks….I used 3 coats of Deft Danish Oil. I sanded it down with 500 grit sandpaper and applied each coat with a 4-5 days in between each.
  Matt
  
  Reply
Bryan September 15, 2009 10:12 am

Matt – fantastic job on this! I really like the back slats and how the grain really pops. It feels like the arm rests are a bit ‘heavy’ to me, but this thing is a beauty, nice work!
-Bryan

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Daniel Drabek September 15, 2009 10:14 am

A really nice project. Looks like the slats were bent and laminated on a form? Carving the hollow in that hard maple seat must have taken a bit of time and sweat.

DD

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- Matt September 15, 2009 12:32 pm
  
  The lamination for both the rockers and the back braces was done using a form. The back braces have four pieces of wood laminated and the rockers have, I believe, nine.
  
  Reply
Dan September 15, 2009 10:35 am

Nice chair, looks comfortable too. I was wondering about the laminated wood on the rockers, could you explain the process you used?

Dan

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MikeD September 15, 2009 11:04 am

Very nice. They were doing a class at our local Woodcraft to build these chairs. They wanted $600. Included was $200 wood allowance I think.

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Tim Hill September 15, 2009 12:25 pm

Matt… great chair. Thanks.

Marc… I’ve been thinking of doing one of these, or a Maloof rocker. I hope you plan to do a video series on this project. Might be a good project for a work along. Like a virtual classroom woodshop.

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Jeffrey September 15, 2009 8:07 pm

Matt,
Sam Maloof would be proud.
Jeff

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JP Knapp September 16, 2009 7:58 am

Hours well spent. Nice work.

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Tom Collins September 16, 2009 9:55 am

Beautiful rocking chair. I think I will have to add one to my project list as soon as I get some time. Thank you for sharing.

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Claude Stewart September 16, 2009 6:55 pm

This is beautiful. There is no way I could even attempt something like this.

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Michael September 17, 2009 10:20 am

Very nice work! The wood choices are what really set this rocker apart from other!

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Sean September 17, 2009 3:43 pm

Great job on the rocker. I never liked any rocker that I have seen or used because the always seemed to be to “country” looking, but your rocker has a nice clean, sleek look to it.

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nateswoodworks September 17, 2009 9:19 pm

Man is that nice, I love how the lines all flow together and the little accents that are incorperated into the design. I agree not country looking at all, looks very very classy. Are you planning on building more chairs or is this one of those things that you just have to get under your belt?? I want to build one somewhat like yours down the road, partially for pride and partially just to say I have done it.
Nate

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Cal September 18, 2009 5:10 am

Hey Matt, awesome chair. I can’t believe it was based on a plan. Great job and look forward to your future projects.

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John’s Woodshop September 18, 2009 10:15 am

Matt,

Very Nice Chair!!!! Do you have a direct link to the plans that you used for it?

Thanks!
John

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- Matt September 21, 2009 11:48 am
  
  Thanks for your nice comments. The website is http://www.haltaylor.com
  Matt
  
  Reply
Thomas Kirkpatrick October 9, 2010 6:25 pm

WOW

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Gerry Murray June 3, 2012 7:14 am

Matt, Great Job! I am in the process of getting all of the tools together, and making all of the jigs. I am very exited about getting this chair going! I have Hals Book and the dvd’s and the are very informative, are there any issues or problems that you encountered that were unexpected?

Thanks for your info!
Gerry

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Reid Strand December 7, 2012 12:48 pm

2 questions. What finish did you use and did you do any of the finishing before assembly?

Its a beautiful project and the wood couldn’t look better!

Reply

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Matt’s Sculpted Rocking Chair

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