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Maloof Rocking Chair Reproduction
Feb 12, 2010
This is a reproduction of Sam Maloof’s iconic rocking chair. I patterned the chair with the help of Maloof’s technical video – which provides a lot of specific information about the seat of this chair – and by closely studying several picture books of his furniture. To establish the chair’s balance point, I built a crude mock-up. Through trial and a little guess-work, I managed to get it right. As are the originals, this chair is made from American black walnut, with curly maple and gabon ebony accents.
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My trademark. The initials stand for Marc LaGuardia.
Comments
Very nicely done!!
Very, very nice. Sam would approve. I've got wood drying for a similar attempt of my own. I cant' wait.
Thank you both for the kind words. This was a fun project because the techniques that Sam used are really liberating. The important thing is to cut nicely mating joints and then you can fair the parts into each other. The initial wood removal really can be approximate, hence Sam's preference for using the bandsaw. My chair was made entirely from 8 qtr stock, just like the originals. Be prepared for a lot of wasting, and don't be shy. I used everything at my disposal, including a chainsaw attachment for the disc grinder and abrasive grinding discs. The Nicholson #50 is your best friend after that.
Its so refreshing to see a nice peice of furniture
Its so refreshing to see a real nice peice of furniture. I know you're proud...Ray
1000% respect and admiration for taking on such a beautiful project. Congratulations!
WELL DONE.. with capitals...
As always, I appreciate the compliments. This was the third of three Maloof rockers that I made, but I had not ever made a chair of any kind before that. So yes, I am proud of the results.
Wow.Great work.
Great work - looks good
I have wanted to do this for a lot of years. Now that I have retired I'm about to get started. I'm in the process of doing the necessary research now. Congratulations on a job well done. I'm also sure Sam would whole hartedly approve. Are their any particular pitfalls I should look out for. I have thought this chair was one of the most beautiful pieces of woodwork I have ever seen since I first saw it lots of years ago.
As per pitfalls, John, I ran into some trouble on the first one I made when I was dishing out the seat; I dished too far and actually opened up a dowel pocket. Fortunately, I had saved the original band saw waste piece for that particular seat board, so I was able to fit a tapered plug with an exact grain match. One can see that it's a repair, but it's a good repair. The other thing I found a little tricky was pilot drilling through the rough-fit rockers into the legs for the screws. Make absolutely sure that the work is securely clamped but don't over clamp the rocker so much that a gap opens in the joint because this gap will re-appear when you try to screw and glue the rocker in place. Also, were I to do it again, I would have secured the front two legs to the seat with two screws, instead of just one and I would have drilled down through the arm paddles into the front leg tops for added security. They're doweled in place, but I find myself instructing family on how to properly pick up and move the chair. The only reason I didn't do that, in the first place, was that I didn't want ebony plugs to interfere, aesthetically, with the grain of the paddles, but the peace of mind would have been worth it. Of course, I can always do this at some point down the road. As for modifications, I made the seat a few inches wider than mentioned in Maloof's instructional video; this appears to have been a good move because everyone who sits in the chair - great and small - says how comfortable it is. And I would take time to ensure enough lower back support when making your pattern for the back spindles. Good luck and enjoy what I found to be a very liberating exercise in woodworking.
Fantastic work on this chair. How many hours did it take once you got the hang of the process?
Hey Eric - thanks for visiting my page! I made three of these chairs. The chair you see was intended to be the "practice chair" because I had never even made a chair before and the other two were commissioned as gifts. I wanted the luxury of working through the set-ups and making mistakes. Unfortunately, time waits for no-one. After at least figuring out the seat, my bosses asked that I just get on with it and finish the first two chairs - one in cherry, the other in nicely figured walnut.
I suppose the first one took me about 250 hours, including the finishing process. The second was marginally quicker, but I tend to spend a lot of time on the finish-prep - methodically working my way through grits; I swear that I spent more time sanding these chairs than I did building them!
Once, I was done with the first two, I asked my bosses whether I could complete and keep the third chair - which they agreed to. Because I had the extra time, now, I took extra care to drop the arm a bit - a la the later Maloof styling of this chair. The first two had a high arm, that looks a little clumsy, by comparison.
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