Hal Taylor chair - Now rocking :)

[Kalimna]

Greetings Folks,
It started off as a "I'd like to make something for you and the baby, how about a rocking chair?" question about 13 months ago, and I thought at the time that I would have plenty of time to get it finished for when our baby was going to be born (end of June, as it happens). I was mistaken. Quite obviously! A little searching on Google pointed me in the direction of Hal Taylors website. A brief flurry of emails back and forwards and I ordered a set of his plans and instructions (more of which after the piccies), and planned the expansion of my tool collection. I decided that UK sourced walnut was the timber I was after, and after a little searching I found a few boards from a tree felled in an estate around Loch Etive up here in Scotland. Loch Etive is one of the most beautiful places in our country, so I was quite pleased with that. Unfortunately, the boards were a little over 1" thick in rough, not the 2" as suggested by the plans. I thought "Never mind, I'll just laminate them up." By the end of the project I had become fairly proficient at planing a flat surface. Also rather proficient at thinking "I wish I had enough timber of the correct thickness".
One point to note about Hal's method of working is that everything, but everything, is completed with the aid of electrical power. So a few methods, I had to adapt. As the project progressed, I also discovered I had underestimated the amount of timber required (yes, I know, eejit), which is why there is a patchwork appearance to the finished item. Having said that, I think the walnut/ash/cherry combo works well (all timber sourced from Scotland via the ASHS network). I finally completed the construction/sanding of the chair at the beginning of November, and put the last layer of finish (wax over tung oil) a couple of days ago.

I must also say that this chair represents a few firsts for me - first proper piece of furniture (a blob of elm on a couple of legs for a coffee table and a couple of simple rocking horses being the first), first time cutting tenon joints, first time laminating a curved shape (rockers and back slats), first attempt at carving, first use of veneer to correct a too-wide gap in the tenon joint and first attempt at the "How many new swear words can I invent as something else doesnt go according to plan" record.

Ok, the following piccies (hopefully) document, briefly, the start-to-finish of this project.

My thoughts on completing the project are mainly that I am happy with the outcome. It has been an extremely steep learning curve, and there are certainly aspects that I am not happy with (sloppy tenon/slot joints, use of inappropriate timber, finishing). Having said that, it really is one of the more comfortable chairs I've ever sat in (padded or not), and I managed to finish it before my boy is 6 months old! Certain areas I found particularly tricky - getting the angles correct for the seat-leg joints and finessing the headrest/leg joints (planing on 3 axes to ensure a good fit was a stretch for me!) along with the finishing - I just could not get a coating of tung oil I was completely happy with. Hals instructions, whilst certainly comprehensive, were not always easy to follow, with mislabelled pictures and assumptions of up/top/down/bottom/width/length/thickness that had no corredponding diagram. But his emails were always helpful and reassuring when I ran into difficulty!

Please let me know your thoughts and criticisms (especially if you have also built one of these chairs), and many apologies for a rather long winded post!

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Halo Jones]

I think the chair looks stunning. How you ever found the time to make it with the little one is beyond me (it was 18 months before we could think of doing anything after our first son was born). As a Scottish woodworking newbie more detail on where you sourced your wood from would be great (ie website for ASHS?).

Cheers,

Halo

 

[lanemaux]

Congrats on both of your beautiful achievements. Child and chair are both lovely. If you were to aim for personality in a piece of furniture you could not go wrong with this chair . Uber cool.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Absolutely fantastic, that is class.

 

[The_Stig]

Very nice indeed, I've always fancied producing curved sections but always ended up settling for the straight :-s

 

[Harbo]

Very nice, I really love those chairs - one day???

I have the series of Sam Maloof making one on the computer somewhere?

Rod

 

[Kalimna]

Thank you for your kind words! I think it's fair to say that, given the high quality of projects placed on this forum by other folk, and my inexperience working with wood, that anyone thinking of making one of these chairs should give it a go. I honestly dont think it's as tricky as they look - curved sections and carving seem to allow a degree of hiding or blending in of errors made along the way At least thats what I found!

Halo - Im not sure how I found the time ether. A very understanding wife helps The ASHS (Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers) is www.ashs.co.uk
It's not the greatest of website design, but it's a very useful source of info regarding suppliers of timber felled/sourced in Scotland. The walnut was purchased from Lanarkshire Hardwoods, and the ash/cherry from Inzievar Woods (nr Oakley). Ive also had some nice elm, hornbeam and spalted beech from Inzievar.

Cheers
Adam

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

Epic job. I actually like the "patchwork" look of it, it's different.

 

[Alf]

Brilliant. =D> Any project that includes making a tool in order to make the project gets bonus points in my book too. Steep learning curve? Cripes, you've virtually scaled a sheer cliff face. You do realise you've set yourself a frighteningly high standard to live up to? :wink:

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

Meant to add, a few more pics of that plane would be nice.

 

[Kalimna]

Again, thank you for your comments

Alf - My next project I plan to be slightly easier on both the slope, wallet and patience I think perhaps a doorstop or similar! But you're right - it's very satisfying making, and using, a tool for a project. I would like to improve planemaking (two so far) or have a shot at making a saw. We'll see what the new year brings...

Pvt_Ryan - Here's a link to me making that plane. The only differences being a small notch i put in for a finger hold and a little more smoothing. And that I had intended it's use primarily for the headrest, but found it much more useful for the seat.

www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/wip-round-b ... 41148.html

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Ironballs]

Great job mate, tricky job for anyone never mind if you don't have too much experience. You do of course that there will be lots of fighting in the future over who gets to sit in it, time to start making another chair I reckon

 

[Kalimna]

Heh heh, thats OK, I got to have the first 'rock' on it :lol:
As for the next one (and there will be!), I think a little more planning of the timber is called for. And Im thinking padouk/maple. Or if anyone knows where 2" rippled maple/sycamore can be had???

Adam

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

How many meters of wood did you use to do it in the end?

 

[squib]

Truly great ,well done on all scores! =D>

 

[Kalimna]

Im not sure how much wood was used in the end. I perhaps should have kept a record, but it was at the bottom of my memory list. I think somewhere in the region of 3-4 boards similar to the ones in the photo, but in 2", should do the trick.

Adam

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

What size are the large diamonds in your floor? (I can just add them to give the lenght of each board).. If you dont mind that is..

 

[RogerM]

Adam - I love it, and if that's your first piece of real furniture then you can tackle anything. I also like the use of contrasting timber - makes it very distinctive and makes it plain that this isn't a mass produced piece from eastern Europe.

I particularly like those curved slats in the back. Were those laminated and bent into shape, or are they cut from the solid?

 

[Kalimna]

Ryan - Not a problem, the large squares (and to make the sums easy, this counts as from the bottom corner of one small silver square up to the bottom corner of the next small silver square, as measured across the diagonal of the largest dark grey square with nothing inside it. If that makes sense - this measured shape should include 1 small silver square, one large dark grey square and the border along 2 coincident edges of the large dark grey sqaure) are 7" to a side. If you want any further info on the plans/instructions, just ask

Roger - Thank you Im not sure about the 'tackle anything' bit tho - as I mentioned, it's easier to hide errors/mistakes/wobbly lines when things are curved and blended, not so much when a crisp edge or joint is called for. The eye notices lines not quite parallel when they should be a lot more so than curves that arent quite the same. I will have a go at doing (almost) anything, but I think the end result looks better for not needing precision in the final shaping. If that makes sense.
To answer your question, however, the back slats (and the rockers) were made as thin laminations (1/8" for each rocker lamination, 0.090" for each back slat lamination) and glued up (no heat source bending required) with Titebond against a 1 1/2" plywood former. Each back slat had a front and a rear of cherry with 2 central of ash (to give a little more 'spring' apparently), and the rockers had 9 of a walnut/ash mix as that's what I had left. Cutting those laminations was a somewhat interesting introduction to the world of the table saw!

Cheers,
Adam

 

[NewtoWood]

That is a stuning bit of work - definately an heirloom.

The choice of wood and the lines are perfect. =D>