The Maloof-Inspired Rocker found in Woodsmith issue 275 has a few unique shapes. While these shapes are somewhat simpler than the organic forms Maloof himself designed, they still require a few specific cuts.
Backrest Shaping
The backrest of the rocking chair is the first item to address. Here you’ll find angled tenons, rounded mortises, and a compound curve that forms the body of the backrest. After printing out the patterns and attaching them to the workpiece, I cut the front cheeks of the backrest tenons with a dado blade buried in an auxiliary fence and block planed the back cheeks. Next up came the tenon shoulders.
Tenon Shoulders. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate how I cut the shoulders of the tenons that will fit into the back legs. Because of the angle and splay here, these cuts are compound. To achieve this, I angled my miter gauge (Figure 1a) and tilted my table saw blade (Figure 1b). An auxiliary miter gauge is a good idea to keep from chipping out the back of the tenons.
As you can see above, I cut the top shoulders of the piece first. The order here isn’t important, just be sure you have the orientation correct with whatever order you choose. After cutting the tops, I repeated the process on the bottoms (Figures 2a and 2b).
Back Slat Mortises. Once the tenons were completed, it was time to create the mortises for the back slats. As Figure 3 shows, these are located on the bottom edge of the backrest, and they’re simple to make at the drill press with a Forstner bit.
To make the mortises, drill two holes in each, adjusting the fence as needed to accommodate the curves. Figure 3a shows the depth of these holes and Figure 3b shows the dimensions. After drilling the holes, use a chisel to clean up the waste left between them, but remember not to square the corners.
A Curved Back. The final step in making the backrest is to cut it into a compound curve. I did this at the band saw (as you can see in Figures 4 and 5), and it’s simpler than it may look.
The patterns will guide your cutting here. Begin by rough-cutting the faces of the workpiece to the pattern on the edge (Figure 4). After the waste is freed, tape it back on to use as a support when cutting the edges (as shown in Figure 5).
Finally, now that the joinery is cut and the workpiece is shaped, you can roundover the edges. For the lower edges and the upper back edge, a roundover bit at the router table will do the job. As for the upper front roundover, that’s best done with a spokeshave, as it gradually increases in depth at the center. You can see an illustration of this on page 39 of the article.
Seat Shaping
Now that the backrest is done, the seat comes next. Some shaping and some joinery are both in order — let’s begin with a couple of simple cuts.
Ripping the Sides. The first items on the docket to address with this seat are two rip cuts. The sides splay out to make the front wider than the rear, and this can be accomplished with the two, simple ripping jigs you see here. I made these jigs from a couple spare pieces of plywood. After laying out the shapes on the blanks, I used a straight bit with my router to cut them, along with a straightedge clamped down to guide the base. A chisel makes quick work of squaring the corners.
Once made, the shaped part of the jig cradles the corner of the seat to guide it through the cut while the flat edge rides against the rip fence. Figure 6 shows how to use the first ripping jig, while Figure 7 shows using the second jig. Keep in mind that order does matter here to ensure the proper shape.
Seat Side Notches. Now that the rip cuts are made, the dadoes come next. First, print out and attach the patterns to the workpiece. These dadoes are pretty straightforward, save for the angled-back fence on the miter gauge (shown in Figure 8b). This allows for the splay of the legs when they slot into the dadoes. In order to give my auxiliary fence the correct angle, I used an angled spacer block between the piece that attaches to the gauge itself and the large supporting fence. To get the correct angle here, I made two angled cuts on the table saw (one on each side since the piece is thicker). After gluing up the fence assembly and screwing it onto the miter gauge, I cut the dadoes as shown in Figures 8 and 8a. To make sure these dadoes are spot-on, I clamped the workpiece down to the auxiliary fence.
Seat Perimeter. The last set of tasks here is to bring the seat to shape, and that begins with the perimeter. The patterns will guide you here. The band saw was my preferred shaping method, reaching final shape with the edge and spindle sanders.
Scooping the Seat. There are two ways to scoop out the seat: by hand or using an angle grinder. Regardless of which you choose, the first step will be to drill a series of depth holes to guide your work according to the illustration shown on page 39 of the rocking chair article. These holes will give you a place to work toward so you stay on the right track.
As I mentioned in the article, I shaped this seat by hand, using a few gouges followed by a card scraper. Phil recently built a shop stool, and he took the opportunity to break down the process of scooping a seat with hand tools, which you can find here. However, not everyone is such a hand tool fanatic, and the art below illustrates how an angle grinder can come in handy here.
Power Scooping. A carving disc is a useful angle grinder accessory when you need to remove a lot of waste in a way that saws won’t accommodate. If you haven’t used one before I recommend making some test cuts on a scrap (preferably of the same wood you’re using for the seat). It’s not a difficult tool to use, but you’ll want to get a sense for how quickly it removes material.
Once you’re feeling comfortable with the disc, you can begin shaping. The first goal is to reach the depth according to the holes you drilled, and to connect those together in the U-shape of the seat. As you work, you’ll find this leaves a series of ridges behind. After you’ve established the depths, work the ridges down to blend the depths. Next, an orbital sander will clean up the surface. Finish the seat by adding the mortises as you did with the backrest, as well as routing the roundovers around the upper and lower edges.
