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I had this idea that maybe once a week or two I could post whatever is going on on my one of my workbenches
![Furniture Chair Table Wood woodworking]()
![Wood]()
Today it's this rocking chair I'm building out of Douglas Fir. Why fir? Because I had it and it was free. I also wanted to see how a fir rocking chair holds up. Fir is fairly strong but cracks and splits sometimes. To prevent that I re-sawed and re-laminated almost all the components. I think it will be quite sturdy, I'm going to gift it to a friend for his 60th BD. So I'll be able to keep an eye on it.
The chair was formerly part of some large beams that was the framing for an old warehouse that was a furniture store in our town. The store caught fire, it was a spectacular fire, huge flames. A friend of mine salvaged some of the un-burned timbers and had them milled into lumber for remodeling their house. What was left over they gave to lucky me. I cut all the parts for the chair from one 18' 4 x 6. It was nearly clear vertical grain with a couple of small knots. The moisture was about 5.5%.
The other chair on the bench is my pattern chair. I am always tweaking the geometry a little for comfort. This time I used one less splat so that the spine will fit between the splats not right on one. It's is more comfortable.
One more day and I should have all the parts done and put together. Then its spoke shaves, scrapers, rasps and sandpaper.
I think my friend will like it, even if he already has a rocker. It will look good on his porch.
Bret
Today it's this rocking chair I'm building out of Douglas Fir. Why fir? Because I had it and it was free. I also wanted to see how a fir rocking chair holds up. Fir is fairly strong but cracks and splits sometimes. To prevent that I re-sawed and re-laminated almost all the components. I think it will be quite sturdy, I'm going to gift it to a friend for his 60th BD. So I'll be able to keep an eye on it.
The chair was formerly part of some large beams that was the framing for an old warehouse that was a furniture store in our town. The store caught fire, it was a spectacular fire, huge flames. A friend of mine salvaged some of the un-burned timbers and had them milled into lumber for remodeling their house. What was left over they gave to lucky me. I cut all the parts for the chair from one 18' 4 x 6. It was nearly clear vertical grain with a couple of small knots. The moisture was about 5.5%.
The other chair on the bench is my pattern chair. I am always tweaking the geometry a little for comfort. This time I used one less splat so that the spine will fit between the splats not right on one. It's is more comfortable.
One more day and I should have all the parts done and put together. Then its spoke shaves, scrapers, rasps and sandpaper.
I think my friend will like it, even if he already has a rocker. It will look good on his porch.
Bret
