Child sized Shaker Rocker

[Willard Foster]

Here is a child sized rocking chair I made this winter. The chair is patterned after Ernie Conover's article in Fine Woodworking (can't remember which issue)

The wood is from an ash tree we cut from our yard two years ago. I cut the log into six inch slabs, then feed them into the bandsaw to reduce it to two inch slabs. The wood was stickered and dried inside my shop.

The chair is roughly 2/3 the size of Ernie's plan. Back legs are about 30" high. I kept the diameters on all parts a little fatter than 2/3 scale. (Kids aren't as skinny now-a-days)

I was surprised to see the horizontal grain pattern on the wood. I'm not sure if this is called "quilting" or "tiger". I have never saw ash with this pattern.

The seat is 5/8" Shaker tape. It used about 12 yards of tape. There is a 1" thick piece of foam sandwiched between the tape layers.

The chair will be raffled off to raise funds for the American Heart Association. (The only kids we have are the furry kind).

If I make another, I may use two stretches (rungs) on the sides and front instead of three. I found my hands are too fat to fit between the side rungs when weaving the tape.

I made a steam box with 4" PVC pipe with steam generated by a turkey fryer.

I am making a full size chair for my wife. Otherwise she wouldn't let this one out of the house.

Thanks for looking,

Bill

[Norman Pyles]

Very nicely done!!!!!!!!

[Martin Shupe]

You built a really nice chair from some really nice wood.

You are correct, it is curly ash. If you have any more, you might make some furniture from it.

Well done and thanks for posting.

[John Keeton]

Very nice work, Willard, and that certainly is some beautiful ash. Good work on the turning of the pieces and steam bending, too.

[John Thompson]

I love the simplcity of the design even though making chairs is far from simple any way you look at it. That is similar to many I saw as a kid on front porches growing up in the south. That is indeed curly ash and I have only seen it once before your project. I would love to see some show up in my shop but not likely considering...

Well done...