My Maloof Inspired rocking chair is finished.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I took the 6 day "Build your own Chair"course with Paul Lemisky in March and came home with a chair that was basically built and scupted but still had a lot of sanding to do. I dabbled with it here and there and then a couple of weeks ago decided to "git-er-done". Put the last coat of finish on yesterday and this is the finished product. Turned out awsome. Thanks to Paul for a great course. He is a wonderful teacher and I learned a lot about woodworking in general and chair making and scupting in particular. Sorry the picture is sideways but when I rotate it it looks compressed.

[Rich Enders]

Fred,

That is a fine piece of work. But, how could you build something so nice in that messy workshop? Reminds me of my own shop.

Is there anything published on that particular design? I would like to be able to do something like that someday.

[Rick Fisher]

Impressive work .. Can I ask how you shaped the seat ? Really nice ..

[fRED mCnEILL]

Messy?

There are a number of people who give courses, have DVDs and manuals, etc including Hal Talyor. Just google Maloof rocking chairs. I took a course with Paul Lemiski in Ontario, Canada. Great teacher, wonderful artist, and the course is one-on -one which is what I really wanted and as far as I know the olnly one who does it one-on-one. Basically he tells you what you will be cutting, etc, then cuts his own piece ,then you cut yours. He builds his chair alongside you. You use the actual tools that he does. A 6 day course gives you a chair complete except a lot of sanding. On the 10 day course you come home with a fully finished chair.

The seat is sculpted using a Kutzall wheel which is basically a grinding wheel impregnated with carbide bits. Easy to control and really hogs off the wood. To fully sculpt the seat takes about an hour. Physically, it is the hardest part of the build.

[Jay Rasmussen]

Beautiful work Fred!

[Keith Hankins]

Awesome results! This is on my bucket list! Love the finish!

[glenn bradley]

Very nice and what a great learning experience to boot. Sounds like a great time and a great class. End result = beautiful chair. That's what I call a win-win.

[Bill McNiel]

Very, very nice work sir. What wood and finish did you use?

[Ronald Blue]

Very nice! I am impressed with the whole process. Soooooo, now that you built one under his guidance do you feel you can do it again on your own? I would consider it a success if you feel confident enough to do it in your shop. Just wondering.

[fRED mCnEILL]

The wood is walnut and the finish is 1 part BLO, 1 part tung oil and 1 part minwax gloss polyurethane.

Could I do another by myself?
The course that Paul uses is a modified version of Hal Taylor's course and I have the manual for it as well as all the templates. I didn't have the manual prior to taking the course, which would have been beneficial. To me building one of these chairs is very involved but as I was doing it you just do it because that is what you are told and shown.And of course there are so many steps that you tend to foget a lot.

So, the question is ,without the manual could I build another chair based on my experience during the course. NO! However I have read the manual and given that the manual TELLS you how to make and assemble the parts(with photos) and the course SHOWED me how to make them it won't be difficult to build another one in my shop. There are a few special tools to buy like router bits but that is not a problem.

Interesting that as I was reading the manual I came accross a few processes where Paul changed from how Hall Taylor does it and I thought "that makes sense"

One of the tools that I already had is a Festol Rotex 150 sander. This is also the sander that Paul uses and he told me that without that sander he probably wouldn't build these chairs and I believe him. That sander can be so aggressive in rotary mode that it makes sanding easy. Not less boring however, buy easy. I am now looking for a Rotex 90 which is a 3" sander(the Rotes 150 is 6") which will make getting into the corners easier but I was able to sand the whole chair from 150 grit to 500 grit and then burnishing with a sheepskin pad with the Rotex 150.

[Harry Hagan]

It's a beauty!