Maloof Rocker - Walnut and spalted silver maple

firefighter ontheside · December 17, 2021, 08:11:09 PM

With the newly floored and re-arranged bedroom, there was room in one corner for me to bring home the Maloof rocker that I built about 5 years ago. It's been living in my wife's office since I built it. We didn't really have room for it at the time, but I wanted to build one. If it doesn't work out in the bedroom, I will make room for it in the loft. If you're not familiar with Maloof rockers, they have carved seats and mine was coopered before I carved it. The rockers are laminated with alternating walnut and maple and the bottom layer is white oak. The back slats are laminated walnut and maple. Both of those parts are glued on a form to shape them. The legs are attached with what is known as a Maloof joint, which is sort of a double tongue and groove. My guess was that I had about 200 hours in this chair.

Old Greenhorn · December 17, 2021, 08:19:14 PM

WOW! Holy cow! that is gorgeous! You got you some mad skills Bill!

Stephen1 · December 17, 2021, 08:22:59 PM

Very Nice!

Jeff · December 17, 2021, 08:43:02 PM

Wow wow WOW

firefighter ontheside · December 17, 2021, 08:48:21 PM

Thanks fellas. I have a group of woodworker friends from a woodworking forum. We all decided we would build these chairs together. Some people may have heard of Stumpy Nubs from woodworking youtube videos. He offered to put together some prizes and judge the chairs we made. I won the first prize which was a dust deputy dust collector attachment.

thecfarm · December 17, 2021, 08:50:14 PM

I may have to remove the bed in my bedroom, but I have room for that rocking chair!!!!

Larry · December 17, 2021, 09:48:31 PM

Very nice! Looks right at home in that corner.

trimguy · December 17, 2021, 09:52:53 PM

Beautiful!

Runningalucas · December 17, 2021, 10:07:53 PM

Beautiful Chair!

I've got a book on Maloof's life, home, furniture, and rockers... I was so intrigued, especially in regards to the details he added on his home he built, I watched a documentary on him, and his business.

His three helpers, I think all of which started working for him when younger teens(I think), were left the business; as he didn't have any children.

Very interesting, and skilled man.

firefighter ontheside · December 17, 2021, 10:19:54 PM

I probably watched the same documentary while researching for building this chair. He made some very nice stuff. Mine pales in comparison to the works of art he turned out. Some day I might build another and I think I could do it a lot better than I did on this one.

firefighter ontheside · December 17, 2021, 10:25:12 PM

I really like the Maloof joint. I've never been a chair builder, but that joint made it easy for me to make chairs for my parents. These are out of beetle killed pine that my friend from South Dakota brought to me.

samandothers · December 18, 2021, 12:54:52 AM

Wow! You are the man, on the rocker, and also the chairs Fantastic job!

Rocker looks great on your floor, made for it.

SwampDonkey · December 18, 2021, 06:32:59 AM

Yes, use that beautiful rocking chair.

I don't have Maloof style rockers, but I sure use rockers every day. I have one on the first floor one on the second in the man cave. I'll give away all the foam 'stuff' free of charge. ;D

And the other chairs are 'sit worthy' as well.

And not top heavy looking. Some chairs just are.

69bronco · December 18, 2021, 08:01:41 AM

Chairmaking is truly a test of ones skills. You passed with flying colors! I made a Maloof rocker back in the 80s out of butternut. Lot's of hours for sure!

kantuckid · December 18, 2021, 08:39:36 AM

That is one beautiful chair! It certainly shows well sitting on that particular floor. Once while I was in ATL shadowing my wife who had a business meeting there, I drove over to the Highland Woodworking store. I just missed meeting Sam Maloof there as he was still doing workshops in their stores shop back then. If you've never been there, it's an old school former hardware store in an old style retail area neighborhood with lots of hands-on tools to see and handle. I've got his main book but never attempted his style chair.
Truth be known, chairmaking is very challenging in any style, as simple as they seem the angles make it harder to execute. I build Appalachian style rockers with hickory bark bottoms. They are less complex overall than a Maloof design but still not easy to pull off.
There's a reason that very few, off the shelf chair patterns are out there to copy from.
Woody's Chairshop in Spruce Pine, NC is a style more in keeping with the ones I've done.

Honestly you almost have to be a wood neurotic to build like Maloof? :D It's that challenging.

Your pine chairs resemble some I've seen in Mexico trips and USA Mexican restaurants too. Simple beauty they are.

Nebraska · December 18, 2021, 09:38:18 AM

Dang. If you can do better on your next one, I'd be plumb happy with your rejects...very nice.

firefighter ontheside · December 18, 2021, 05:53:53 PM

I'm very happy with my rocker, I think the biggest thing would be time saving and making the arm wrests a little better. They are a little more blocky than they were meant to be, but I had a limited supply of walnut at the time. Now I could just have made new ones that I liked better.

metalspinner · December 18, 2021, 08:29:00 PM

I've only made one chair... Well, one REAL one anyway. It was a shaker ladder-back rocking chair. And, I vowed to never make another one. :D

It was a test to see if I was interested in making a set of ladder-backs for the dining table. The bent laminations and bent forms were too unpredictable for me to want to work out.

Your chair looks very nice, Firefighter! The 200 hours does not surprise me for a one-off chair of that magnitude. How does it rock??

firefighter ontheside · December 18, 2021, 08:37:00 PM

Thanks. It rocks OK, but I think I left the back legs too long and so it doesn't lean back as far as I think it should. Someday I may take it back to the shop and take the rockers off so I can shorten the back legs.

samandothers · December 18, 2021, 08:48:10 PM

Give this one to the wife and make another! :D

firefighter ontheside · December 18, 2021, 09:24:38 PM

I can't imagine ever having 200 hours to work on a chair again.

metalspinner · December 18, 2021, 09:31:26 PM

There is (was?) a local chair maker in Gatlinburg. "The Chair Shop."
I remember 20+ years ago being in his shop and sitting in one of his rockers. Holy cow! That chair rocked itself. The balance and geometry was perfect and it was like you were completely weightless. A real work of art and craft.

DMcCoy · December 20, 2021, 07:18:27 AM

That is beautiful!
Heard a great saying "cool stuff ain't cheap, and cheap stuff ain't cool"
I would add that building cool stuff takes a lot of time.
I'm surprised your wife would give that back....

firefighter ontheside · December 20, 2021, 09:31:39 AM

She didn't use it at the office. It sat in her exam room and she wouldn't let anyone sit in. She would even yell at anyone who tried to hang their coat on it. She did like having it there, because many people would ask about it and she could then plug my business. Now she wants to have something else there for people to ask about. I'm thinking about just planing some really nice slabs of different wood and standing them up in the corner.