Adelle's Rocker

A sculpted rocker made especially for my daughter (and second of six children). She’s become a fine young woman and I’m quite proud of her. She’s a recent Honors Graduate from The University of Kansas, she’s getting married in a month and then this fall she’s starting medical school—overall a great kid and a great person.
There are inspirations from Marc Spagnuolo, Charles Brock, Scott Morrison, Hal Taylor and Mario Rodrigues in this rocker. The frame is from Scott Morrison. The back splats are bent lamination and are a bit over 1/2” thick. These are fashioned to look similar to what is found on Hal Taylor’s or Charles Brock’s chairs. To make the sculpted ends, I turned the splats on side and ran the ends over a dado blade to a stop block and then used a doweling tool to make the spindles. This a pretty cool little tool but a guy can wear out a wrist joint with the twisting it takes to make 12 spindles. The headrest is coppered as per Hal Taylor’s instructions. For the arms, I enlarged the pattern that came with the plans and sculpted the top and bottom surfaces using a horizontal crown molding bit. For the seat, I used Charles Brock’s “Big Smile Seat” construction—again using coopering. I sculpted the seat using a method demonstrated by Mario Rodriguez in August 2013 Popular Woodworking. I modified the technique a bit to allow for the scoop created by the Big Smile construction. The rockers are bent lamination.
The build is from Walnut. Everything sanded to 320. Color is provided by 4 coats of Watco Danish Oil Dark Walnut. The final bit of polish was affected with a hard hand buffing with 0000 steel wool.
My first build of this was in Mahogany and can be seen here:
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/224602
Thanks for looking.

Scott Morrison Fine Woodworking Montana Rocker
http://finewoodworker.com/montanarockingchair.html
Hal Taylor Rockers
http://www.haltaylor.com
Charles Brock Chairmaker
http://charlesbrockchairmaker.com
Lee Valley Dowel and Tenon Cutter
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=52401&cat=1,180,42288,52401
MLCS Horizontal Crown Molding Bit
http://finewoodworker.com/montanarockingchair.html
Chair Scooping by Mario Rodriguez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SveP71RLs4

-- Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!!