A Moving Sculpture: A Sam Maloof Inspired Rocker, A Rocking Chair by Mark DeCou

Mark,

congrats to this wonderful rocking chair. I'm sure Mr. Maloof would be proud of you I especially like the color of wood and those swings in color as you called them.

BTW. this weekend I've found very nice Maloof photoset on flickr from the Mingei International Museum which houses the collection of Sam's work. Worth taking a look.

Wow.
What beautiful work, and wood grain is fabulous.
I looked at your studio site as well. You are a master no question about it.
Doug.

Well, I'm both inspired and saddened - you've certainly raised the bar for the rest of us.

you mentioned that Mr Maloof challenges your skills. I muat say, you are making tremendous progress in meeting that challenge! Excellent work. I am truly humbled.

I just spent an hour in the workshop making my first mortise & tenon joint. it took me an hour and somehow the tenon came out just shy of an 1/8" longer than the mortise is deep…

Here's to the never ending challenge!

Thanks Martin, Doug, Scottb and Darryl:
Your comments are encouraging to me. I worried about whether posting this chair would be overwhelming to people that spend less time doing woodworking than I do.

I had considered not entering the "Summer Contest" as I didn't want to rub anyone the wrong way. Making someone "saddened" or "humbled" was not my goal, but rather pushing them, encouraging them, leaving them with the idea of, "he could do it, so can I!"

I was hoping it would be encouraging, and motivating to others, giving them the idea of stepping out of their paradigms, trying something "scary" difficult.

I didn't think I could build a chair like this when I started, but I decided it was worth the challenge. I am glad it is finished, really glad, and I learned a lot in the process about myself, my tools, and my capabilities.

There were many times I thought about quitting, setting it aside, or hiding the unfinished chair up in the shop attic. As I mentioned in the description, this was a 6 year process.

Thanks for taking the time to comment,
Mark

I'm glad you decided to share this one, and I'm especially glad you didn't opt to bow out of the contest. I'd rather come in at the bottom against the varsity team (bringing their A game), than dominate JV.

This, as well as the natural edged table, are different from the oak pieces you've posted. I like seeing how well you handle different woods and styles, i find that variety refreshing. This chair in particular shows your skill in so many different aspects of woodworking.

Pardon the self-depricating humor, sometimes words dont suffice…. I was just trying to say Niiiiiiiice. It's hard to imagine being at that level yet, but, all in due time. I know you've been at this considerably longer than I, and don't expect my freshman attempts to match up with the "veterans" here. We're all just apples and oranges in here, and that's ok.

Sooner or later I'll be able to show the next wave a thing or two. I've done quite well in my graphic design career - talent wise - so I'm eager to see how I can apply myself in a new medium. Until then I'm proud to stand up and be judged against our peers here. We can encourage without pulling punches, and we'll all end up better for it.

Thanks for the encouragement and insights!

Mark,
Like Scott, I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I know you've been at this longer than I have and also work fulltime doing this. Your work is amazing and someday I to hope to get there, and realize that it does take some time.

As for the summer contest, your work speaks for itself. Be proud if you win, because Martin set this thing up for us to vote on each others work. It's not a bunch of outsiders coming in and saying who's best. It's us saying "Dang that's some beautiful work you've got there!"

I would also like to point out that it was after viewing your two latest entries that I went to the shop to continue working on my dresser, so you are encouraging to at least me.

I look forward to seeing the next project you post.

Marvelous work, Mark!
You've certainly captured Sam's chair and it looks fantastic. Is it comfortable to sit in?
Don't feel bad about making great pieces-we all need inspiration and you certainly are providing it.
Best regards
Phil

Mark,
A great piece of work.
I think you're right up there with Sam Maloof.
Regards, Dick Cain

Philip: Does the chair sit comfortably? Yes, anyone that has tried it out really likes it. Your question reminded me that all though the Maloof chair is a beautiful form to look at, there are many engineering advantages of this design that can be missed when just looking at photos of it. So, I thought I would list some of engineering design points in case someone would like to build their own example of this chair:

1. The rocker runners of the chair have been so perfectly aligned that the chair will sit and rock with out walking, or creeping on the floor. Try that with a furniture store factory-made rocker! This is a combination of the Maloof curve on the bottom of the rockers, and the hard work to keep the rockers perfect while cutting the legs to sit on them, and doing the joinery carefully to keep it all aligned perfectly. Also, to keep the two runners as close to perfectly the same as possible, the laminated glue up is done on 4" wide boards. After the glue has set, the runner blank is cut in two on the bandsaw, so that they match. Very careful handling of the bottom of the runners happens after this point, so that no sanding will change the smooth curve and match to the other runner. For instance, when sanding the bottom, the runners are clamped side by side, and a hand sanding block is used, orbital sanding could damage the matching quickly.

2. The balance of the chair is such that when at rest, without anyone sitting in it, the chair balances on the rockers at a point on the runner curve that is 1.25" in front of the back legs. When an average sized adult sits in the chair, it also sits in the same position. This is done by sitting in the chair, and cutting a little more off of the front, or back legs to tilt and set the chair on the rockers. This process alone was an entire day of work. The advantage is subtle but important. When rocking, the center of gravity of the chair/person is on the point 1.25" in front of the back legs, making the ease of rocking just almost a twitch of the ankles. No pushing of the chair is needed, and so it seems that a person doesn't get tired of rocking, as in other rocking chairs where the person has to push up their weight each time.

3. Because of this balancing act, if the chair is sitting on a wood floor, and you give it a push, it will sit and rock on it's own for about 5 minutes before it finally completely stops, and it will still be sitting in exactly the same spot on the floor. This week when I delivered the chair to it's new owners, we were talking and standing there looking at the chair, and the wife said, "look how long it rocks". After that, I started to tell them about all of the engineering points of the chair (listed here), and they gained a much greater respect for the design, than just it's purely cosmetic and sculptural appeal to the human eye.

4. The seat bottom is as pretty as it is ergonomic. The rear end of a person has two points where the bone in each bottom cheek pushes down. A bony bottom has less padding than a bigger bottom, but the bone still pushes down and can cause an uncomfortable sitting position on a hard chair seat. To relieve this pressure, in the wood seat bottom, there is a relief carved out that gives this bone more room, relieving the pressure some. This seemed like it was insignificant at first, but it does make a difference, especially if a person wants to sit and rock for a long time.

5. The raised center portion of a Maloof style seat is beautiful, but it serves an engineering purpose as well. Combined with the balancing of the chair and the human body, this raised center area works against any pressure that gravity causes to stop the person from sliding out of the perfect sitting position. This means that you never have to work at staying seated in one spot.

6. The concave section of the seat that is under the leg is also shaped to give relief of any pressure points of the leg bones. For this reason, it is not just flat, but is shaped to match the curve of the ham string muscle.

7. The inward curve of the front edge of the seat is also beautiful, but it relieves the pressure point under the leg, just behind the knee. I never realized that straight front chairs were uncomfortable, until I sat in this rocker, and realized that the inward curve relieves pressure. If you take your hand and push up on the bottom or your leg behind your knee while sitting, you will quickly feel something hard just under the skin. I don't know what it is, maybe a tendon, but if you push it, it will be uncomfortable. Taking the inward curve of the seat, cuts the chair edge back farther, and gives pressure relief to this point on the leg.

8. The back slats on a Maloof-Style chair are really sculptural works of modern art. But, in addition the beauty, they provide a very important ergonomic benefit by providing a strong lumbar support to the back. A customer I am working for now had me build some dining chairs for them. They sat in my unfinished Maloof-Inspired rocking chair in the shop nearly every time they came to visit my work progress. When we got ready to do the chairs, they decided they wanted some of the ergonomic considerations on their dining chairs, and that they wanted thick solid-wood seats. The rocking chair had that much of an impact. I finished up the dining chairs this week, but haven't taken photos of them yet.

9. Important to comfort is the arms of the chair. The shaping has been done so that forearm bone sits up on the flat part of the arm, and the muscle on the inside of the arm that drops down, lays on the lower section of the arm. Relieving the wood below the dropping part of the arm muscle helps with comfort, as well as giving a sculptural component.

After I finished this rocking chair, I have noticed that everything else I sit in, or on, is uncomfortable. Mr. Maloof is as much of an ergonomic engineer as he is a chair buider and and sculptor.

Thanks for asking Phil,
Mark

Thanks Mr. Cain. I am a fan of guitar makers, so I have enjoyed seeing your work as well. I have in my future a run at an arched top electric blues style guitar that I have been itching to start on. A guy told me that he would buy the first guitar I made, if I would sell it to him. We have both waited about 5 years now, so since this rocking chair is finally behind me, my hobby time can head that direction now.

Thanks for your comments,
Mark

Hey Darryl: motivating you to work on your project is a great compliment to me, thanks for sharing that with me,

Mark

this is one beautifull chair. looks like you spent hours sanding, the finish looks silky smooth. if you spent as much time on the joinery as you did on the finish, i am sure no refinisher will need to rework the joints. it really looks like you know what you are doing. it ia also nice to hear you give credit to Sam Maloof for the insperation

mark, i love the chair. very very nice.

Mark
I am impressed with the photos, your workmanship is excellent. I have never seen a Maloof chair in person, and was not aware of the engineering issues involved. I am now even more impressed.

Mark,
This chair is amazing, the wood grains and textures just make this project look outstanding. Very impressive.

What an inspiration! I do have a goal to make a chair myself. It just seems like one the hardest things in woodworking to build. You are an absolute craftsman. Your attention to detail and the discussion of how it rocks in the same spot is fascinating to me and something I had not considered. I am actually considering just glueing up a bunch of beautiful wood and just start carving away everything that is not a chair. Sit in it, carve a little more, sit, repeat. Have you ever done it this way?

Again, awesome work!

That's a great idea Ellen - if that advice works for statues, why not chairs! Didn't Sam Maloof do something like that to shape the slats on the back of his rocker to give him the perfect fit?

Wow, never thought of putting a sculpture in the back of a chair! Congratulations Mark on getting 2nd place!

I've been asked about how I did the chair seat to leg joints. It is too complicated to explain in text, so here are some scanned pages out of my project design book where I documented the methods, fixtures, dimensions, and cutting methods. You know that when it takes 4 pages of sketches to capture one joint setup, it is going to be long project book. I am glad now that I spent the time to document the steps.

There are other ways to attack this joint, this is just how it was done on my chair. According to Mr. Maloof's autobiography, I believe he states that his joints are reinforced with long screws, and then plugged with round dowels, using a contrasting wood color. I did not do that.
thanks,
Mark
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