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WJ098 Rocking Chair

The document provides detailed instructions for constructing a Craftsman Style Rocking Chair, including step-by-step guidance, a complete bill of materials, and various drawings and photos. It emphasizes the blend of machine joinery and hand tool operations, highlighting the Arts & Crafts movement's design principles. Additionally, it offers tips for woodworking and troubleshooting download issues for the plans.
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
81 views11 pages

WJ098 Rocking Chair

The document provides detailed instructions for constructing a Craftsman Style Rocking Chair, including step-by-step guidance, a complete bill of materials, and various drawings and photos. It emphasizes the blend of machine joinery and hand tool operations, highlighting the Arts & Crafts movement's design principles. Additionally, it offers tips for woodworking and troubleshooting download issues for the plans.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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“America’s leading woodworking authority”™

Craftsman Style
Rocking Chair
• Step by Step construction
instruction.
• A complete bill of materials.
• Exploded view and elevation
drawings.
• How-to photos with instructive
captions.

• Tips to help you complete the


project and become a better
woodworker.

To download these plans,


you will need Adobe Reader
installed on your computer. If you want to get
a free copy, you can get it at: Adobe Reader.

Having trouble downloading the plans?


• If you're using Microsoft Internet
Explorer, right click on the download link
and select "Save Target As" to download
to your local drive.

• If you're using Netscape, right click on


the download link and select "Save Link
As" to download to your local drive.
WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL
©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published in Woodworker’s Journal “Woodworking Secrets:


WJ098 Essential Methods and Projects for Fine-Tuning Your Shop Skills”
94 HOME PROJECTS
WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Craftsman Style
Rocking Chair
S
tart with a classic design, meld fine machine joinery with a few hand tool
operations, and you have a beautiful introduction to Arts & Crafts chairmaking. This
will be an involved project, but there’s no reason to fear its construction. Most of the joint
cutting can be done by ordinary shop machines with excellent results, and the handwork
amounts to fine paring and fitting.

UNDERSTATED
ARTISTRY

Arts & Crafts style furniture devel- severe than the originals, and the vari-
oped in the late nineteenth century, ous components in the chair aren’t as
beginning in England and migrating to heavy. All these changes make the chair
America where it became better known more pleasant to sit in.
as the Craftsman style. Other names,
such as Mission furniture, were also Cutting and Mortising the Legs
commonly used to market this style of Chairs are subject to incredible
furniture. Craftsman designs were char- stress from all the movement a person
acterized by simple, economical lines, goes through while sitting. People lean,
dramatically diverging from the Victorian tip back, swivel and manage other
frilliness of the previous era. By 1900 In reaction to the cruel industrial contortions that make designing chairs
the Arts & Crafts Movement was a practices of the 1800’s, Craftsman difficult and risky. All of this makes
dominant force in American furniture artisans strived to maintain the finest chair design and construction a
elements of creative handwork while
and lighting design, pottery, architecture specialized branch of woodworking.
selectively using modern machinery
and the decorative arts. The main structural components
to best advantage. Blending the two
Gustav Stickley became the stan- of this rocking chair are the back legs.
methods relieved workers of repeti-
dard bearer of the Arts & Crafts tious, unskilled work so they had These are the heaviest pieces in the
Movement in the United States, develop- time for more individualized, expres- design and support the rest of the chair.
ing a line of furniture that exemplified the sive woodworking tasks. All the legs receive a number of mortis-
ideals of simplicity and quality craftsman- es which, in this design, are square to
ship, while remaining within economic the leg profiles. The legs also have
reach of the middle class. Other notable tenons on their ends for joining them
American figures in this movement were The rocking chair detailed in this with the arms and rockers.
architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis article is a hybrid of several arts and Following the scale drawings on
Sullivan and Charles and Henry Greene crafts designs that were popular at the page 98, cut the back legs (pieces 1)
and lighting artist Louis C. Tiffany. turn of the century. The lines are less out of wide 11⁄4"-thick stock and then

CRAFTSMAN STYLE ROCKING CHAIR 95


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
clamp them together to belt-sand their cut squarely into the legs with a router,
front edges to a smoothly matching a 1/2" straight bit and an edge guide,
profile. To sand the back edges of the and then the rounded ends of the mor-
legs, install a 3"-diameter drum sander tises are squared with a 1/2" chisel.
in your drill press and clamp a pivot With one exception, the mortises for the
block 113⁄16" away from the drum (see rails and stretchers are centered on the
Figure 1). Slowly feed the legs into the legs, but be sure to note that the legs
gap between the sander and the pivot are 11⁄4" by 13⁄4", requiring two settings of
block to reduce the stock to its finished your edge guide to keep the bit cen-
size and to make the two edges of tered. The exceptions are the two mor-
each leg parallel. Make sure you feed tises for the back seat support rail. For
the wood against the rotation direction these, the center of the router bit is
of the drum to maintain control. positioned 1/2" in from the back edge
Once the back legs are sanded, lay Figure 1: Create uniformly sized and of the two back legs.
out the six mortises in each back leg smoothed curves by pushing the stock After all the mortises are routed,
between a V-block and a sanding drum
and the four mortises in the front legs mounted in a drill press. begin cutting the through tenons on the
(pieces 11) as shown in the Back and top of the front legs. The arms slope
Front Leg Elevations on page 98. The from the front legs to the back legs at a
mortises include joints for the crest rail Don’t lay out the mortises for the arms 5° angle, so you must cut the tenon
(piece 2), the lower rail (piece 3), the until later, when the front tenons are shoulders to establish this angle. Lay
seat support rails (pieces 4, 5 and 6) made and the exact slope of the arms out the tenons’ side shoulders at a 5°
and the stretchers (pieces 8, 9 and 10). is apparent. The 1/2"-deep mortises are angle, and then connect these lines

QuickTip Drafting lamp

Holder for a Drafting Lamp


Here’s a great way to add some task Lamp mounting block

lighting to virtually any workbench


equipped with bench dog holes. Just
take a piece of 2 x 4 and drill two
holes several inches apart. One
should fit the lamp base, while the
other should be the same diameter
as a bench dog. Glue a dowel into
the second hole and you can mount
an articulated desk lamp anywhere
on the benchtop. The hinged arm on
Round bench
the lamp allows you to adjust the dog holes
light right where you need it most.

96 HOME PROJECTS
WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
across the front and back leg faces.
Pivot your table saw's miter gauge
to 85° for cutting on the left side of the
blade, and raise the blade 1/8" above
the table surface. Cut one sloped
shoulder on each leg, and follow this
Figure 2: Use the drawing below to lay out all the angled
with multiple passes over the blade to
tenons in the project. Hollow out the rail mortises with a 3/8"
remove the waste for the tenon. Now drill bit, then clean up the mortises with sharp chisels.
swing the miter gauge to its opposite
85° setting and repeat the tenon cutting
process on the other side of the stock. 1/2"
90°
To cut the remaining two shoulders on
each leg, straighten the miter gauge to
90° and tilt the blade to 85°. Cut one 1/2"
3/4"
set of shoulders with the miter gauge Front edge
on the left side of the blade and the
other set on the right side of the blade.
Enlarge this template and lay it on the edge of your stock for
In both cases repeatedly pass the stock 5° 1/8" outlining all the angled tenons. On the crest and lower rails,
over the blade to complete the tenon in align the template with the front of the stock and cut the
tenons prior to band-sawing the curve.
side-by-side passes. Clean off the saw
marks on the tenons with a wide chisel.
The front leg tenons pass through
the arms and are topped with a pyra- rail (piece 3). Rip the rails to their fin- the back legs or the front legs join the
mid design. This design, intended to ished width from 11⁄2"-thick stock. Lay legs at a 5° angle. Since all the mortises
highlight the skill of Stickley craftsmen, out the curves and the mortises for the are routed squarely into the legs, the 5°
became a trademark during the Arts & slats (pieces 12) on the bottom edge of angle must be accommodated by the
Crafts era. The pyramid can be cut with the crest rail and on the top edge of the tenons, and the first step in this process
a sharp handsaw and a wide chisel. Lay lower rail as shown in the Crest Rail
out a line on all four sides of both front Drawing on page 98, and lay out the
legs 1/4" down from the top and center angled tenons at each end of these
a line on the top of the legs from the pieces using the template shown
front edge to the back. Use your hand- above. Be sure to align the front edge
saw to rough in the angled cuts from of the template with the front edge of
the line on top of the legs to the line on the stock.
the long sides. Now begin paring thin Chuck a 3/8" Forstner bit in your
shavings off the four sides of the pyra- drill press and adjust the drill to bore
mid to get the desired shape. 1/2" into the bottom edge of the crest
Forego cutting the bottom tenons rail. Now drill four holes into each
on both the front and back legs for mortise area to remove the bulk of
now. Later, you can scribe the tenon the waste, then readjust the drill press
shoulders to the specific curve of the bed to perform this same operation on
rockers. This technique will be the narrower lower rail. Once the drilling
described in detail later. is complete, square the ends of each
mortise with a sharp 3/8" chisel and
Making the Crest and Lower Rails pare the mortise walls clean. Figure 3: Align the arm mortise with the
The next major chair components Due to the widening of the chair front leg tenon and rest the arm on the
shoulder. Lay out the rear joint where the
are the crest rail (piece 2) and the lower from back to front, the pieces connecting arm intersects the back leg.

CRAFTSMAN STYLE ROCKING CHAIR 97


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Back Leg
1"

Arm
is cutting the tenon shoulders.
Cutting the angled shoulders on the
crest rail and lower rail is easily done on
the table saw. Attach a 16"-long scrap-
18" wood auxiliary fence to your miter gauge
and set your blade to a 5° angle. Put
your miter gauge in the slot to the left of
Slat
the blade and cut off the end of the
wood fence at a 5° angle, then repeat
this process on the right side of the
21"
20" blade to cut the other end of the fence.
Top View
The ends of the fence now serve as
guides for cutting the tenon shoulders.
With the back side of the crest rail
facing down, line up the right tenon
shoulder line with the cut-off end of the
Front Leg fence (with the fence on the left side of
the blade). Adjust the height of the
blade so the teeth just reach the cheek
line on the rail stock and pass the rail
over the blade. Flip the stock around
and cut the matching shoulder on the
other end. Now make these two cuts
on the lower rail.
191⁄4" Cut the shoulders on the front face
161⁄2"
of the rails by lowering the blade so the
teeth just reach the cheek, and then
Back support follow the procedure you just used for
rail mortise set in the first set of shoulders.
1/4" from edge
The next step in forming the tenons
101⁄8" 91⁄2"
is cutting the cheeks on the band saw.
Set the rail stock on edge and feed the
wood slowly into the blade, staying just
55⁄8" 5" 37⁄8" outside the layout lines. Be careful to
45⁄8"
stop cutting when you reach the shoul-
der kerf. Cut both cheeks on each
tenon, and then nip off the pointed bit
3/4" of waste material that remains at the
3/4"
end of the tenon.
2" Now cut the shoulders on the top
Rocker and bottom edges of all the tenons
using a handsaw and chisel. Remember
that these cuts follow the 5° angle of
the shoulders. With a handsaw, cut into
Each square
equals 1" the stock 1/8" and then remove the
waste with a chisel. Once the edge
shoulders are formed on each tenon,

98 HOME PROJECTS
WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Rocker Side View Rocker Front View

smooth the tenon cheeks with a sharp 1" chisel. Check the fit
of the tenons in their mortises occasionally as you work.
Cut the rail curves on the band saw using a medium- 433⁄4"
toothed 1/2"-wide blade. Cut just outside the layout lines,
then belt-sand the backs of the pieces smooth. Chuck a
drum sander in the drill press and clamp a V-block to the 171⁄2"
bed to uniformly smooth the inside curves of the rails.
The top edge of the crest rail can now be cut on the
band saw to its curved profile. Lay out the curve (shown at 301⁄2" 213⁄4"
right) and cut just outside the layout line. Carefully remove
the ridges with a belt sander.

Creating Seat Supports and Stretchers Crest Rail


Rip all the seat support rails (pieces 4, 5 and 6) and the 11⁄2" 11⁄2" 11⁄2" Top View
lower stretchers (pieces 8, 9 and 10) to width on the table
saw, and then cut them to length.
On the rails and stretchers crossing between the back or
front pairs of legs (pieces 4, 5, 8 and 9), lay out the angled
tenons using the template on page 97. Cut the shoulders on
these pieces just as you did earlier on the crest rail and lower
rail. Cut the cheeks on the band saw, and use a handsaw 161⁄2"
and chisel to cut the edge shoulders. Fit the tenons in their Front View
mortises after smoothing the cheeks with a sharp chisel.
The rails and stretchers spanning the sides of the chair
(pieces 6 and 10) enter the legs at a 90° angle and therefore do
not need specially angled tenons. Clamp a 3/4"-thick spacer
Seat Assembly
block to your table saw fence, keeping the block forward of the
blade. Reset the blade to 90° and clamp the fence 11⁄4" away.
This will allow you to cut 1/2"-long tenons. Rest the stock in
your miter gauge, butting one end of the piece against the
spacer block. Now cut the square shoulders, making additional
passes over the blade to form the tenon cheeks. Repeat this
85°
procedure for all four pieces, and cut the edge shoulders in the
same way. Carefully smooth the cheeks with a chisel, refining
the tenons until they fit snugly into their mortises.
11"
12"
Making the Slats
Cut the five slats for the back rest (pieces 12) from 4/4
material. Rip five strips 11⁄2" wide and lay out the slat profile on
the edge of each strip. Cut the 7/16"-thick slats on the band
saw with the same medium-toothed, 1/2"-wide blade you
used earlier, staying outside of the lines so you can sand
down to the finished dimension. Top View

Belt-sand the front of the slats so they’re even and


Each square
smooth. Now use the drum sanding setup on your drill press equals 1"
to sand the back sides of the slats to a uniform thickness of
3/8". Again, make sure to sand against the drum’s rotation.

CRAFTSMAN STYLE ROCKING CHAIR 99


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
2

12

3
19
18

1 11

14
13

15

4
9

6
10 8

16

16

100 HOME PROJECTS 17


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
MATERIAL LIST
TxWxL mortises for the side seat support rails
1
1 Back Legs (2) 1 ⁄4"" x 5" x 46" and the stretchers. Insert these pieces
2 Crest Rail (1) 11⁄2" x 4" x 171⁄2" into the back leg mortises, then glue
3 Lower Rail (1) 11⁄2" x 3" x 171⁄2" the front assembly onto their other
4 Front Support Rail (1) 3/4" x 21⁄2" x 203⁄16" ends. Set the chair aside to allow the
5 Back Support Rail (1) 3/4" x 21⁄2" x 171⁄2" glue plenty of time to dry.
6 Side Support Rails (2) 3/4" x 2 1⁄2" x 161⁄4"
7 Arms (2) 1" x 3" x 181⁄2" Building the Seat
8 Front Stretcher (1) 3
3/4" x 1" x 20 ⁄16" The four pieces of the seat (pieces
13, 14 and 15) are 4" wide, so rip
9 Back Stretcher (1) 3/4" x 1" x 171⁄2"
enough 3/4"-thick material to this width,
10 Side Stretchers (2) 3/4" x 1" x 161⁄4"
leaving the pieces overly long for the
11 Front Legs (2) 11⁄4" x 13⁄4" x 213⁄8"
moment. The two side pieces are joined
12 Slats (5) 3/4" x 11⁄2" x 21"
to the front and back pieces by mortise
13 Front Seat Rail (1) 3/4" x 4" x 2111⁄16" and tenon joints, however, since the
14 Back Seat Rail (1) 3/4" x 4" x 199⁄16" seat is tapered from front to back, the
15 Side Seat Rails (2) 3/4" x 4" x 12" joints form an 85° angle.
16 Rockers (2) 11⁄4" x 5" x 301⁄2" Cut each piece to length, remem-
17 Dowel Pins (4) 1/4" x 2" bering that all the crosscuts must be
18 Leather Seat (1) 16" Rectangular made at an 85° angle. Once cut to
19 Upholstery Tacks (1) Pack of 100; Antique Finish length, stop-mortise the front and back
pieces for the joints using the dimen-
sions shown on page 99. This can
easily be done on the router table with
a stop block on the fence. Mount a 3/8"
Assembling the Chair crest rail and the lower rail and insert the straight bit in the router, raise the bit
By this time you’ve made most of slats into position. Now apply glue in all 1/2" above the table and adjust the
the parts of the chair. Those parts that the mortises of the back legs and on the fence so the bit cuts exactly down the
are left—the arms, rockers and the tenons of the rails and stretcher. Slip the center of the 3/4"-thick seat pieces.
seat—are made after the main structure right leg onto the crest rail and lower rail Clamp a stop block 43⁄8" beyond the bit
is assembled. tenons, then add the seat support rail and then rout the four mortises.
Gather together all the pieces and the stretcher. Pull the left leg onto the Next, form the tenons on the seat
you’ve made so far and organize them assembly and check for squareness by side rails. Remove the router from the
into three groups. The first group should taking each diagonal measurement from router table and add the edge guide to
include all the parts that make up the the crest rail to the lower rail. When the its base. Install a 1/2" straight bit and
back of the chair, including the back spans are equal, the unit is square. set it to cut 3/16" deep. Adjust the
legs, the crest rail and the lower rail, the Clamp the assembly and let the glue dry. edge guide to limit the cut to 1/2" in
slats, the back seat support rail and the Assembling the front section is width. Following the angled end of each
back stretcher. The second group should much easier since there are a lot fewer side piece, rout one side of the tenon
include the parts for the front of the parts. Spread glue in the leg mortises and then flip the piece over to make the
chair, which are the front legs, the front and on the tenons of the front seat second cut. When the joints fit properly,
seat support rail and the front stretcher. support rail and the stretcher. Draw glue the seat together and use the
The final group includes the side seat the legs onto the stretchers, check for inside diagonals to check for square-
support rails and the side stretchers. squareness and clamp the assembly ness. Sand the seat flush when you
Dry-assemble all the parts in the for a couple hours. remove the clamps, and notch each
back and, once everything fits properly, After the glue on the front and corner of the seat to fit around the legs
spread glue in all the mortises of the back assemblies dries, put glue in the as shown in the Seat Assembly

CRAFTSMAN STYLE ROCKING CHAIR 101


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Drawing on page 99. Run a bead of lay out the angled tenon, using the angled
glue along the seat support rails and tenon template shown on page 97.
clamp the seat into position. By gluing Repeat this process on the left arm.
the seat to the rails, the overall strength Drill out the bulk of the waste in the
of the chair will increase tremendously. 1/2"-deep mortises with a 1/2" bit, then
square the walls with a sharp chisel. Cut
Forming Arms and Rockers the angled tenons on the arms using the
The arms (pieces 7) are cut from table saw and long miter gauge fence,
1"-thick material, which must be planed just as you earlier cut the other angled
from thicker stock. Rip two pieces of tenons. Once the tenons are formed, lay-
11⁄4"-thick oak to 3" in width and cut them out the shape of the arm on the stock
20" long. Try to find highly figured stock and cut this profile on the band saw. Belt-
for these pieces, as they’ll show off the sand the edges smooth. Next, cut the
chair more than any other single compo- tenon side shoulders and edges with a
nent. Mill the stock down to 1" thick. handsaw and chisel, paring down the
Figure 4: Position the rocker on the legs,
Lay out the through mortise loca- then trace the curve to lay out the tenon shoulders and the cheeks for a perfect fit.
tion on the front end of both arms. The shoulders accurately. Put glue on all the mortises and tenons
mortises must be cut at a 5° angle to and slip the arms into place on the chair.
allow the arms to slope properly. To do Use clamps to draw the arms tightly
this, tilt your drill press table 5° and the arm mortise with the tenon. The arm against the back legs.
install a 3/8" bit in the chuck. Now bore is now positioned as it will be when Now that the basic chair is made you
through the mortise area to remove the installed, sloping 5° to the back leg. Put a can move on to make the rockers. Cut
waste, being sure to drill around the mark on the arm where it intersects the two rockers (pieces 16) out of 11⁄4"-thick
perimeter of the mortise first so you get back leg. In addition, draw lines on the leg material following the Rocker Scale
the slope properly laid out. Once the indicating the top and bottom of the arm. Drawing on page 98. Clamp the two
bulk of the material is removed, clean Now lay out a 1/2"-high by 3/4"-wide rockers together to sand their bottom
up the mortise with a sharp chisel, mortise on the back leg, centering it edges smooth, ensuring the two pieces
being careful to preserve the 5° angle. between the arm intersection marks and match exactly. Now pass the rockers over
Rest the right arm on the outside across the width of the back legs. At the the drum sander to smooth their inside
shoulder of the front leg tenon and align mark you just made on the arm’s edge, curves. Mark the position where the rock-

QuickTip

Moisture Meter Prevents Surprises when Buying Air-dried Lumber


Your local sawmill may be a great source for inexpensive lumber, but moisture can be a problem if the
mill doesn’t kiln-dry its stock. Most small mills pile up logs and store them out in the weather. When
they rip them into boards, they usually store these green boards outside in unprotected stickered
stacks. Even if the lumber gets stored out of the elements, be sure to bring a moisture meter with you,
and crosscut a board a few inches in from an end to test it. Don’t test the exposed ends, which dry
faster than areas deeper in the board. Ideally, lumber used for furniture projects should have no more
than 12% moisture content.

102 HOME PROJECTS


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
mortises that easily fit the tenons. Clean
up the walls with a chisel.
Drill a 1/4" hole through the center of
the four mortises on the rockers (see
exploded view detail on page 100) and
then mount the rockers onto the leg
tenons. Use an awl to mark the center of
these holes onto the tenons, then remove
the rockers. Now drill a 1/4" hole through
each tenon 1/32" above your awl mark.
Put glue on the tenons and in the
mortises and drive the rockers onto the
legs. Now chamfer the ends on four
lengths of 1/4" dowel rod and drive
Figure 5: Re-create this symbol of superior Figure 6: Trim the leather to lap onto the
craftsmanship from the Arts & Crafts era these into the pin holes at each joint— side rails by 1" and 2" on the front and back
using a 1" chisel, a tenon saw and your the offset holes will draw the joints rails. To prevent splitting, drill pilot holes for
hand tool skills. the nails 1" apart.
tightly together so clamps won’t be
necessary. Cut off the dowels flush.
ers intersect the legs as shown in the ele- Cut off the top of the back legs 1" Adding a Leather Seat
vation drawings. above the crest rail, then saw and chisel The leather seat is held to the chair
Set the chair on its left side and lay the ends into pyramid shapes as shown in by upholstery nails, which have large,
the right rocker onto the legs, as shown Figure 5. Sand the entire chair to 180 grit. dome-shaped heads. First trim the
in Figure 4 on the previous page. Align leather with a sharp razor blade to
the marks you just made on the rocker Applying Finish overlap the seat opening by 1" on the
with the points of intersection on the Arts & Crafts furniture was tradi- left and right sides and by 2" on the
legs (see the drawings). Holding the tionally finished with a fumed ammonia front and back. After lightly coloring the
rocker in place, trace the curve of the process. Ammonia causes woods high freshly cut edges with a brown stain,
rocker onto the legs and outline the in tannic acid, like oak, to darken begin securing the leather by driving
position of the legs on the rocker. Flip considerably, and the longer the wood one nail in the center of each side
the chair over and repeat this process is exposed to the fumes the darker it (see Figure 6, above). Work toward the
for the other rocker. becomes. Controlling this process corners from these points, installing
Lay out the leg tenons below the requires a fair amount of experience more nails and leaving about 1/2"
shoulder lines following the elevation and a plastic tent or other enclosure to between the heads. Hide any discrep-
drawing on page 98. Using a dovetail contain the fumes (see page 8 for more ancies by varying the spacing.
saw, make straight cuts close to the on ammonia fuming). If you’d rather not All that’s left to do now is find a
shoulder lines, then pare the shoulders fume your chair, modern stains and quiet corner of your home to place this
with a chisel to match the curved lines. dyes can closely duplicate the colors classic rocker. By making this chair you
Cut the side shoulders and edges with that result from ammonia fuming. Watco have fulfilled one of the original precepts
the dovetail saw. Danish Oil Finish in medium dark walnut of the Arts & Crafts Movement; that is,
On the rockers, lay out the mortis- matches the tone of the traditional combining the best of hand and power
es between the lines you traced off the craftsman colors closely. You can easily tool techniques in order to create quali-
leg positions. When you drill out the darken or lighten the color by using ty furniture that is pleasant to build,
waste with a 1/2" bit, drill 3/4" deep at other shades of this product. Apply one unpretentious and sturdy enough to last
the shallow end of each mortise and coat of Watco Oil and let it dry for a for generations.
drill slightly deeper as you follow the ris- couple of days, then follow with two
ing curve of the rocker. If you do this coats of tung oil finish or satin varnish
you’ll end up with nice, flat-bottomed to complete the finishing process.

CRAFTSMAN STYLE ROCKING CHAIR 103


WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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