Dylan's Woodworking Blog: Building the Rocker in Solid Wood at Last

After testing out the full-scale prototype and making some slight adjustments to the proportions, it was finally time to build the real thing. While historically, these chairs were typically made of Teak or Rosewood (due to their abundance and low costs between the 1950s and 70s), today those wood species are rather expensive, so I decided to opt for Cherry instead.

My girlfriend Sarah very generously offered to sew some cushion covers to go along with upholstery foam I ordered. She found a vintage French fabric that I thought fit quite well with the time-period these chairs were originally made in.

Contemporary Version of a Duncan Phyfe
Side Chair - by Carolyn & John Grew-Sheridan

Chair Construction & Historical Similarities

The basic construction of my chair consists of two side frames that are joined by a seat frame and back rails. This kind of construction goes back to the ancient Greek Klismos chairs, and was seen often in Duncan Phyfe's work in the early 19th century. Those chairs were typically made with tenon joinery between the side frames and the seat and rail components.

The original production of the rocking chair (of which I am reproducing) was made with metal fixtures so that the chairs could be shipped disassembled between Denmark and America. I'm only transporting the chair from the shop to my apartment, so I decided to use domino joinery to make the chair sturdier, much like their 19th century counterparts.

Making the Side Frames

To get the final shape of the side frames, I started by making a bulkier version that has extra material on all sides. The process is similar to wood carving, where you start with a larger piece, then carve away wood to the desired shape.

The bulkier side is composed of individual, solid wood pieces that were made referencing plywood templates that I cut out using a CNC.

Assembling the Bulkier Frame (Domino Joinery)

Once I had assembled all the bulkier pieces, I CNC'd a full-scale side frame, to use as a reference for the final shape.

Plywood Template

I then put the plywood template on top of the bulky side frame and traced the outline. Next, I cut away most of the bulky material using the jigsaw & bandsaw, just to do a rough removal before a more precise trim with the router.

Removing Excess Material in Preparation for Template Routing

I then used double-sides tape to attach the side template to the solid wood. I used the router, referencing the plywood template, to trim away the leftover material before reaching the final shape of the sides. The template routing took quite a while to complete, but I was pleased with the results, especially after using the trim router to round over the edges.

(Left) - Template Routing the Shape, Referencing the Plywood Underneath
(Middle) - Rounding Over the Edges
(Right) - Final Results

A Tapered Seat with Webbing Grooves

Tapered Seat with Upholstery Webbing

Another feature I decided to incorporate, which is commonly seen in nicer chair designs, is to taper the seat so that it's slightly more narrow at the back than the front. The taper makes the chair appear less boxy and gives it a lighter, more elegant look.

This was also the first time that I had ever worked with upholstery webbing, and because of the taper, I had to make individual grooves along the side.

The upholstery webbing I bought uses a 90 degree 1/8" thick metal clip system on each end. Unfortunately, my school doesn't carry 1/8" router bits, so I had to use a biscuit joiner (whose cutting blade is slightly larger than 1/8" thick) to make the grooves (which was a bit strange but worked nonetheless).

Making the Back Rails & Domino Mortises

Because of the tapered seat the back rails were a bit tricky to make, as the joinery was a compound angle. After fiddling with the blade tilt and the miter-gauge angle for a while, I found a good setting and proceeded to cut the rails one by one.

Working on the Fit of the Back Rails

Once the back rails were finished, I used the Domino Machine to make the mortises for where the side frames attached to the seat and rails.

Domino Joinery

Finishing & Assembling the Chair

My teacher Eliane suggested that I apply a coat of finish before the components were assembled, to allow for easier clean up of glue squeeze-out. I taped off where the glue would go, then applied a coat of Wipe-On Polyurethane.

Pre-Finishing the Components

One of the benefits of this chair construction is that assembly went very smoothly. I laid one side flat, set all the components in place, then stacked the other side on top like a sandwich, before standing it vertically and adding some clamps.