Origins and our Goal
The chairs and Rockers we make are inspired by Sam Maloof work. We are trying to be true to his design but in the same time we think that further evolution of the design is creating rocker as beautiful as Sam's and as comfortable as possible. In this respect we are following the lead of Hal Taylor, who has suggested several important changes to the design that make the rockers extraordinary and in our opinion superior to the traditional design.
What we are aiming at is a chair that ergonomically fits your body and is at the same time is beautiful to the eye and touch.
How is it made
The feeling of the organic unity of each piece is achieved by careful selection of wood and hours of matching the distribution of sapwood, grain pattern, structure and flow. All these are most visible at the seat, headrest and back braces. It is especially important in rockers made with European air-dried walnut, where the contrast of colours in the wood is much greater than in American walnut.
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Colours and how to represent them
The photos in galleries are not adjusted the same way, some feel warmer, some darker. Others have a shade of red or blue - all that is left on purpose as the chair itself will feel differently based on the light in the room and surrounding colours.
Maloof joint
Most of the chairs made by Sam Maloof feature his specific joint. We are using enlarged version of the joint suggested by Hal Taylor to create more side shift of the legs and make the joint esthetically more pleasing from every direction. The joint is reinforced by a screw (plugged) as suggested by Sam Maloof. It is our suspicion that the joint is plenty strong even without this reinforcement and we are keeping it only to follow the traditional design.
Each of these joins needs to be fitted exactly by hand, which is a process that tests the skills and patience of the woodworker. Loose leg joint can not be repaired and a new leg needs to be made...
Strength and durability
To reach the best possible ratio between strength/durability and easthetical beauty, we are adding some pieces of Ash wood in the laminated curved rockers and back braces. These usually add a lighter colour contrast to the chair - some people love it, others would prefer the simplicity of one wood species only. With walnut we prefer to use Ash for strength, but chairs made from Cherry, Oak or tropical hardwoods are fine in single species versions. You can see the strips of lighter colour in these pictures
The connection between legs and laminated rockers is the only place where we use epoxy and 6 mm diameter screw to make sure these joints never fail.
The rockers have a layer of 4 mm cork at the bottom. This ensures not only smooth and silent rocking motion but as well protects any kind of floor you might have.
Headrests
Headrests in our chairs are coopered to create an inviting curve for your back and head. Unlike the original Maloof's design, our chairs feature vertical grain and headrests make of several billets to form a deeper curve.
Back braces
To cradle your back, the back braces are set to a curve and shaped to anatomically follow the proper S curve of your spine. At the same time, they need to be beautiful and strong. That is achieved by a very careful selection of the most striking wood grain patterns for back brace construction. Each is made of several thinner pieces out of which one is made of Ash for strengths.
Armrests
Armrests are probably a feature of the chair that differs most from one woodworker to another. We have opted for a rather labour intensive method of hand sculpting of armrests. We use first power tools and then planes and rasps to refine the shape. We prefer as well to start with a single piece of very thick lumber rather than have a piece glued from the bottom to create the desired shape. The armrest should be thin and light and form a comfortable concave space for your arm. At the same time, they need to rise up to meet with the back leg. That creates a problem as your elbow needs space to hang over the side of the chair - for example, to hold a book. We have therefore created a combination of a concave shape with a channel back out for your elbow.
The armrests are located at the exact height - this is another reason you need to carefully choose the right size for you.
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Sometimes the wood includes knots or other imperfections which we tend to leave as we find it more natural - as long as it does not compromise the structural integrity of the piece.
