Hello from between the buses in Indianapolis. So day three brings more work on the seat blanks before they can be glued up.

Here you can see the pattern I use to mark out the seat as well as the spindle locations. Once it is marked you just flip it over and trace the other side, then you have a rough idea of the seat you will be carving out. On Charles Brock's video as well as with Sam Maloof they cut out a good portion of the material to be removed on the band saw. You can only do this on the # 2, 3, and 4 blanks. Since this is an unplugged project I opted to use a frame saw I built for that. 

Here you can see the pattern I made to get an idea of the profile I wanted to shoot for when cutting out the material. I started on the #3 blank. But since you will be putting a pommel at the front of the blank you cant cut the complete profile.The pommel stretches 6"back from the front of the seat and is at the absolute center of the seat.

Here you can see me beginning to cut out the waste with my frame saw. This was a little difficult and by the third blank my blade snapped. What I did on the first blank though was to cut a number of kerfs to ease in cutting out the material. I think next time I will just opt for cutting a bunch of kerfs and then chisel out the material. 

Here you can see blank #3 with the material removed.

Since you cant completely cut out the profile on the #3 blank you need to plane down the sides where the pommel will be. What that does is to enable you to trace the profile onto the sides of blanks # 2 & 4.

Here you  can see blank #3 next to blank #4 and how you can trace the profile onto it.

Once those profiles are cut out you can now glue up  your seat. Since this is a test run regarding building a Maloof rocker by hand and since I plan on paiting it, since I used poplar, I opted to use Titebond 2 glue. If I do do a walnut rocker I hope to use hide glue.

So here is the blank all glued up ready for some serious carving.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post. I look forward to posting more on this project. It doesn't look like much now but in the end hopefully it will be a nice looking rocker.

Well, take care my friends and as always God bless.

Mark Hynek

Hello from Indianapolis my friends,

Well, it is day two of the Maloof inspired rocker build. I put in about 5 hours today so I have a total of about 10 hours in. Today it was doweling the five blanks together for a stronger bond as well as to help against slippage when I do the glue up since the three middle pieces have a 3 degree angle on them.  

I used 3/8 dowels 2" long and put them about a half inch up from the bottom. Once the seat is carved out the thin portion of the seat will be about an inch thick. 

Once of my concerns drilling the holes for the dowels was that I would have to drill at a 3 degree angle on the pieces that received the angle. I used a simple bit and brace with a 3/8 brad point bit. I had been using my small 4 inch square to help me stay square when drilling. When I got to the angled pieces I notice the small square staying in place with out falling off and followed the 3 degree angle perfectly. So that went well.

Once the doweling was done it was onto cutting the joinery for the bridle joints that would receive the legs. Those cuts were made on the outside pieces #1 & #5. For the back leg you have to cut a chunk out that is 3" long from the back and 2 3/4 wide from the side. 

My 300 mm ryoba worked well on the cross cut but was a bit ruff on the rip cut. So I went out and purchased a 210 mm ryoba. The smaller brother cut well on the rip cut,

For the front legs you measure up from the back 18", make a mark and then measure 13/4 from that mark. That is the with of your rabbit that you will cut out. It is also only 1/4 deep. I simply kerfed out the portion, then chiseld the majority of it out and cleaned up the bottom with my small router plane. One thing I notice as I had cut many rabbits such as this, and had problems in the past with finishing with a nice flat bottom was that before I had cut right to the intended depth then chiseled out, which resulted in a rocky bottom before I could even attempt to use the router plane. This time I cut short of the final depth, chiseled out and then routed to my final depth. The result was a much better and cleaner bottom.

So here you can see the beginning cuts for the joints for the four legs.


 Next you have to mark out for a 1" tenon that will be cut out. My stock came out at 1 7/8 so I had to cut down from the top and the bottom 7/16.

 Then you also have to mark the top and bottom a 1/2 in which will be the depth of your 1" tenon.

You need to put a radius on the inside corners the back receiving one on the top and bottom and the front receiving two, top and bottom. I used a forstner bit to get a clean cut and bottom. It took a little longer than a brad point bit but left a very nice surface.

 So here are the radius' drilled out. A total of 12 holes drill top and bottom.

Next I cut the out side marks and then kerfed the rust and then slowly chiseled the waste out and cleaned up the joint with my router plane.

Here you can see what the male portion of the bridle joint looks like once it is finished.

Overall it was a good day in the shop and I really enjoyed cutting out these joints by hand. You can easily do this with a power router and a 1/2 rabbiting bit. But I have to say a friend came by and saw the finished joints and said, "Oh I see your using a power router. Looks nice." I told him I didn't have a power router and cut them out by hand. He couldn't get over how well they looked.

Well my friends the next post will cover cutting out the ruff shape of the seat on the inner 3 boards so to help with stock removal once it is glued up. Hope you enjoyed this post. So until next time God bless.

Mark Hynek

Hello from Indianapolis my friends,

Well, once again it has been a while since my lost post. I am now back in the states living in Indianapolis at our churches mission house. I wasn't sure where or when I might be able to start woodworking again but the church allowed me to put a work bench in their bus barn and work from there. I was able to find a work bench from a fellow unplugged woodworker in Kokomo Indiana who sold it to me for a fair price. Then it was on to assembling a descent set of tools. I was able to bring a few back with me but not to many due to the weight issue. So now I am working between the buses. So for my first project I needed to build some frame or bow saws for an upcoming project that I have wanted to do ever since I became unplugged and started this blog. Nothing fancy on the frame saws just 2x4s and some simple hardware from the local big box store. I did spend a bit on the blades which is where the spending needs to be. The blades I used were purchased from Highland woodworking. They are Japanese style blades and are very aggressive on the cut yet leave a small kerf and a nice service.

So now it was on to the project I have been dying to do and have mentioned in previous posts. When I first started getting into woodworking (power tools mind you) I was captivated when I first saw a Maloof rocker. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was so beautiful in an organic and natural way but was also functional. I knew I had to build one eventually, which I did in 2012. I had purchased the Charles Brock set on how to build a Maloof inspired rocker. It came with a DVD, book, and full size plans. I was able to build it in about 3 weeks or in about 180 hours. I sold that chair to help with my families financial needs but knew I would eventually build more. Near the end of 2014 I started to lean more toward unplugged woodworking and eventually converted completely to  hand tool woodworking. So now I am back in the states and that has been a great blessing since I don't have the space, money or time to acquire and work with power tools. So I set out to build a Maloof inspired rocker with only hand tools. I decide to do my first attempt in poplar with the hopes that my skills will improve and I progress through the project. I didn't want to spend a boat load of money before I knew if I could do it unplugged. So here is the poplar. I found a really good wood dealer on the west side of Indy who has just about every type of wood you would want. I bought 32 bf of 8/4 but need about 50 for the entire project. These planks were surfaced on two sides with the edges left ruff. Which was fine with me. I don't have a problem dimensioning ruff wood but I didn't have the hand planes I usually use for that so this was a blessing in disguise.

To start with the seat I needed 5 pieces cut at 4" wide x 22" long.

One of the tools I acquired here in the states was this ryoba saw by Gyokucho. I bought it at Woodcraft for less than $45. This is the 300mm and is a monster. I really like using Japanese saws because I am able to stand by the bench and saw with out bending over to much which helps my back.

The ryoba had no problem cutting through the 2" thick poplar

So after planning down the edges square the five pieces look like this. Now this is where one had the option of just simply gluing the together and carving out the seat from a flat slab. Or you can cooper the seat which gives it a gentle curve that looks really nice. I opted to cooper my seat.

So what you have to do is plane some 3 degree bevels in the 3 middle pieces to get the cooper effect. The middle board #3 gets bevels on both side and are angled to where the top of the board is narrower than the bottom. Then on boards #2 & #4 get one bevel on the outside edge to where the top of the board is wider than the bottom.

Here you can see the angel and how it goes from nothing to 3 degrees toward the bottom on the #4 board.

Once beveled and checked for squareness along the distance of the board you can see the coopering effect.

It is a subtle coopering but really adds to the sight ling on the bottom of the seat once it is finished.

So that is it for now. I spent about 5 hours getting to this point. Next post you will see me begin to cut the leg joinery on the seat. Then it will be cutting a a good chunk of the seat so I don't have to hog out a lot of would with the adze & scorp. Well, my friends it is good to be back. Hope you enjoy this post and has always take care and God bless.

Mark Hynek