Custom Wooden Rocking Chairs Dining Chairs Bar Stools and Tables 

I've been busy in my shop these days, but i've had a little time to make 3 videos of what i've been working on. My hands have not a minute of rest with all the sanding that is needed with the pair of custom rocking chairs that I have been working on. These chairs are being built from Canadian Black Walnut both have the flexible back braces highlighted with an exotic wood. I'm using Zebrawood and Old Growth Southern Yellow Pine. I cut the highlights with on the bandsaw this way i'm able to keep the grain match as close as possible as well there is minimal material waste. Wasting material is not what I like to do, especially this piece of southern yellow pine which was actually once a barn beam in a very old barn, that barn was taken apart and the beams were sawn into lumber. 

I hope you enjoy the videos if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

I'm starting a medium Inspiration 2.0 custom rocking chair built from solid Canadian Black Walnut and Zebra wood being used to highlight the back braces. The first step is to choose the lumber to build the chair, sometimes this can take half a day or even a full day. I have to decide how I can best utilize the natural grain patterns of the walnut.

Here i've cut out 2 seat blanks, the seats are built from a single board cut and glued together while matching the grain.

This is a shot that shows the grain pattern of the canadian black walnut.

The joint that I glue and clamp to create a wide enough seat gets hand planed just before glue up, this way the pores are fully open and create the tightest strongest and hidden joint as possible. The process takes a little elbow grease but it's well worth it, I do this to every long grain joint which I glue together.

The rocking chair seat blanks have been surfac planed to maximum thickness with most machine marks removed. The notches have been cut for the leg to seat joints, next I use a hand held router to finish up the joint.

Below we can see the seat joints have been finished, i've moved on to routing the back brace holes. They are specifically designed with round ends but flat sides to allow for movement when you have a seat against the back braces and if you move around they will turn from side to side slightly.

Next we grind the seat out with an angle grinder which is mounted with a kutzall coarse carbide grinding wheel. I carve down about 1'' in the rear. I have depth markings drilled into the seat before I begin to help know what depth to grind to.

You can see here i've now sanded the seat up to 1000grit and burnished it with a wool pad.