Woodworker's Journal winter-2009, страница 64

Build a Shaker-inspired Woven Rocker

A HANDFUL OF STORY STICKS, TWO SHOP-MADE JIGS AND A TWEAKED LATHE ARE THE SECRETS BEHIND OUR AUTHOR'S HANDSOME ROCKER.

by Kerry Pierce

This set of story sticks constitutes the templates our author uses for this rocker. The three cherry parts are traceable patterns for arms, rockers and crest rail. The four sticks near the top are rung sticks on which the tenon lengths are indicated. The other two sticks represent the front and back posts. Those sticks index rung locations, finial and vase shapes and post diameters at various points along their lengths.

Twenty years ago, I built my first reproduction of a Shaker chair. It was based on a drawing by John Kassay (in The Book of Shaker Furniture) of a fairly early New Lebanon rocker. Over the next dozen years or so, I tinkered with the form, giving the arms a more sculpted shape, changing the backrest from slats to a woven panel and introducing new finials and vases. The chair you see here is the current incarnation of that form — one that has remained unchanged for several years because it's exceptionally comfortable and reasonable to build.

I don't use a measured drawing to produce copies of this chair. Instead, this chair (and all others I build) are represented only by sets of story sticks. In the case of this rocker, one stick represents the back posts with back-rung mortise locations marked on one side of the stick and side-rung mortise locations on the other. Another stick rep

resents the fi'ont posts with side-rung mortise locations on one side and front-rung mortise locations on the other. The post sticks also include graphic representations of vase and finial shapes. I create the chair's band-sawn elements — the arms, rockers and crest rail — from traceable scrap-wood patterns. In addition, each of the rungs is represented by a stick cut to the length of the part, with tenon lengths marked on the ends.

Story sticks are common cabi

netry and carpentry tools that help reduce the need for measuring everything ... and that alone prevents lots of building errors.

Extra-long Lathe Bed is a Must

Begin the project by ripping blanks for turning stock on your band saw (see Material List, page 67).

Although I have jigs that help me band saw square turning blanks into octagons, I have abandoned this practice over the

64 Shaker-inspired woven Rocker