I have always wanted to build a chair. To the average observer, a chair is a simple item of necessity. We sit in it, we rest in it, we laugh in it, we cry in it, we hold babies in it, and practically everything man has ever done while on the face of this earth, has also been done while sitting in a chair.
Yet with closer observation, this everyday item we all take for granted, is actually a complex form full of shapes, bends, curves, convex and concave forms, spooned out seats, complicated angles where wood intersects wood. Formulated heights and depths, complicated ratios to fit the masses and ratios to fit just a hand full of users.
This is why I have finally taken an interest in building a chair. It seems to me to build a chair that is comfortable and beautiful at the same time is akin to building a Pennsylvania Highboy, sure to be the crowning achievement in any woodworkers quiver of accomplishments.
And to start off my first chair I have enlisted the help of the master chair maker himself, Hal Taylor. Well, he does not know who I am, but he does know that he is helping many woodworkers like myself who flock to him for his knowledge on this complicated subject of chair building.
Hal has created one of if not the most in depth instructional manual covering everything you would need to know to build an incredibly functional yet beautiful rocking chair.

I have ordered his manual and templates, and in the next few days I will post here to let you know what I have found thus far by reading his in depth book on this subject and at what stage of the build I am on. So bear with me, I will be back in the shop this weekend and I will be able to take some pictures of what I have so far and we can then catch up and join in from there.

Above Photo:Chairs built by Hal Taylor, hopefully mine will look half as nice!

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

 

(UPDATE) Thank you for reading my blog series on the Hal Taylor Rocker build, I actually built this chair a year ago, and since then I am in the process of making two more of these wonderful chairs. I will post this ongoing series of the first Hal Taylor chair build, and since then, I have conversed with Hal numerous times, and he is tops. Thanks Hal!! John Morris (June 23rd 2011)