Greene and Greene Rocking Chair

Hello - I have a rocking chair version of Greene and Greene's Blacker House armchair in progress. It's proven to be an interesting project! I have posted images of my progress on my website at:

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Peart

Reply to
Darrell
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Very Nice! I love projects like this that make you think a little. I ussually have as much fun dreaming up and making the jigs as building the real project. How do you attach the legs to the rockers? Screw through the bottom? or do you have some sort of pracket or inset that will do it?

Nice Work, Joe in Denver My Woodworking Website:

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Reply to
Joe Wilding

Were you able to pull dimensions from their chairs? Are the chairs in a museum where they can be viewed by the public?

I've had an interest in making one of the bedroom rocking chairs from the Blacker house, but the only thing I've found about them is the one photo in a publication I have in my library. A Google will reveal much about the Blacker house, but not so much about the furniture. I've never gotten around to it, but probably will at least come up with plans. I know the dimensions of other rocking chairs and have a design that is comfortable to use. I suppose I will start with the proportions of the design that I have and modify it to look like the bedroom rockers. I think cherry will be my choice of wood.

Reply to
Lowell Holmes

Wow.......you are the man!!!! looking good.....you are awesome, kind of puts the rest of us to shame. I really enjoy your work! Mike from American Sycamore

Reply to
aswr

Very handsome Darrell.

Reply to
Leon

I was so excited finding some one doing Greene and Greene style, I forgot to mention your work is exceptional and exciting. Please keep us posted.

Reply to
Lowell Holmes

Like others here, I am quite intrigued with your Green & Green work. The chair is beautiful, but like some things I have done in the past, I wonder if you can find many people that are willing to pay what such meticulous work must must require in hours expended. How much of your time are you putting to a labor of love and for how much of it do you expect to be compensated?

Reply to
eganders

Joe - I will dowel the rockers to the legs - two 5/16" dowels per joint - drilled from the bottom of the rocker. The dowels will be opposed (going in slightly different directions) .

Darrell

Reply to
Darrell

I wasn't concerned with anexact reproduction - I was more intersted in capturing the feel of the design. There is one original Greene and Greene Blacker House rocker in the LA County Musuem and one in the Huntington in Pasadena. There is nothing like seeing the real thing - pictures just can't capture all that is going on with the Greene's original chair. For any of you interested you can see a lot of good images of G&G furniture and houses at the virutal archives:

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we have a very active G&G yahoo group going
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Reply to
Darrell

I certainly didn't make high wages the first time around on this project. I fully expect to get a fair price for subsequent orders of this piece though. Even with all the jigs and templates made - this piece is still quite labor intensive and will not be inexpensive. If the design is something I am really excited about (as I was this one) I view it as an investment. It's very difficult to break into the high-end market, but there are clients out there who are willing to pay a fair price for high quality work. If you have no examples of high-end work in you portfolio - you are unlikely to attract high-end projects. It took me many years of lower paying projects before I was able to get fair wages for my efforts. This really is a profession that has to be a labor of love - certainly not part of a get rich quick scheme.

Darrell

Reply to
Darrell

Really nice work. You have surely set a standard to aspire too. Thank you for sharing.

How are you doing the M&T work. I noticed a rounded tenon. Leigh FM&T, Multi router...? I've found mortising for chairs to be near the height of woodworking challenges and this piece seems to take that challenge even higher.

BW

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

I just got a new multirouter not long ago. This is the first project I have used it on. I am very impressed with it's accuracy. It made the compound angles much easier.

Darrell

Reply to
Darrell

I certainly don't like rounded-end tenons on chairframes. They're plenty strong when glued, but they lose rigidity (and also strength, I suspect) when the glue inevitably fails with age. Quality furniture has a long tradition of outlasting its glued joints, with the aid of appropriate joinery.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

I disagree. It doesn't make sense that rounded-end tenons would loose rigidity more so than squared tenons, when, at some point in the very distant future, the glue finally fails. I have no experience with other rounded tennon/mortise systems and cannot comment on them, but the multi-router (as was mentioned here) works within incredibly tight tolerances. The resulting joints are sized within a few thousands of an optimal fit - and consistently so! A proper fit, is in my opinion more critical to the longevity of the (mortise/tennon) joint than is its shape.

Darrel - The Greene and Greene rocker is looking very nice!

Reply to
harrynmiller

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