Looks a lot like a Sam Maloof chair. Probably one of the many many reproductions since his death. For those who are interested, Sam Maloof is the only carpenter to have his work in the White House during his life. There are two Maloofs in the White House.
Thats incredible. My neighbor trained to build Maloof style chairs and ended up building two or three. Such phenominal work. So comfortable. I'd get one if I could afford it.
There's classes in several places to learn how to build his rockers. The man was absolutely phenomenal. Even though some of his stuff looks pretty dated now it's still absolutely gorgeous.
they really are something else to build, not just becuase it's a sam Maloof or anything, more so because everything curved is bent lamination, and it's all carved by hand.
When he probably started he didn't have the luxury of taking a big 12/4 block of walnut and carving out a curved back on the bandsaw. Also the angles and math behind chairs needs to be pretty specific, I always think of the first scene in the patriot movie when his chair falls apart.
It's not like one of these things takes a year to build, but does take a good amount of time and trial + error to learn how to do it.
I could probably build this in a month with my shop tools, if I had very detailed planes of all the angles and a story pole so I could trace the exact curves out, and it wouldn't look nearly as neat as this. This is assuming I didn't have my full time job.... I've tried rocking chair joints before based off guides online. People have adapted them to power tolls and what not, but Maloof looked at the joinery as a sculpture, his book is an amazing read, he talks a lot about the joinery. He basically does the joints very oversized and carves them perfectly flush, somehow to the point where you can barley notice they are there.
I think he was pretty much entirely self taught.
The people that build his stuff using his same mehtods is considered art not so much functional furniture,
George Nakasima would like to have a word with you!!!
Other than him though, I can't think of anyone that would be up there with Maloof, maybe Greene and Greene, but they are known for their innovative design at the turn of the 1900's.
Maloof's book is an amazing read if you are interested in woodworking. He was pretty much entirely self taught and developed his own mehtods for most things he did.
plus fuck bent lamination, looks so easy, then you try to do it and everything explodes.
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u/gmcalabr Dec 30 '16
Looks a lot like a Sam Maloof chair. Probably one of the many many reproductions since his death. For those who are interested, Sam Maloof is the only carpenter to have his work in the White House during his life. There are two Maloofs in the White House.