Another Successful Brazos Rocker Class Completed

As the 3 students from the Brazos rocker class finished up their chairs on Saturday evening, there are many words that describe the feeling: fulfillment, satisfaction, camaraderie, and exhaustion!

Every one of the students completed their chairs and they all turned out beautiful. It took a total of 12 class days with some of the days working into the evenings. There is so much to do from hand cutting all the mortise and tenons to shaping all the parts with the spokeshave, then carving the seat with a scorp and a travisher and finally finishing with a scraper.

Each person will have to do some touch up sanding and then apply an oil finish.

The Finished Chairs

One of the biggest challenges at the end of the class is fitting the chair into the back of the car! Here, Frank is putting it in the back seat of his car- it barely fit.

Frank loading up his chair

Congratulations to Tim, who finished the class on Saturday evening, then drove home to Austin that night and got up the next morning to run the annual Austin Marathon! I thought finishing the chairs was a marathon in and of itself.

I thought I would post a few pictures of the work during the second week.

Here Tim is shaping the back of the chair with a 2 ½ inch chisel, otherwise referred to as a slick.

Tim shaping the back of the chair with a slick

The fit is tested with a feeler gauge and is accurate to 3 thousands of an inch!

Is it Perfect yet?

Then the carving begins as Tim uses a scorp to rough out the seat.

Roughing out the seat with the scorp

Frank is using a travisher, which is simply a curved spokeshave. This one is actually one that we made here at the school and is copied from an antique.

Hollowing the seat with a travisher

Greg is shaping his rocker on the shaving horse.

Shaping the rocker

And some much needed rest as they all relax in their finished chairs.

Rocking in the finished chairs!