I select the most beautiful, figured hardwood I can find for each chair, usually from Goodhope Hardwood (http://www.goodhope.com) located in southern Pennsylvania. Chairs are available in cherry (shown here), walnut, English walnut and maple. I favor highly figured versions of these woods for the beauty of their grain.

Each chair is unique because so much of it is carved free-hand. The chair building process starts with the layout of the wood to create the most attractive presentation of color and grain. This is the most critical step in the process as the symmetry and match of the grain profoundly effect the chair’s final appearance. Next I cut and carve and sand and glue over 100 pieces of the selected species. After about 3 weeks of work, the chair is ready for delivery. The series of photographs on this page illustrate the major steps in the construction of a Pennsylvania Rocker.

1. Because I am able to select lumber that comes from a single tree, I will be able match the grain of the seat to the headrest, match the arms and front and back legs and book match the back braces and rockers.	2. That same log opened up, even when only rough cut, reveals a beautiful and unusual quilted figure that will yield two fantastic chairs.	3. Each piece of the chair is carefully laid out to take advantage of the most beautiful grain and achieve the best match of that grain. Here the back legs are laid out and the pieces adjacent to each will be cut into strips, bookmatched and laminated into the back braces.
4. The headrest and the seat are carefully matched so that the grain flows from one to the other.	5. The headrest is first coopered (in the same fashion as wooden barrels are made) to achieve a 36 to 40 degree sweep. It would be much easier to orient the headrest horizontally but coopering allows the grain to remain vertical, matching the direction of every other piece of the chair.	6. After glue up, the headrest sweep is cut on the band saw and sanded smooth. That sanding process is a lot like work!
7. The headrest is glued up vertically in a special jig.	8. The front legs are cut to shape and rabbited to be fitted to the seat.	9. The front legs are fitted to a corresponding joint cut in the rough carved seat.
10. The back legs have been cut to rough shape and are ready to be rabbited to fit the seat.	11. The back legs have had a piece added to provide additional width and the proper angle when they are finally fitted to the seat.	12. The arms are first scooped out by running them at an angle across the gradually raised blade of the table saw.