Mission Furniture

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48 DA-00067 WOOD magazine June/July 2004

VISIT WITH A MASTER

“The shape forces you back against thecurved slats so thechair supports youfrom your shouldersall the way to thebacks of your knees.”

–Sam Maloof

“The shape forces you back against thecurved slats so thechair supports youfrom your shouldersall the way to thebacks of your knees.”

–Sam Maloof

Sam Maloof

A n icon of American furnituremak-ing. An artist. A living legend. Allof these words aptly describe Sam

Maloof. But Sam shuns fancy labels infavor of a more fitting description. “I’m awoodworker,” he says.

Though Sam has crafted more than 500original furniture designs during fivedecades as a professional woodworker, hismost famous piece remains his elegant,supremely comfortable rocking chair, seenat left. His chairs and other pieces are souniquely original that they don’t fit a partic-ular furniture style, but have emergedinstead as the “Maloof style.”

Recently, we caught up with Sam in hisAlta Loma, California, shop to see how thisrenowned woodworker creates his highlyprized rockers that sell for $20,000 and up.We quickly discovered that trying to derivea plan for one of Sam’s chairs is compara-ble to getting a recipe from a chef thatcooks with pinches and dabs: You probablywon’t be able to exactly re-create what hemakes, but you can learn much about thecraft by just observing.

Start with wonderful woodLike all masters, Sam chooses his woodscarefully and knows that beautiful lumbercan separate a great piece from a good one.For many years, he built most of his piecesfrom walnut, which remains one of hisfavorite species thanks to its great worka-bility and enduring good looks. He alsooften uses curly maple, zircote, and, onoccasion, cherry. Many pieces also featureebony accents.

Sam always keeps lumber on hand toensure an adequate supply, and admits that

his passion for good wood may have gottenout of hand, as he now stores a few hundredthousand board feet of his favorites, all separated by species, thickness, and grainpattern, below left.

When the time comes to select wood for achair, Sam carefully matches boards bycolor, especially when choosing walnut orcherry because they can have widely vary-ing tones. Zircote and maple tend to bemore consistent in color, so he selects themby carefully comparing and matching eachboard’s distinctive grain.

Most of Sam’s boards are thick, from 8/4(2") through 16/4 (4"), because he cuts allchair parts except the rockers from solidstock, and many require large curves.

The rockers he creates from ‹"-thicklaminations glued on a form. This gives therockers consistent shape and strength. Plus,bent lamination allows him to insert con-

trasting wood when desired, such as theebony accent in the curly maple rocker seenon page 48.

Templates ensure successSome woodworkers begin the buildingprocess by developing intricate plans forevery dimension, part, and detail. Sam doesnot. Instead, he relies on templates, below,to give him the rough shapes needed forsuch parts as rockers, slats, and arms. Likehis designs and techniques, he developedthese templates using estimates and experi-ence, not formal training.

“I made my original template for the backslats by cutting cardboard and holding itagainst my back, then reshaping it until itfelt right,” Sam says. “I’ve been using thattemplate for over 30 years now. Everyonetells me how the chairs fit their backs justright, so I guess it works.”

49woodmagazine.com

“I don’t have to look for lumber, it finds me,” Sam says. As a result, he needs four buildings to store his stash. Luckily, southernCalifornia offers ideal storage conditions: low humidity and moderate temperatures.

You won’t find any jigs in Sam’s shop, but you can’t miss the plywood templates that hangeverywhere space allows. Some are decades old, and still see regular use. Many bear thename of the original buyer of that style chair and provide a unique record of his clients.

Spend a day with America’s quintessential chairmakerand learn a few tricks along the way.

Sculpting the shapesWith his stock and appropriate templates inhand, Sam starts to rough out the parts atthe bandsaw, a tool he has mastered likefew other woodworkers, above left. He’squick to advise, though, that some of hismethods “aren’t exactly OSHA approved,”and he knows better techniques exist.Regardless, he shapes chair parts withamazing agility, more sculpting than cut-ting. His templates give the rough shape.The rest he creates by eye and feel to makealmost perfectly matched parts.

Forming the seatTo create a chair seat, Sam starts with fivepieces of wood. When possible, he cutsthem all from the same boardto ensure the best color match.

He sculpts the seats to ashape that he believes lies atthe heart of his chairs’ com-fort. “The shape forces youback and places you againstthe curved slats. This posi-tions you so the chair supportsyou from your shoulders allthe way to the backs of yourknees,” he says.

Final contour formed bygrinding and sanding

Before gluing up the seat panel, Samroughs out some of this sculpted shape atthe bandsaw. The seats he makes today fea-ture beveled edges on each of the boards, asseen below. This design allows deeper hol-lowing of the surface than was possiblewith the flat seat panels he used to make.Though today’s chairs look similar to thosemade decades ago, these subtle refinementspoint to Sam’s drive to constantly improve.

The joint Sam uses to join the seat andlegs stands as another of those refinementsmade over many years. You can see thisjoint, which he calls the dado-and-rabbet, inthe drawing and accompanying photo onthe following page. “I spent four or fiveyears developing that joint,” he notes.

50

After about five minutes, Sam has transformed a rough blank into anarm that is ready for installation. He’ll create the mirror image fromthe other blank, deftly matching the shapes as he works.

Carefully eyeing his layout lines, Sam begins shaping the blank for a chair arm. He pivots and turns the arm as he works to follow thelines and create compound curves.

Beveling the edges of each seat board creates a contour

that yields a more comfortableshape while requiring less

shaping. Keeping the edges at 90° simplifies leg joinery.

ANATOMY OF A MALOOF ROCKER SEAT

Rough-shaped at thebandsaw before glue-up

Top surfaces of outer boardsare flat, square to edges

Notch receivesthe back leg.

fi" dowels reinforce joints at back of seat. ›" dowels are used at the front.

3° to 5° bevelson edges

3° to 5° bevelson edges

3° to 5° bevelson edges

90o

90o

Though the joint offers loads of glue sur-face, Sam reinforces it with screws afterassembling it with standard yellow glue.He’s tried many types of screws over theyears, and these days chooses onesdesigned for deck building because of theirdeep thread purchase. Some woodworkersmay scoff and say deck screws aren’tappropriate in fine furniture, but Sam sees itdifferently. He wants to ensure his chairsremain together.

He covers the screws with plugs which heused to make from the same wood as thechair. Now, plugs are often made of ebony.Screws also reinforce the rocker-to-legjoint. Where the arms meet the front legs,blind dowels (no screws) provide strength.

BANDSAW SCULPTING WITH A MASTER’S TOUCH

‹"

Chair seat

Front leg

fi" counterbore

#8 x 2fi"deck screw

fi" ebony plug

51woodmagazine.com

This unique joint attaches the front and back legs to the seat. The pieces interlock to form a twist-resistant joint with lots of glue surface. Acouple of screws, covered by plugs, add strength to withstand long-term use. After assembly, rasps and files blend all the surfaces together.

David Wade, left, applies Sam’s special finish to a decades-old chair sent in for refurbishing,while Larry White, middle, and Mike Johnson shape new chairs still under construction.

THE BOYS: SAM’S PARTNERS IN FURNITUREMAKING HEAVEN

THE DADO-AND-RABBET JOINT

Once Sam approves the workmanship, achair is ready for finishing. After sanding toat least 400 grit, a chair gets multiple coatsof the finishes Sam developed. The firstconsists of equal parts boiled linseed oil,tung oil, and polyurethane varnish. Samapplies at least three liberal coats, allowingeach to dry for a day. After the third coat, a second mixture of linseed oil, tung oil,and carnauba wax gets applied. Rubbingvigorously ensures that these coats blendthoroughly into those underneath. Again, heapplies three coats over three days.

For many years, Sam brewed the finisheshimself, but he now has them manufactured.You can purchase Sam’s finishes throughRockler Woodworking and Hardware at www.rockler.com or 800/279-4441. Aquart of either the poly/oil blend (#58644) or oil/wax blend (#58677) sells for $15.99.

Finally, each chair receives a couple ofcoats of furniture wax. The multistep finishimparts a rich glow and adds depth to thegrain figure. And, it holds up well, takingon a warm patina over years.

Sam’s legacy and his futureEven at 88 years young, Sam works sixdays per week designing, cutting out, andassembling every piece of furniture. He alsodesigns a few new pieces each year. “I lovebeing in the shop. It’s what I do,” he says.

In addition, he established the Sam andAlfreda Maloof Foundation and devised aplan that will pass his business on to theboys; his son, Slimen; new wife, Beverly;and his business manager, Roz Bock.

So, does he have unfulfilled ambitions?Sure, but he keeps it all in perspective: “If Iever make it to the top of the mountain,there will be nowhere to go but back down.So I just keep climbing.”

Learn more about Sam by reading SamMaloof, Woodworker, or The Furniture ofSam Maloof. Both of these books are avail-able from Amazon.com. Or you can visitmalooffoundation.org where you’ll findmore information on Sam’s business andschedules for public shop tours. ¿©Copyright Meredith Corporation 2004

Written by David StonePhotographs: Edmund Barr

Handwork yields final formFor most woodworkers, final assembly of aproject means the work is almost complete.With Sam’s chairs, though, much workremains. Why? At assembly, all pieces stillhold only their rough shape. To createseamless joints and crisp details, Sam relieson hours of painstaking shaping. Pneumaticsanders and grinders speed this process, butmost of the work gets done using just tradi-tional hand tools, such as those seen below.

This phase of the process takes manyhours, which in the early years meant Samcould produce very few pieces annually.So, Sam employs talented craftsmen whoget little of the glory, but play essentialroles which Sam readily acknowledges.Seen in the photos, right, “the boys,” asSam calls them, are like sons. All three havebeen with him for at least 15 years.

During this shaping process, the chairspass continually back and forth among allfour guys. Because the process takes muchtime and because there are usually multiplechairs in process simultaneously, a monthmay pass before any one chair makes itsway from beginning to end.

Traditional hand tools get a workout in Sam’sshop. Sam and the boys commonly userasps, files, riflers, sandpaper, and scrapersto refine the rough shapes into finished form.

Front leg

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