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Maloof style low-back

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:40 pm
by Bniesen
This was a several month long project I recently finished. Maloof style joints, somewhat reflective of his lowback design with a few design twists. The chair is fitted to me, I will probably never make another for a plethora of reasons, but this one is certainly pretty.

Materials: Claro walnut, hide glue, Waterlox sealer

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 3:50 pm
by sandahlpipe
Nice!

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:58 pm
by DocAitch
That is gorgeous.
DocAitch

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 2:23 pm
by RickB
Man that's pretty. Walnut is so beautiful. Nice enough tonewood, too.

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 11:12 pm
by Bniesen
Thanks all.

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:56 am
by caskwith
I don't care for the Maloof style myself, but I can appreciate good craftsmanship when I see and you did a great job!

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:55 am
by Bniesen
Its definitely an arts and crafts thing, honestly I am not sure I am super fond of his stuff either. But as a design student he is an excellent study, his pieces are extremely challenging and his methodology is admirable. The chair only has 6 joints on it, no stretchers or skirts to reinforce it, no fasteners. Still it is more rigid than any other chair I own (I am 210 lbs and wriggling around in it I can feel no flex), the joinery he engineered is incredible. This is strangely noticeable when you sit down, its more like sitting on a rock than into a seat and is shocking considering how delicately the chair presents in person. Beyond that the chair is comfortable, this is partly due to an ergonomic study on my part (fitted to me with the back support setup to alleviate mid-back problems) but mostly due to Maloof, his pieces are know for comfort.
I also admire the man, he was willing to share his knowledge and even ran his own school periodically. He was a contributor, and even though his pieces carried a hefty price tag I don't think he ever made much of a living at it. There are 100+ hours in building this piece and i could have spent another 40 tweaking and setting details, but I had a deadline and there had to be a point at which I called it finished. Even if I had cause to build these in production I think refined and perfected I would be into the chairs for 80+ hours each. I also spent 2 full days driving to various lumber yards selecting boards that had everything I needed (the chair is made from only 2 boards, one large 8/4 and one small 10/4 for the arms). There are no steam bends on the back legs but the grain flows continuously from top to bottom, each piece is cut in this way. Maloof had stacks of boards that were cut to be various parts and would pour over them matching pieces until he found exactly right set to work in harmony. I think what I admire most is that his pieces were built to a design and a standard and that was never strayed from, this is a really rare trait in the modern world.

Re: Maloof style low-back

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:26 pm
by johara34
It's a beautiful chair. I've made a few Maloof style dining chairs for customers, and I totally concur that these things are a labor of love. The scooped seats, the importance of planning the grain orientation, and the finicky nature of making those joints fit correctly are not tasks for the weak of heart. If you ever make another one, I would encourage you to take the carving of the joints all the way down to the joints themselves rather than leaving any two planes with a right angle to one another. Being able to run your hand over the joints without feeling any evidence that it's two pieces of wood is extremely satisfying and goes a long way in the overall look of the piece.

As for the man himself, I also admire the crap out of him. In a world full of imitators, he was a true innovator. And yes, his generosity in passing down his knowledge and innovation was exactly what you want in a master...the consideration that it's about more than yourself and that disclosing "secrets" doesn't detract from your own work, but allows others to push into new and unexpected territory.

But don't feel too badly for him as far as the living he made from his woodworking. He had a team of a select few guys cranking out his signature rocker which sold for around $20k, and he drove...a Porsche. I believe that at the time of his death, he had a 10 year waiting list for his work, and the only way to get to the front of the line was to ask for a cradle (babies don't wait :)

If you want to see something incredible, look up videos of him freehand cutting parts for his rocker on his bandsaw. It's a mesmerizing and terrifying operation that, in the hands of anyone else, would almost surely result in fingers lost. He was quite a man...the world is less without him.