Ina converted milk barn in Possum. Bend, a small community in cen-

. tral Mississippi, Greg Harkinsmakes chairs for all kinds of people.

A sign in a corner of his shop proclaimshis motto: "Chairs for Presidents,congressmen, celebrities ...and other bigdogs, but mostly just common folk."True to his word, Harkins has craftedchairs for the last four Presidents, yet hismain business comes from the local cus-tomers who stream through his shop.

Inspired by an apprenticeship with awizened Mississippi chairmaker, Harkinsspecializes in making rocking chairs likethose that have graced Southern porchesfor more than a century.

Harkins' chairs are built to last, fol-lowing traditional "green" woodworkingprinciples: He cuts mortises in the greenwood posts and tenons on the dryrounds. As the posts dry and shrink,they lock onto the tenons tightly, mak-ing his chairs unbeatably strong.

Harkins' familiarity with the processof chairmaking impressed me. I watchedas he put together a rocker from starr tofinish, using an odd collection of horne-made tools and old machines. "Makinga chair is as easy as fallin' off a log,"Harkins told me. Two days later, Ibelieved him.

Making the Chair PartsHarkins builds most of his rockers ofred oak because it's cheap and plentifulin his neck of the woods, although heoccasionally makes chairs from walnutfor special customers.

He makes the posts and runners of hisrockers from green wood; all the otherparts are of air-dried or kiln-dried wooddepending on what's available. He'scareful to select straight-grained woodfor the posts and plain-sawn stock forthe rockers, or runners, because quarter-sawn stock tends to split.

He begins by rough-turning all thespindle parts-posts, "rounds" and"foot round"-on the lathe with a shal-low 2-in. gouge. (See Fig. 1.)

After rough-turning, Harkins finish-turns the posts and foot round. He laysout the patterns on the rough blankswith a "scratcher" while they spin on

Green woodworking. At left, Harkinsdrives the green posts of the rocker'sback assembly onto tenons cut indry frame members. As the posts dry,they shrink around the tenons,holding them tight.

Turningpost patterns. Harkins uses a skew to shape the hollows and bellies.

Sanding round. Rough-turnedchair rounds are fed throughthis dowel sander, using SO-gritfollowed by 220-grit belts.A rotating wheel turns the spindlesteadily against the sanding belt fora perfectly round, smooth surface.

Slot mortising. Harkins cuts the mortise for the rocker's headpiece on a home-made slot mortiser. To provide maximum strength for opposing joints, Harkinsorients the grain of the post at 45° to the axis of the mortise.

AMERICAN WOODWORKER .•• OCTOBER 1995 79

FIG. 1: ROCKER

HEADPIECE3/8 X 41/2 X 181/2

.~ Orient grain of posts1; at 45' to frame.

BACK POST

BACK RAIL13/8 X 13/4 X 191/2(See Fig. 2.)

BACK FRAME ROUND1 D1A. X 201/4

ARM1 X 43/4 X 22

44

FOOT ROUND11/2 DIA. X 231/2

RUNNER15/8 W. X 331/2 L.(See Fig. 2.)

Center 1/4-in.-dia.peg hole onedge of tenon.POST

PEGGING THE JOINTS

TENON

ROUND

NOTE: All rounds and back railshave 3/4-dia. X 11/4-in.-long tenons.

80 AMERICAN WOODWORKER A OCTOBER 1995

Drilling the holes. Harkins uses a shop-made drilling machine he calls a "belly punch" to drill the holes in the posts.To keep the holes aligned, he inserts a board into the headpiece mortise and reads a small level taped to the board.

the lathe. (See Fig. 2.) The scratcher issimply a board with nails protrudingfrom one edge.

He rums these parts to finished shapeirh a skew ground from an old planerlade. (See top photo, page 79.) He also

rurns rough tenons on the bottoms ofthe posts to go into the runners, leavingthe tenons oversize for now. (See Fig. 2.)

his initial shaping gives the tenons ahance to dry so they won't shrink laterhen installed in the runner.Harkins finish-sands the posts and foot

ound on the lathe, using 120- and 220-rit paper. To speed up the process ofmooching the rounds, Harkins feedsem through a dowel sander, a station-

belt sander with a feed roller thateeps the rounds rurning as they're sand-. (See center photo, page 79.)Once he's turned the posts andunds, Harkins uses templates to tracee "headpiece," back rails, arms and run-

ers onto dimensioned stock. (See Fig.) He cuts these parts on the bandsaw.The runners are the most importantieces because they give the chair itsrockab il ity," as Harkins calls it. Heakes his runners relatively long withiptical curves. The elliptical shape pro-

uces a smooth, controlled rocking.on rather than the tippy motion of a

- cular arc. And the long runners createlonger, slower rock than shorter run-

ners. When laying out the runners,Harkins is careful to orient the grain run-ning lengthwise for strength. (See Fig. 2.)

Next, Harkins smooths the parts on apneumatic drum sander with 80- and220-grit paper, rounding over any sharpedges with the air-filled sanding drum.He's careful to sand smooth, continuouscurves on the bottoms of the runners sothe chair won't rock roughly.

Now, Harkins cuts the round tenonson the arms, back rails and rounds. (SeeFig. 2.) He makes the tenons slightlyoversize so they require a "drive fit" intothe posts with a hammer.

He cuts the tenons with a tenon cutterattached to a motor shafi:. This is a fastbut somewhat risky operation, andHarkins doesn't recommend it, for safe-ty reasons. He suggests two approachesthat he used in his early days: Turn thetenons for the rounds on the lathe, and

whittle the arm and back rail tenonswith a sharp penknife.

All the post mortises are round,except those for the headpiece. Harkinsfirst cuts the mortises for the headpieceon a horizontal slot mortiser with astraight, two-flute router bit. Since thejoints meet at opposing angles, he orientsthe grain of the posts at 45° to the axesof the mortises for strength. (See Fig. 1.)

Harkins drills the holes in the postsand the back frame with a homemadehorizontal boring machine that he calls a"belly punch"-so named because heuses his belly to push the sled that holdsthe stock into the bit. (See photo,above.) He uses a 3/4-in. auger bit thathas the lead screw threads filed downslightly so the bit pulls the workpieceinto itself slowly, without grabbing .

To keep all the holes in line with theheadpiece mortise, Harkins inserts a flat

Pegging the joints.Harkins taps awooden peg into apredrilled hole to lockthe foot round to thefront post.

AMERICAN WOODWORKER ~ OCTOBER 1995 81

1I

Weaving a Hickory-Bark Seatby Greg Harkins

Weaving one of myMississippi rockersis fast-once you

learn the steps you can finisha seat in an hour or so. Iharvest my own strips fromshag-bark hickory in thespringtime, using the innerbark of the tree.

I cut the strips about 11/2in. wide with a sharp knife.Traditionalists use a drawknifeto shave off the outer layer ofbark until the strip is any-.where from 1/16 in. to 3/16 in.thick. I machine my strips1/8 in. thick with a dedicatedthickness planer.

To prevent mold fromgrowing and to keep the barkpliable, I store the strips inrolls that I hang on the wall.If you want, you can buyhickory bark by mail(available from The CaningShop, 926 Gilman St.-Aw,Berkeley, CA 94710,800-544-3373).

When I'm ready to weave,I soak as many rolls as I canfit into a 5-gallon bucket fullof clean, hot water. Afterthree to five hours of soaking,the strips are pliable enoughto bend without breaking.

I weave each seat (seephotos, right) and back withstrips that have been soakedat the same time. This keepsthe color uniform, since thestrips tend to darken more thelonger they soak. When I'vecompleted the weaving,I apply finish to the entirechair. (See main article.)Then I let the woven strips dryfor a week before the chair isready to use. For moreinformation on weaving,see The Caner's Handbook byBruce Miller and Jim Widess(1991, Lark Press, 50 CollegeSt., Asheville, NC 28801).

GREG HARKINS makeschairs in Vaughan, MS

1 Start weaving the seat by tacking a wethickory strip to the side seat round. Wrapstrips from front to back-called the warp-keeping them taut. Tack the last strip to theopposite side round.

2 Start a new strip by stapling it to thefirst strip, overlapping it about 6 in. (Afterweaving, remove all the tacks and staples.)The woven bark will dry and shrink to holdthe strips together.

3 For the weft or cross strips, leave 7 ft.of strip to double back on the underside.To keep the cross-hatching loose enoughto weave through, "cheat" the underside byweaving adjacent strips in the same pattern.

4 To add a new strip, slip it under four ormore cross strips. Fold the end of the finalweft strip back over itseli, and weave itunder several cross strips.

5 Finish up by weaving atapered strip into the gaps atthe sides of the splayed seat.

82 AMERICAN WOODWORKER .•• OCTOBER 1995

FIG. 2: CHAIR PARTS

BACK POSTFRONT VIEW

e-, /4

/8

~<t•1I

IJI!IIIIII•••r"".11\ ~,i.l1/21111.1i I'llI'.-- 45-

j <tI8

, /4

<tn/2-

I "I,18 J<t

1J l31

SIDE VIEWlocate mortisetoward front

3/8 of post.

1/4

FRONT POSTREARVIEW

Turn tenon oversiz ,trim later to fit hole in runner.

/4

1

:.3 /2

= <t

t 231 <t

~~f4 /8

e-<tl11'>li /4

~ Fe-l1

e'

1 SQUARE = 1 IN.

8

4

HEADPIECEFRONT VIEW END VIEW

- -BACK RAILTOP VIEW

-ARMTOP VIEW

1I

.._ ....,.::.:..-;::._1... 1'\- '~~.:::-'~~ ,,",.c"'-' __ I-'

"'-;:,--- -.!

·11I

I'i idg.tl1i-f-H-I--H-I--H-I--H-H

FOOT ROUND

- (j;\

\

RUNNER (j; ~II '/ ••..r- ~

,.... ~£!,.... •..... _l- . \.;...;:;;: :;- --, .'

. I-\;.~ -

331/2

3/8-in.-thick stick into the mortise. Thetick has a small bubble level taped to it

that he uses to keep the stick in lineith the drill bit, which is also level.

See top photo, page 81.) After drillingthe first hole-for the upper back rail-e removes the stick.Now, he assembles the back frame

ounds to the back rails (see Fig. 1),ositions the tenon of the upper backail in line with the first hole drilled ine post, and marks the location of the

ole for the tenon of the lower back rail.e realigns the post by running the first

ole onto the stationary auger bit. Then,ithout changing his grip, he drills the

emaining holes in the post. After 20ears of chairmaking, Harkins judgese hole locations by eye, so he doesn't

other to mark them out.Once he has the back posts drilled, he

naches the headpiece, back frame andunds to the posts by driving the joints

ogether with a hammer. (See lead

photo, page 78.) The green posts areresilient enough to resist marring fromthe heavy hammer blows.

Harkins then drills the front posts andassembles them with the seat and thefoot rounds, creating the front assembly.

With both the front and the backassemblies completed, he drills holes inthe front and back posts for the siderounds and the chair arms. (See Fig. 1.)To drill the holes in the back assembly,Harkins uses a sled that holds the assem-bly at 9r to the bit of the belly punch.(See left photo, page 84.) This angleproduces the correct amount of splay inthe seat. (See Fig. 1.)

On the front assembly, the holes forthe side rounds are angled slightly inwardat 83° to the plane of the assembly.(See Fig. 1.) To position the assembly atthis angle to the bit, he installs a dowelinto an angled hole in the sled and holdsthe front assembly against the dowel.(See right photo, page 84.)

Alternative Joinery MethodsHarkins didn't always have the efficientjigs and machines he uses today. Beforehe owned a slot mortiser, he used thedrill press to make the headpiece mortis-es. He'd drill a series of 3/8-in. holes andsquare out the holes with chisels.

To drill the holes in the posts, hewould use a 3/4-in. brad-point bit in ahand-held drill. He'd line up the firstseries of holes by placing a stick in theheadpiece mortise as a visual guide forhis drill. To drill the angled holes, he'dassemble the back and front frames, holdthem at the correct distance from eachother on his bench, and sight from oneframe to the other, judging the angle byeye. He'd lay down one assembly, andhold the other upright while he drilledall the holes by hand. Then he wouldrepeat the drilling process with the otherassembly. You could also use the drillpress if you devise a way to hold theworkpiece at the correct angle to the bit.

AMERICAN WOODWORKER ••• OCTOBER 1995 83

ql'

Drilling at an angle. To account forthe splayed seat, Harkins uses thebelly punch to drill the holes in theback assembly at 9JO to' the bit(above). Then he drills the holes inthe front assembly at 83° (right).

When the mortise-and-tenon work isdone, Harkins joins the front and backassemblies with the side rounds, armsand runners. He begins with the siderounds, driving them home withoutglue as before.

At this point, Harkins weaves thebottom and the back of the chair withstrips of hickory bark. (See sidebar, page82.) Once the weaving is complete,Harkins proceeds with the final drillingand assembly, beginning with the arms.

Final AssemblyThe arms are joined to the back postswith tenons and to the front posts by 1-in. dowels wedged and glued throughthe arms and into the tops of the frontposts. (See Fig. i.)

Harkins drills the holes in the tops ofthe front posts (see Fig. 2) with a I-in.brad-point bit in a portable electric drill,and he saws kerfs partway into the dow-els with a bandsaw. Then he glues thedowels into the posts with the saw kerfsparallel to the front of the chair. Thiscrosswise orientation keeps the dowelsfrom splitting the arms when the wedgesare driven into place. He locks the dow-els to the posts by pinning them withsmaller, l/4-in.-dia. dowels. (See Fig. 1.)

Next, Harkins marks and drills thedowel holes through the arms. To layouteach hole, he positions the tenon of thearm in line with the mortise in the backpost and holds the arm over the dowel inthe front post. He marks the dowel loca-tion on the arm and drills the hole on thedrill press with a I-In. spade bit.

To attach the arms, Harkins spreadsglue on the dowels, and drives each arminto its back post and down onto thedowel. He puts a drop of glue into thekerf in the dowel, and drives in a wedge.After sawing any protruding parts of thedowel and wedge, he pares them flushwith the arm.

Working with the chair upside downon his bench, Harkins cuts finishedtenons on the bottoms of the posts witha 3/4-in. plug cutter in a hand drill, cen-tering the cutter on the rough-turnedtenons. (Plug cutters are available fromGarrett Wade, 161 Ave. of the Americas,New York, NY 10013, 800-221-2942.)

Next, he drills holes 13/4 in. from thefront of the runners for the post tenons(see Fig. 2), using a 3/4-in. brad-pointbit in his portable drill. To find the cor-rect angle for the hole, he holds a runnerin place against the posts and visualizesthe hole in line with the front post, thendrills the hole by eye. He aligns this holewith the tenon on the front post, andmarks the location of the hole for theback post. He drills the back holes byhand, eyeballing each hole so it's parallelto the hole at the front of the runner.After he drills these holes, he drives therunners onto the posts without glue.Once attached, the runners will helpkeep the posts from racking.

Pegging the RockerNow that the rocker is assembled,Harkins locks the main joints of thechair by nicking the side of each tenonwith a peg. If he drilled through the

84 AMERICAN WOODWORKER .••• OCTOBER 1995

tenon, its strength would decrease dra-matically. He drills the peg holes with all4-in. bit, judging each location by eye.

Once the holes are drilled, he installsl-in.-Iong pegs. He bevels the showends of the pegs on a belt sander, thentaps them into the posts without glue,leaving them slightly proud of the sur-face as a visual detail.

Finishing UpHarkins uses a wipe-on finish to com-plete the chair. First, he sands all thesurfaces except the woven seat and backwith 220-grit sandpaper. Then heapplies two coats of a 50-50 mixture ofpolyurethane and linseed oil on thesanded areas, sanding between coatswith 220-grit sandpaper. After the sec-ond coat has dried, Harkins covers theentire chair with two coats of a pastyconcoction made from a ratio of 1 quarttung oil to 1 quart linseed oil, plusabout two handfuls of melted beeswaxshavings. He lets the mixture soak for 15minutes, then he wipes off the excesswith a clean rag. A couple more coats ofthe paste (on everything but the seat andback) gives the chair a glow that will lastgenerations ..•••

ANDY RAEmakes frequentjourneys intothe Deep Southand is an assistanteditorofAW