My Maloof Rocker (Part 2)

Step 2:  Rough out the seat.
The seat is a lamination of 5 boards measuring 22”x4”x2”.  You could use one big slab of 22”x20”x2” if you like, but having the parts separated facilitates the ‘butt-groove’ carving.  Once I had the 5 boards milled and squared, I drew the layout of the seat with a template while having all the boards clamped together. The template was made out of 1/8 inch plywood.

Rocker Seat Parts

I also drew the side layout to indicate where to remove the waste. I did not use a template for the side layout; I eye-balled it. I started with the middle board (#3) and scooped away as much material as I could with the band saw.  Once #3 was done, you can stick #2 and #4 in turn next to it and trace the outline created by the band saw. For the 2 end pieces (#1 and #5), you can’t remove much of the waste with the band saw without getting in trouble, so I kept those as is.
After I scooped out as much waste as I could with the band saw, I turned to hand tools. I used a spoke shave, pull shave, block plane and a rasp. You need to be careful not to tear out the side edges on the board because this will be visible when you glue up the boards.
At this point, you will also need to cut some notches where the front and back legs will later be attached. For the front legs, you can cut a dado that is about 1 ¼” wide by ¼” deep 18” from the back of the seat. This is done on board #1 and #5. For the back legs, I cut out a 2” deep x 3” wide notch.  The 3” cut was made at a 5 degree angle, so that the back legs will splay out. This was cut on the table saw with a tall fence in the miter gauge. These notches will be routed later for the joinery.
Step 3: Glue up the seat.
To assist in the glue and also to add some strength, you can use dowels. The dowels I used where 3/8”. I bored some holes  about ¾” deep in each board. 2 holes in the front and 1 at the back. You can stagger the location of the dowels; this should add more stability to the seat.

Dowels, ready for glue up!

Once glued up, I continued to use a pull-shave to carve the seat. This was a great workout! 
An angle grinder with a carving wheel can also be used to carve the seat, this should be quicker but it will generate quite a bit of dust.  I also cut the front of the seat with the band saw to give 2 nice curves.

Then, with a bit of sanding with an orbital sander …

With some sanding...

Cheers!