As the 3 students from the Brazos rocker class finished up their chairs on Saturday evening, there are many words that describe the feeling: fulfillment, satisfaction, camaraderie, and exhaustion!

Every one of the students completed their chairs and they all turned out beautiful. It took a total of 12 class days with some of the days working into the evenings. There is so much to do from hand cutting all the mortise and tenons to shaping all the parts with the spokeshave, then carving the seat with a scorp and a travisher and finally finishing with a scraper.

Each person will have to do some touch up sanding and then apply an oil finish.

One of the biggest challenges at the end of the class is fitting the chair into the back of the car! Here, Frank is putting it in the back seat of his car- it barely fit.

Congratulations to Tim, who finished the class on Saturday evening, then drove home to Austin that night and got up the next morning to run the annual Austin Marathon! I thought finishing the chairs was a marathon in and of itself.

I thought I would post a few pictures of the work during the second week.

Here Tim is shaping the back of the chair with a 2 ½ inch chisel, otherwise referred to as a slick.

The fit is tested with a feeler gauge and is accurate to 3 thousands of an inch!

Then the carving begins as Tim uses a scorp to rough out the seat.

Frank is using a travisher, which is simply a curved spokeshave. This one is actually one that we made here at the school and is copied from an antique.

Greg is shaping his rocker on the shaving horse.

And some much needed rest as they all relax in their finished chairs.

Well the first week has come and gone for the students in the Brazos Rocker course. As some of you may know, this chair is a complex rocking chair with many hand cut mortise and tenons and lots of shaping done with the spokeshave.

This past week was spent cutting many mortises by hand, as well as hand cutting the tenons. The key to this chair is to cut the joinery first, and then shape the curves, which is done with the spokeshave. The shaving horse really makes it quite easy to hold the parts while working on them.

We will just have one more week to complete the chairs, which includes, shaping the back legs, gluing up the back assembly, cutting the angled tenons as well as the seat, arms and rockers! We certainly have a lot to do, but everyone should leave with a finished chair.

If you are interested in attending the next Brazos Rocker Course you will need to have taken the Foundational Course first. The next Brazos Course is Scheduled for August 22nd. Click HERE to register.