I just received my Sam Maloof dvd today.  I think i have watched it 3 times already.  The guy was such a great craftsman & he seemed like a really nice guy also.  I really fancy having a stab at making a Maloof inspired rocker & i notice you can buy a dvd with full sized templates from Charles Brock for 89.99 USD.

Has anyone bought this set or build a rocker ?

I can recommend this dvd to anyone

Woodguy.

This is the set i had planed to get.

http://www.charlesbrockchairmaker.com/

I have e-mailed them to see if they would ship to the UK & how much it would be.  After watching Sam in action it has inspired me to have a go 

Woodguy

Welcome Davee

Glad to see this thread has encouraged you to make your first post on the FOG.  The chair looks really nice so far, is it black walnut you are using ?  Where did you get your plans, was it from either the places mentioned in the previous posts.  I really want to build this chair & it is good to hear it can be customised to give it a little bit of individuality.

I look forward to seeing more pictures as the build progresses,

Thanks for posting, Woodguy

Thanks Davee.  I don't have a bandsaw which Sam used for sculpting many of the parts including hollowing out the bulk of the seat.  I was planning on using a 4" grinder with an Arbortech carving wheel to remove the bulk.  Do you think this would work or is a bandsaw a must ?

Thanks for returning,
Woodguy

The grinder should work fine for the seat, although it will be really dusty.  I wouldn't (yet) want to  build the rocker without the bandsaw.  I have a 14 inch Jet and puchased the height extender in order to cut the headrest.  I could have finished the headrest without the extender (faster than it took to go buy and install the extender) but it will help with other work in the future.  I suspect a jig saw could be used to cut the rear legs to shape.  The spindles would be the hardest (for me) to cut by hand.  The band saw allows you to get the basic shape of the 7 spindles consistent.  Having said this, I look at the work of the past using all hand tools and am ever more impressed.  Over time I find myself using more hand tools just for the fun of it.  I'm glad I had a bandsaw for the first one.  I suspect I'll be a bit more aggressive on the bandsaw for the next rocker - I'm building a matching hard maple next.  I used hard maple as accent on the rockers on the current, and will use walnut as accent on the maple one.  I didn't use the ebony that was used on the dvd, but it is pretty.  I will do a bit more in using the widely different colors of walnut to blend.

Last year a bunch of us from talkFestool had the opportunity to visit Sam Maloof at his home. Sadly, he passed away just a few weeks later.

He wasn't feeling well the day we visited, so he decided to just give us free run of the place instead of conducting a tour, and that was including his shop, which is pretty rare.

Below is a photo of one of our guys (Poto) standing next to Sam's main Agazzani bandsaw, just to give an idea of the size he used:

It was a GREAT experience, we felt almost like we were walking on "hallowed ground". Here are some more shots in the shop. As you can see from Sam's tool cabinet, great work doesn't necessarily require fancy tools:

On top of being so talented, he was truly a kind and gracious man. Even though he didn't feel well, he invited us in to his living room and chatted with us for quite a while. And then posed for a photo with us:

Wow!!! Great pictures.  Thanks so much for sharing.  I bet that was a fantastic day.  I have a book by Sam Maloof that I really enjoy.  I especially like the picture of the bench.  I'm in the middle of designing a bench based on building the rocker and using the principles I learned.  Seeing the bench is great timing.  Your pictures are better than what's in the book.