This shows the back of the headrest of the "George Washington" rocking chair. Truly, one of the most spectacular pieces of wood I have ever seen.

Here is the old foundation of Georges whiskey distillery. The stump of the walnut tree is clearly visible. You can see how the tree sent plenty of roots under the floor where the mash was processed. The building in the background is the old grain mill which provided the raw product for the distillery.

Here I am cutting the rabbets in the leg joints. I prefer doing this operation with the chair seat vertical rather than lying flat on a bench because I can see what is going on much better.

Here are the laminating pieces which will make the back braces for George's chair. There are four thin strips of wood in each of the eight stacks. Notice the "mash influenced" exquisitely wild grain pattern.

These are the billets that will be used to shape the arms for Georges chair. Notice the very nice sweep of the grain in the direction of the arm.

The first step in gluing up the headrest is to glue the billets in pairs using my small Bessey clamps. As long as the bar of the clamp is dead perpendicular to the joint the pieces will not slide out of position when the clamp is tightened.

The headrest billets have been jointed at 5 degrees each and now I plane them by hand prior to gluing them together so the joints will be perfect.

These four billets (one is being repaired and thus not in the photo) will make up the headrest. Each billet has the edges jointed and planed at an angle so the headrest can be glued up in a nice curved shape. (coopered)

This photo shows me bandsawing the 1 & 3/8+ sections of the back leg.

In short fat boards like these it is sometimes difficult to find good wood long enough to make the rockers from. These boards were barely long enough.

This is Georges seat being glued up. The wood was large enough to make a nice two board seat. I never make a single board seat for several reasons, not the least of which is you have no hope for bilateral symmetry.

Once the board is ripped with the small saw the edges need to be cleaned up on the jointer. The next step will be cutting on the table saw. It is my personal preference to leave the faces of the boards rough. Many would run these boards through the planer at this point.

Beginning the cutting process. With big boards like this is always a little nerve-racking, but if you never make that first cut you will never have a chair.

A little turpentine on the boards shows the grain well. You can see how wild the grain is. Could be because the tree sent a great many roots under the diltillery floor where the mash was processed.

These beautiful walnut boards came from a 150 year old walnut that grew in front of George Washington's Distillery in Mount Vernon VA. As you can see the tree was huge. The rebuilding of the distillery required the removal of this tree.