How We Build a Rocking Chair — Splats

Splat is a funny word for one of the vertical back pieces in a chair.  Splats are flat in the horizontal dimension, to distinguish them from spindles, but may be curved in the vertical.  They should be curved in their vertical dimension to fit your back.  Try to avoid chairs with straight splats; your back is not straight and needs support along its curve.  Likewise, try to avoid chairs with round spindles; your back is sensitive to the concentrated pressure of narrow bearing surfaces.

The curve of the back splats of a Weeks Rocker is precise.  The splats must be produced true to this line.  We choose a block of wood that will make at least four splats, a piece of wood with straight grain and with its growth rings perpendicular to the edge that will become the face of a splat.  We draw a line with a pattern and cut just outside the line with the bandsaw  (#1).

Then we clamp the block of wood in a carriage to guide it at the shaper where the accurate curve is produced  (#2).

With the help of a marking gauge and a point guide clamped to the bandsaw table, we cut a splat from the block, at the same time making a rough cut for the face of the next splat.  And so on we go: truing the face of a splat at the shaper and sawing the splat from the block at the bandsaw.

Splats must be accurate in another way.  Because they insert directly into mortises in the seat and crest rail, there is no way to hide a gap if they don't fit.  I built an attachment to the table saw to cut the very ends of the splats to the required thickness  (#3).

We must sand out the saw and milling marks  (#4) and fit the thickness of the splat by hand at the chairback sander  (#5).  The splats are tapered on the table saw.  Then the edges are rounded.  These rounded edges must in turn be fit to their individual mortises.

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