It's all screws. I took a class with Maloof many years back where he
discussed how he did this. I've also built a couple of these style rockers.
It's nothing more than an end grand to long grain glued joint, drilled
through the rail with 3 to 4 inch screws pulling it tight. Then the screws
are just plugged over with a rosewood or ebony plug for contrast. It's
actually very stable and since the rear legs are well secured at the seat
joint, it's not really a joint that's under high stress. The tenoned back
slats simply sit inside drilled holes in the seat and the crest rail.
If you see a Maloof piece of furniture first hand, the beauty is in the
simplicity and cleanness of the design. The construction usually follows the
same "simplicity". He doesn't do a lot of fancy joinery - it's all simple
and efficient.

Gary in KC

P.S. For another example of these types of rockers try this website
(www.haltaylor.com). He uses much the same joinery as Maloof with a few
design changes (like flexible laminated back slats - it's really a
comfortable design).



"jev" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:09:45 -0700, Jeff wrote:

http://americanart.si.edu/maloof/design/fig171.jpg

Maloof appears to pin the crest rail through the back legs of that
chair. I can understand why he'd pin the chair rail tenons as a
drawbored M&T is quite sturdy indeed. But when he pins the crest rail,
he's boring through end grain. I would think those pins would weaken,
not strengthen, then chair. Then it occured to me. Maloof's not
pinning the crest rail tenon. Despite the round ends, those aren't
pins he's using. They're wedges.

That's just a guess. Am I right?

I believe the crest rail really is screwed to the legs. The
combination of the legs attcahed to seat and crest rail and possibly a
number of slats is very strong. In Sam's own words;
" There are many palces in my furniture where a dowel or
mortise-and-tenon joint just does not work because of the thinness of
the wood;so I use screws. In effect the screw is a metal dowel. I am
not a purist. .... I have no qualms about this." from Sam Maloof
Woodworker.


I am positive he uses screws to reinforce that leg to seat joint which
is sort of signature joint for him.