Happy Holidays from your favorite rocking chair lover!   Here is a warm and cozy holiday photo of a REALLY interesting chair that combines two styles of Windsor chair that were popular in America's colonial days.    A "sackback" (occasionally called a "hoopback") chair has a single piece of birch (or whatever wood the chair is made of) that has been steam-bent to connect one arm to the other and to support the upper end of the back spines of the chair.   A "comb-back" chair features a styled headrest at the top of the back spines instead.  This particular chair has combined the elements of both.   The back spines extend from the sold seat, through the armrest support, then up through the hoop, and then they keep going up until finally being anchored in the comb.   What a chair!   A bit too much style for some i'm sure, but anyway you have to admire all the engineering and work involved to put that all together.

Some day I'll post about how the history of rocking chairs is intertwined with the history of Windsor chairs - but in the meantime, here is some evidence of that!

These rocking chairs are on the front porch of the lodge at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park Colorado, which adjoins Rocky Mountain National Park.  They are the most comfortable rocking chairs I have ever sat in.   The tags on the backs show they are from Frontera Furniture, and the website says they are called The World's Finest Rocking Chair.  That's a grand name, isn't it.   So anyway it turns out I've seen these rockers before and reviewed them before on this blog here.

Here's what I think makes these chairs so comfortable: first, they are really well sculpted and feel really natural when you sit in them - they sort of take the weight off of your butt because of the way they distribute your weight.    They also have a really nice natural rock angle to them.  Some rockers sit you up really straight which is awful, while others pitch you so far back it makes your neck hurt to read a book.  This one has the perfect angle.   Also I like the heavy substantial feel of the whole thing: the slats, the armrest - everything feels really strong and luxurious, unlike all these cheap Chinese rockers that all the big stores sell.   The ones that creak and bend and then break.

By the way, I can't recommend the Y Camp highly enough.  This place is just gorgeous; it's right at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park and they have what looks like hundreds of cute cabins you can rent, plus several lodges - and loads of things to do for the family in addition to all the amazing hiking everywhere around it.    The view of the mountains from the rocking chairs on the porch is to die for. 

I promised earlier to try to find a great blog I had read about the health benefits of a rocking chair.   I actually didn't find the blog I was looking for, but found another one that may be better!    As always, I prefer such blogs to come from someone who isn't selling rocking chairs - and this is actually from a health website called "Healthy Oils"   So they're not selling rockers!

These are really interesting and compelling benefits, spanning from joint health, blood circulation, mental health benefits, to balance.

Perhaps my favorite one is this one - I totally agree with this.   Rocking really does give you a "good feeling", and sometimes this is the release of endorphins.

"Rocking causes the release of endorphins that elevates the mood and relieves pain plus rocking can even lead to some weight loss as you burn 150 calories per hour with this form of exercise."

So without further ado, here are ten health benefits of a rocking chair! 

When you search for "rocking chairs", you generally get a load of store listings.   Sometimes that's what folks are looking for, but sometimes I'm just looking for some good advice and info.   I found a great blog about rocking chairs i want to share (besides this one, of course my most favorite!).   It's called The Iconic Rocking Chair and it's on the website for a company that sells restoration products for furniture (Van Dyke's Restorers).   Some interesting stuff on the history of the rocking chair (even answers the titillating question "did Benjamin Franklin invent the rocking chair?"), and brings up the subject of whether rocking is actually good for you from a medical perspective (I once saw a really good article on that so when I find it sometime, I'll post a link to it here). 

Regarding the photo I posted here, which came from the Iconic Rocking Chair website: these are ladderback rocking chairs, which I think are so appealing.   Very few ladderback rockers are made today but back in the late 19th century, they were quite popular.   One reason they are not popular these days is that some people find ladderbacks uncomfortable on their backs.   It depends on the person, but if one of the back slats rests right under your shoulder blades, it can be a bit annoying.   If you ever do find a great ladderback rocking chair that fits you just right, you can probably safely keep it on you porch and not have to worry about too many other people trying to sit in your chair!

We've all seen them - those too good to be true deals at Home Depot or Wal-Mart, where you see something for $99 that seems to be "just as good" as what you'd pay $400 anywhere else for!  The photo on the box always looks great - have you noticed how much better it looks than the one sitting in front of you on the store floor?   But even the one in the store is probably better than the one in the box.  After all, if they set up a chair that has a defect, they probably return it and set up another one!

Well, here's one of those deals - and what the photos don't make clear, I'll explain.  First, the rocker is spindly - it has thin parts, which would be fine if it were made of a really strong wood - but it's not.  Strong woods are too expensive and hard on machinery to be used in bargain furniture.  You can feel it when you pick it up.  You can also tell when you try to shake the chair or twist it a bit.  Chairs should be firm and not twist - but a cheap chair will.  It often squeaks or click as the wood parts or screws move and pop against each other.  Over time, a rocker like that will break.  Not only is the wood brittle (and will become more brittle with time), but the hardware is cheap and the screws will break.  It always amazes me when a Chinese factory saves like 25 cents by using cheap screws made from pot metal instead of good screws that will last.   A penny saved in China is worth a dollar to the American customer - but the decision gets made in China, and we have no way of knowing the decision they made - but I can tell you they save the penny every time.

Also, look at the paint quality on this rocker.  you can see the drip marks on the slats of the chair - totally avoidable with decent painting equipment, an ounce of care by the painter, or by the virtually non-existent quality control department.  You can see the marks on the finish left by wrapping the armrest before the paint was dry.  There's no way to fix that other than re-sanding the arm and then re-painting - and your spraypaint won't match!

Well there you go, you've gotten me started ranting about low quality furniture again.  Well, that gets me every time!

Someone sent me this photo of "the world's largest cedar rocker."  I guess I don't doubt this to be true, either!  Note not only the scale of this monster (that's not a little boy standing next to it), but also the guy wires anchoring it to the ground!  I guess it would be a pretty big hazard to have a 25 foot tall rocking chair rocking its way down the street or across the parking lot.

But since the purpose of this site is to comment on the relative comfort and quality of rocking chairs, I will just say that this rocker is probably more comfortable than some of the ones that pass for quality furniture at stores!  When you look at the flat seat and back on this huge rocker, you can probably guess that the reason they constructed it this way was that flat construction is a lot cheaper than contoured wood and ergonomically designed arms or backs - and you'd be right.  It's no surprise to see a gimmick chair like this one constructed this way, with cheap shortcuts that detract from comfort and quality.  But it is terrible to see those same shortcuts used in furniture sold in stores.  But alas, those two exact shortcuts - flat seats and backs - are as common as can be.  Read my other posts if you want to learn more about what makes a great rocker.

A little gross, perhaps - but this is the actual chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated.  This upholstered rocking chair was in the box at Ford's Theater in Washington, but was since moved to the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, so not many people have seen it (as least, not as many as if it were in Washington).  You can see the bloodstains from Lincoln's head wound even now.   Ouch.  The museum is the American history in the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village, just southwest of Detroit. (For more information, go to Greenfield Village.)

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

I've warned you before on my blog about buying one of these cheap $99 rocking chairs the big box retailers seem to love selling.   I've told you stories about those everpresent Cracker Barrel Rocking Chairs, which look homey but aren't that comfortable and are not weatherproof, so they rot and break if your porch has lots of sun and rain, as most do.  I've shared stories about the dreadful Lowe's Rocking Chairs, which are ramrod straight and not even comfortable, break right when you assemble them, and if you're lucky enough not to break it then, it will break on you later, perhaps while you're sitting in it.

But surely, you wonder, these big box companies wouldn't sell furniture if it was dangerous, would they?   Actually, yes!  You get what you pay for, and these $99 Chinese import rocking chairs are actually dangerous and hurt people when they sit in them, as happened when Walmart recalled 643,000 of their Walmart rocking chairs after 45 people were injured in various painful ways.  That report from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission called the rockers "dangerous" due to "poor construction" and said "Consumers should immediately stop using these rocking chairs and return them to Wal-Mart for a full refund".

Here is what they said happened to people who bought these cheap rocking chairs (again quoting the US government report):
Wal-Mart has received 55 incident reports including 45 injuries. Those injuries include a cut in the leg requiring 16 stitches, a slight concussion, fractured ribs, wrist and cervical/lumbar sprains, upper back injuries, a pinched nerve, a shoulder joint tear, and one incident in which a pregnant woman began having contractions after the display chair in which she was sitting flipped over backwards. Many of the injuries occurred on display models in Wal-Mart stores.

OK, those really sound painful.   It can feel good to think you're saving money, but please realize that you do often get what you pay for, and when it comes to furniture, buying something of good design and quality construction is really important...to your health!

It's Memorial Day and time to rock out!   Saw this white rocking chair on a porch near the beach we were visiting, and, seeing a "for lease" sign, figured I would go up to the deck and take a beautiful picture!   Of course, when I got close to the chair, I could see it's a cheap one - a bit rickety, put together by visible hardware (which is already degrading in the seabreeze and humidity), and already rotting in the joints as almost all rockers do.  You have to get a rocker made of a weatherproof wood if you're going to leave a rocker outside!  I didn't sit in this one - after all, I wasn't invited to the house anyway! - but I could tell what it would feel like - stiff and cheap - and didn't really want to.   So basically what you have here is a rocker that makes for a beautiful, peaceful scene, but not what you would want to invest in if you are going to live with it.  And hey, if you put your house on the market, you should consider high quality, not low quality porch furniture - otherwise discerning buyers will assume your house is cheap too!

My last post was a photo of the rocking chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot.  Here is another rocking chair of Lincoln's, from happier days (though that's not saying much, is it). 

This rocker is in the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, IA.  When the Lincoln family left Springfield for Washington, they sold their house and many of their possessions. This rocking chair, used by Lincoln in his Springfield law office, was purchased at Lincoln's sale by a Springfield family.

Could use a cushion, I think.