Dane Sampson: Travels with woodwork

Words and process photos: Dane Sampson
Studio photos: Sam McLaren
Illustration: Graham Sands

I have always wanted to be a woodworker. As a small child I often said was going to be a carpenter when I grew up. I always had a desire to work with wood, be it turning, repairing, designing or building. I don’t recall when I first began delving  into woodcraft, but I was 13 when my mum’s father gave me his lathe and I tried turning – and that was when I truly found my love of woodworking.

Woodwork has been in my family going back to the mid-1800s – my paternal great grandfather was a carpenter and I use some of his tools to this day. I have two wood infill planes that I use in a lot of my work, one of which I use as a finishing plane and which I believe dates from the 1870s. I try to finish a lot of my work straight off the tool and avoid using sandpaper whenever I can.

I started my apprenticeship in 2004 in antique restoration and custom furniture north of Brisbane. After finishing my apprenticeship in 2008 I began working for Barnes Construction and Joinery. Most of that time was spent working on the restoration of St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane. Working with Barnes is where I obtained most of my knowledge of the technicalities of tuning hand planes, and of traditional joinery practices.

From there I took some leave from woodwork to pursue my sporting goals. I still did odd jobs here and there in Adelaide, including building a custom staircase made from jarrah. The staircase took up about six months of work spread over about two years whilst I competed and travelled for my sport. I spent some time working with another joinery until acquiring a workshop of my own in 2022.

Design influences

The design of this rocker comes from several influences. Firstly, I wanted to make a comfortable and ergonomic lounge chair, one that I would have in my own home. I studied two pictures taken the same day of my parents sitting in the same chair, the same way. I can’t see the chair but imagined from how they are sitting what it might look like. It was important that the chair was aesthetically pleasing but also functional and comfortable. I particularly wanted to focus on back support.

On one of my sporting trips to Sweden I sat in a Bruno Mathsson Pernilla lounge chair, a piece owned by a friend of mine and very much enjoyed how it was instantly comfortable and supportive. I also liked the criss-cross webbing used as  the upholstery. The Pernilla chair, like most of Bruno’s work, is made up of laminated parts, common for mid- century Scandinavian furniture. My love of joinery, and also not having the equipment needed to produce laminations to the standard I would like, led me down a different path.

I have always liked Art Nouveau design, particularly the large curves, and these often find their way into my designs. Maybe there is a hidden influence from my great grandfather as he was producing furniture in the early 1900s, the middle of the Art Nouveau period.

Developing a design

When designing furniture I begin with an idea as a whole, envisioning the finished piece, rather than the function or frame. I like to start with a shape that appeals to my eye and then figure out what kind of furniture I can apply it to. Because of this I do a lot of my design sketches with charcoal rather than pencil. From a charcoal sketch, I then do full size drawings on MDF that I take all measurements from and use as a pattern guide. The sketch and the drawing help me make sure the proportions are correct and pleasing to the eye.

The initial sketch for this chair was the side frame, however it was some time before I worked on the design again. It wasn’t until a friend in Sweden asked if I could make her a rocking chair for a nursery as she was expecting her first child. I thought of my charcoal sketch and said, ‘Well I just happen to have a design that could be perfect’.

Some of the design features were made with the idea that the person sitting in it would be nursing a baby. I wanted the curved arms to support the elbows in a natural position, and the angle of the back had to be comfortable for long periods and provide enough support for a parent and growing child. I didn’t want the chair to look like a typical nursery rocking chair – it had to stand the test of time aesthetically.

One of the problems I faced was how to get the chair from Australia to Sweden without a significant shipping cost. I considered building it in Sweden, but this presented its own complications. Ultimately, I decided the design would be the solution to the problem – the seat and back would be a foldable unit with separate side frames – three pieces which could be easily transported and put together.

Making the chair

Because of the large curves and areas with some short grain I chose to use American rock maple. Rock maple is tight grained and strong, which allowed me to make the shapes from solid wood. My old Wadkin patternmakers mill came in very handy as almost nothing on the chair is straight or square.

Every joint has mortise and tenon joinery. Because of the complex nature of the irregular mortise and tenon joints in the side frame I had to make multiple patterns – some to include the tenon, and some without for the shoulders of the joint.

The part of the side frame where three structural pieces meet with a mortise a third of the way along and a tenon at the end of each, as seen in photo 1, needs very precise fitting and was the most difficult to get perfect.

The side frame parts were first machined with the patternmakers mill, before making fine adjustments so the joint was perfect, not only in isolation, but in relation to the other two joints. Any mis-fitting of these joints takes away from the strength in the frame and will compound at the extremities, meaning the left and right-side frames won’t match up.

With three mortise and tenon joints opposing each other, adjusting one joint in turn means adjusting all joints (photo 2). However once fitted, these three joints create a triangulated and therefore very strong structure which the rest of the chair is built off.

Once this three-piece structure is glued, the other components can be added one at a time. I first made a block that the rockers were cut from (photo 3), and then fitted the rear leg tenon.

From that, the front leg and seat frame support rail could be made. With each piece added I left plenty of material on the rocker block so any fine adjustments to the joinery could be made as I went along (photo 4 above, 5 below).

The last part of the side frame is cutting out the rockers with the final shaping done after the last glue-up.

The back and the seat are simple, square frames built to match the shape of the side frames and to create a smooth and simple silhouette (photos 6, 7).

The cross-member rails for the seat and back are curved to allow for the give in the upholstery so there won’t be timber under the seat or in the lower back area of the person seated. The seat frame needs to be substantial enough to take the force the webbing puts on the structure as it is fitted (photos 8, 9 below).

The whole construction is held together with two different sizes of custom brass bolts that I designed and that my father, a welder, machined (photos 10, 11). I chose white cotton webbing for the fabric, in keeping with the light Scandinavian look I was aiming for. In future I would like to use Danish webbing as this high quality product will work beautifully with the Scandinavian style of the chair.

Although I used patterns and profile router cutters where I could, there was still a lot of hand work shaping different parts like the arms and rockers. The rock maple was a pleasure to work and has quickly become one of my favourite timbers. To best show the timber and keep a soft look, the chair was finished in tung oil and a wax product. This finish works particularly well on hard dense timbers like rock maple. It is also very easy to replenish and helps to produce a beautiful patina.

Getting to Sweden

For the trip to Upssala, I flat packed the chair parts in a blanket to cushion blows and then wrapped the entire package in cling wrap. The whole package weighed only 18kg, making it easy to tuck it under my arm while jumping on a train. At my friend’s house in the Swedish countryside, I was able to put the chair together in minutes in her lounge room with minimal tools as she made dinner for her husband, newborn son and I.

The moment before a person sees the product you express yourself through is fraught with anxiety and expectation, however the moment they see it and love it makes all the hard work worthwhile. When someone orders an original piece and gives me the chance to design it, I always name the piece after them, hence calling it the Tessen rocker.

My goal is always to create something with a story before it is even made. To have that story grow as the piece ages, as people and family memories fill its grain and become part of it and their lives for generations.

The table your family sat at as a child, a turned sculpture your father rests his watch on, a stool your mother has for her glasses and tea, a bookshelf your sister makes a library from and a rocking chair a friend nurses her child in... All just start out as a stick of timber. An idea and someone trying to express their creativity through their passion. That’s what makes every piece unique and special. That is what I aim for with all my designs and that’s what pushes me to always strive for the highest quality I can produce. Art with wood to last through the ages.

Aside from being an accomplished woodworker, Dane Sampson has competed at the London 2012, Rio 2016 and 2021 Toyko Olympic Games, and is now competing in this year’s Paris Olympics. His sport has taken him to 33 countries and he has been regarded as the best for his respective events in Australia for the last 10 years. He started shooting at the age of 12, around the same time his woodworking life also began. ‘There are certainly some parallels between rifle shooting and woodwork’, he says. ‘Like any two trades or practices, when aiming for high quality performance the mental attitude is always the same. Problem solving and focus are skills that can be practised in both, and the sensitivity with hand eye coordination is needed for both also.’

Learn more about Dane Sampson at www.genotfurniture.com