The two ancient rocking chairs that we found were in wholly different places in their lives. One was in very good condition (having spent its days in one of the upstairs bedrooms) and was probably a child’s rocker. The other had not lived such a grand life and was the one piece that I was most skeptical about so it was the first piece I began this furniture refinishing journey on. I figured if I screwed this one up it wouldn’t be a tremendous loss. It was a big, ancient, oak rocker that was, rough, gnarly and rickety as could be. It literally was the color of ancient dust and if it had been in a pile of wood in the barn I may not have recognized it as a piece of furniture. It took more sand paper (and more of my time, sweat and skin) then I ever could have imagined and I will be the first to admit wanting to give up on the damned thing more then once. It required quite a bit of wood glue and wood filler and, did I mention, sanding? But my old oak rocker and I survived it. I stained them to match each other and I love how it looks like they’re a pair, the little woman and her man. I also covered them with marine-based sealant (I should just buy stock in the company at this point with how much of this stuff I’m using… its amazing though! I left them out on my deck all Minnesota winter and you can’t even tell they got wet!). Remember I stained the best of the two kitchen tables to match these two chairs? The three of them feel like they belong together, the table turned out to be the perfect height when you’re sitting in either of the rockers. They have a charm, like a family, and I suspect that I will be enjoying the trio for the rest of my life.