A KD Innovation That Knocked Me Down! (figuratively)

In the lexicon of contemporary furniture manufacturing, the identifier “KD” means “knock down,” or basically furniture that comes shipped disassembled so as to take up less space in transport.  This is fairly common, perhaps even dominant, in case pieces like shelving and entertainment centers, etc.  Until recently I was unaware how deeply this concept had become ingrained in the industry to the point that it even has become manifest in seating, even upholstered seating furniture.

Recently we were visiting our daughter for Thanksgiving and went to the thrift store to find a sofa, which we did, but even better found a swivel rocking chair that demonstrated some amazing (to me) innovations that actually worked well!

The first of these was the feature that the back of the upholstered chair was detachable and installed via a pair of vertical steel rods onto which the back was installed by lining up some round mortises in the back with the steel rods projecting upwards from the primary seat rail onto which the seating platform was constructed.

The fitting was smooth and tight, and even imparted a tiny bit of springy-ness to the back when the chair was in use.  It was, truly, among the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever occupied.

A second feature that impressed me was that the swivel and rocking functions of the chair were not active until there was adequate weight on the sitting platform to compress some mechanism inside the chair.  This means that the chair was stable and robust when setting unoccupied, and could be handled and leaned on when passing by.  Given my slight instability, diminishing over time but still present some times, it made for a more pleasant landscape when navigating around the living room.

The chair was not marked with any tags or stamps anywhere, but whoever made made it really impressed me.