NATCHEZ &045;&045; Danny Dillon sits comfortably in a big wooden rocker on display at Uniquely Natchez, and his ease would be no surprise to his friends.

Dillon, born on the edge of Amite County

near Smithdale and still happy to live there, built the big rocker, one of several for sale at the Main Street shop.

Woodworking suits him, Dillon said. He likes the tools, the materials and the big chairs he makes from wood purchased at J.M. Jones Lumber Co. in Natchez.

A machinist by trade, Dillon worked at International Paper’s Natchez mill from September 1966 until the day the mill closed in the summer of 2003.

&uot;I started making chairs about 20 years ago,&uot; Dillon said. &uot;I had a boss at IP who did it and his father did it, Perry Ferguson; he taught me the basics.&uot;

The chairs, $575 each, are made of smooth, gleaming wood, each part hand made and the chair put together by hand. &uot;It takes about 40 hours to make one chair,&uot; Dillon said.

The chair consists of kiln-dried oak for the main part of the chair, with seats of ash or elm and rockers of willow. &uot;The seats are planed from solid pieces of wood,&uot; Dillon said. &uot;I put the chair together, then the bottom, put the arms on, and the rockers are the last to go.&uot;

Making the back of the chair is about a day’s work, as is making the seat. The completed chair gets three coats of finish.

&uot;The chair should last indefinitely,&uot; he said. Asked whether it was an outdoor porch chair, he said, &uot;I wouldn’t pay $575 for a chair and put it on the porch. It’s a piece of furniture. It’s a laquer finish.&uot;

Throughout the years, he has made perhaps 200 of the big rockers, Dillon said. But there is no comparison between today’s chairs and the ones made years ago.

&uot;You couldn’t tell they were made by the same person,&uot; he said.

He’s proud of his history in rural Southwest Mississippi but said he wouldn’t mind a little traveling some day.

&uot;I went to school at Franklin County High School, finished there in 1965 and went to Southwest Community College,&uot; he said.

One year later, he went to work at International Paper, starting in the pulp mill for eight years and then moving on to become a machinist.

He enjoys woodworking and has made other pieces, but Dillon said he will continue to concentrate on chairs. And he hopes to sell plenty of them. &uot;I definitely make these for the money,&uot; he said.

Meanwhile, he has begun to dabble in painting, and some of his paintings are on display at Uniquely Natchez, also.