Photos. Birbs. Wood. Food.

Spalted Elm Shop Stool

Originally written May 9, 2017

Completed shop stool

Back in February, I bought a large slab of spalted elm I'm using to build a new workbench. A piece from the end of the slab was big enough for a stool, so I decided to build a tall and sturdy shop stool for myself.

Slab of elm. This will become a seat

Two corners cut off the slab

I cut two corners off a rectangular piece, then shaped the legs from red oak using a jig and a jack plane. Took another piece of red oak and spoke-shaved it down to make a stretcher, and built another jig to drill the angled holes in the legs for the stretcher. Then made the final stretcher from a scrap of white oak, and built yet another jig for the hole in the back leg, as that's at a different angle than the first two legs.

Red oak stretcher

Some holes and some glue, a little clean-up with a card scraper on the legs.

Legs in the stool, stretcher between the legs, clamped with brightly colored vet-wrap

Carved the seat using spokeshaves and trial and error. Finish it all with three coats of BLO and I have a completed stool.

Stool with a flat seat - carving of the seat is next

The design is loosely based on a stool made by Chris Schwarz.

#project #woodworking #shopFurniture

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