After a forced absence, I am ready for a new project. Over the last few years, our household has begun to use slippers indoors in the Japanese fashion. There are always slippers and shoes by our front door. I sit on the stairs to change my shoes. It would be great to have a nice stool by the door.
A few years ago, LOML and I were in Japan. I noticed their stools in Ramen shops and elsewhere. I have a photo of a four-legged version that I would modify. I sketched up some thoughts one afternoon, played around with Sketchup a bit , but decided I would test using a quarter scale model. My dear wife had a bit of balsa lying about searching for a project, so I was set.
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Blotchy fountain pen plan of the Front and Top in my sketchbook (Using an ink I will never buy again)
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Prepping stock - Using a #3 on my shooting board
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Cutting tapered legs
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Stupidly complex glue-up without physical joinery
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Dishing the top
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Top complete and legs are drying with a temporary top stretcher.
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Done! A fine afternoon's work.
I learned a lot from the Mock-up. First, I was satisfied with some design choices I made. Second, It emphasized the need for thought in the order of operations. Third, if I were going to do this on nice wood, I would want to be confident I could pull of the Leg / Seat joinery. I imagined the joint as a through mortise and wedged tenon cut into a curved seat - top and bottom. The joint would need to be clean top to bottom at a complex angle (15 degrees rake, 15 degrees splay). I am thinking of curly maple. So my next bit of preparation will be joinery practice Mock-up.
Disclaimer: Yes, there are easier ways of doing this. Yes, I could use blind tenons, loose tenons, round tenons, pocket screws or sixteen penny nails, but I purposefully picked a difficult joint to execute with hand tools.
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