Birch Perch

Finding time to start making furniture, even simple pieces, has eluded me. So despite the list of urgent jobs I put things aside last week to work on my first stool. I thought I'd pick something simple enough to be able to assemble in a few days though I modified the basic post and rung recipe enough to cause me some problems. The first problem being my decision to use birch rather than ash. The wood for the legs is spalted (the first signs of decay in the wood introduces colour along the grain) and it makes the wood softer in places.


I also had not thought through the need to have dry rungs to slot into the slightly green posts(legs) otherwise the joints will slacken as the wood contracts. Normally this entails a gap of several days between making the rungs and being able to turn down the tenons for assembly. Luckily a previous false start left me with enough dry roughed out blanks to make the stool, though harder work to finish off the dried wood. Rather than borrow a drill bit I tried to resurrent one of my many augur bits for a brace. In hindsight a mistake since the bit is still a little damaged and tends to tear on the softwood. I made a lot of test joints like the one here to practice, as I only had four spalted legs so no mistakes allowed on the real ones.


The rungs around the top or seat of the stool need to be shaved to shape as the seat material is woven around them. They are normally oval to help retain strength laterally. The birch was quite knotty and with twisty grain so no matter how much I sharpened the drawknife I still could not finish the wood neatly. So I had my first, and much needed. lesson in cabinet scraping, Many thanks to David and Derrick for patiently instructing me in the arcane art of sharpening and using my scraper.


Only a couple of minutes with the scraper resurrected the surface of this rung from being nasty to a finish thats quite acceptable.


The first pair of posts and rungs assembled. It's taller than a foot stool, I've made it coffee table height, with the aim of using it as a stool for playing my guitar. No disasters so far. Only another 8 perfect holes to drill with a manky bit and soft spalted wood. Asking for it really!


The stool went together quite well. It's assembled but not yet glued. The last two legs split out slightly at the top rungs while being drilled, mainly due to the soft wood, but the spalting looks good and it's square. I don't have enough wood to make another two legs, which might do the same again so I'll have to glue it up later this week with the splits. I've learn't a massive amount (about how not to do it as well as how to do it) in just a few days, many thanks to David, Derrick & Veronica and the others for their endless encouragement.