Barstools

I was contacted by a former customer who had another order for me.  I believe he said that his Sister asked him if I could build her a set of four bar stools.  Having just completed the Doug Box project shortly before this….I was fully confident in my ability to now tackle splayed out legs (as had been used on the dough box project) and the bar stools would definitely make use of that technique.  So, I took on the task and the picture shows the results.  Using all quarter sawn red oak, I was looking to prevent as much laminating as possible to fabricate the legs.  I had a beautiful slab of red oak in my stock pile that would have allowed me to make the legs in one thick piece.  Trouble was….I only had enough for twelve legs and I needed a total of sixteen.  The trouble with that situation is…I didn’t have any more of the particular red oak that the other legs were made from.  All of the red oak I had in stock was of a lighter hue.  A work around to this problem is that we went with an artsy kind of idea and utilized three of the darker legs and one of the lighter, laminated legs.  In the laminated legs, I sunk a set of three walnut dowels….two 1/4’’ dowel inlays surrounding a larger 1/2’’ dowel inlay…..just for decorative flair.    Not something I would want to do with all of my projects, but it was making lemonade out of lemons….so to speak.

I used my beading bit to run a nice corner bead on the outside of each leg to add further visual interest.  Stretchers down below and up under the seat were all mortice and tenon joints into the legs.  These tenons were acquired thanks to my recent purchase of the new Powermatic tenon jig.  Everything leg-wise was based on a 5 degree angle.  Nothing unusual about this particular project….well, with the exception that I decided that because of the use and wear and tear that these stools may get exposed to….I decided to not spray them with my usual Deft lacquer concoction.  I wanted to make use of some Polyurethane that I have had laying around the shop for a number of years.  The poly would offer a much more durable finish to stand up to people sliding on and off the seats and probably stand up to the scuffing of feet on the bottom stretchers.  The only problem was….I had to brush the Poly on and since I have been using my HVLP Wagner spray gun for a number of years, I HATE to manually brush on a finish anymore.  However, I did and while I do love the deep and thick finish that it afforded the stools, I still would much more prefer my Deft lacquer and spray gun.