Popular Woodworking 2008-06 № 169, страница 60

- Great Woodshops -

A fine edge. Here, Skiver is using a spokeshave to refine the edge of the On an angle. After the seat is roughly shaped, the angled holes for the stool seat. legs are tweaked using a brace and spoon bit.

The four holes for the leg tenons are drilled while the seat blank is still somewhat square. These holes are drilled at a compound angle, and this task was my first encounter with spoon bits. When teamed with a brace, spoon bits have an uncanny ability to cut compound-angled holes in wood. Spoon bits excel at this task because they can be steered should the angle need to be tweaked after the drilling process has begun. Given the variation possible in the joints ofa handcrafted chair, spoon bits make it easy to ensure a good fit at each joint.

Another unique experience I encountered in buildingthisstool was heating the stretcher ends in hot sand prior to fitting them to the legs. Because the stool is made of green wood, "cooking" the tenons of the stretcher drives off moisture and causes the tenons to shrink. The stretcher joints are fitted and assembled in this shrunken state. Over time as the entire stool reaches equilibrium, the mortises will also shrink and the joints will become even tighter.

Excavation Methods

Excavating the seat of the stool provided another opportunity to use tools I had never encountered. Using the coarsest tool possible for each step of the process meant the adze was the first steel that began hogging out lumber in the area where my backside would soon sit. Next, a scorp was used to further define the shape. The scorp is sometimes called an inshave, and it looks like a drawknife that has been wrapped around a 4"-diameter pipe during a late-night episode of the World's Strongest Man competition on cable television.

After the scorp work has turned the wooden blank into something that looks a great deal like a seat, the travisher is used to finish the excavation process.

The work in seat excavation is governed by the influence of the grain as it relates to the compound curves. The travisher is used to cut "downhill," so the cutting process is a dynamic experience of judging grain direction, blade orientation and cut elevation to avoid tear-out. After a couple minutes, the technique becomes intuitive and good results follow. (It also helps to remember that milk paint will cover a multitude of sins.)

Satisfyingly Functional

Although this class was to be an introduction to duplicate turning and chairmaking fundamentals, I am very happy with the functionality of Abeel's saddle seat stool design. I

recently built a behemoth workbench that I plan to use for the next 100 years or so, and this stool is an ideal complement during the times 1 want to get off of my feet, rest my elbows on the benchtop and ponder the challenges of planing interlocking grain.

And there is something extra special about sitting on this stool knowing that I also sat on the log that it was made from. I saw two oxen named Marco and Polo pull a log out of the woods, and three days later I had a stool that I will keep for the rest of my life. Tillers International is providing instruction that is clearly helping people all over the world (see the story on page 78), but on a personal level, they gave me a weekend class that was the experience ofa lifetime. PW

leff Skiver may well be the world's funniest woodworker - really. Discover his sometimes-warped sense of humor atieffskiver.blogspot.com.

Ready for paint.

The stool on the left is ready for paint; the one on the right needs but the top of the legs trimmed flush with the seat.

12 ■ Popular Woodworking June 2008