Dear Good Hours.
In a lot of respects I feel like 2023 has been a year filled with me trying to jump Double Dutch Skip Rope with one leg and no natural rhythm. I feel like I’m working constantly towards goals while juggling flaming torches AND family politics, and at the same time, I feel like I’ve barely put the final punctuation on much of anything.
Ehhh…. there’s always next year.
But I’m pretty sure the desire to complete something is what drove me into the shop today. Not that I ever need much pushing if I’m feeling healthy.
Yesterdays Viking Day demonstration at The Castlerock Museum of Arms and Armor (my Disneyland!) went great. The pair of stools I built based on my memories of the historical find I know as The Lund Stool. I blatantly stole this image in a Google search, I’m not even 100% sure who to credit. So we will just see if I’m important enough for someone to come for me!
But today is today, and even though the stools were sturdy and stable and even comfortable enough to hold a guy who is NOT used to sitting much - I decided by the end of the day that some stretchers between the legs would improve the whole experience.
Searching to count coup on a project that isn’t auto repair or home improvement, I walked the stools back out to the shop this morning.
Lo and Behold, I was confronted by a trio of legs left from Friday.
And I also had a section of 2x12 seat material left over. Not enough to make a third stool…. But enough to make a little side table to hold the bourbon glasses or beers of those occupying the stools.
It took me a minute and some short soul searching to decide between an octagon and a hexagon table top. The hexagon won out because 1) old D&D game maps 2) hexagon is a more uncommon shape in modern woodworking and 3) three legs balance out in a hexagon. Sold!
I grabbed a pair of dividers with a pencil attached and a straight edge. Don’t know how to lay this out? Pick up George Walker and Jim Tolpin’s “By Hand and By Eye” over at Lost Art Press. (Google it yourself… I’m not your link simp.)
I Sharpie’d the lines that were more important in the final product, but you can see all the lay out lines here, all done with a pair of dividers, with a little 8:5 assist from a “Sector” (look it up with Jim Tolpin if you don’t know! This is good basic design shit people. Get on the bus!)
With everything marked out I decided to drill and ream the leg mortises before sawing out the tabletop.
I just used one of my angle guides still set up from drilling the seats. Looks like I’m a little off in the picture… such is actual work over “theoretical” work. Little variations matter little in the finished thing.
I spent some time cutting the hexagon with my tablesaw, and adding a bevel to the underside that still left some strength to the leg tenons. The Sharpie lines you see are reminding me of the grain direction so I can place the legs with their eventual wedges running perpendicular to the grain. No need to split this precarious little table if I don’t have to.
The experiment turned out to be a success. One leg is a little “short bus” but it will integrate just fine with society. There’s not much to worry about there.
I set the side table to the side… it was time to add some stretchers to the legs of these stools. I wished I had 3/8” dowel stock in the shop, but no way in hell was I gonnna make a Menards run. I had a bunch of 1/4” dowels here… good fucking enough.
I had a couple ideas for the stretchers. I layed them both out using rubber bands to see what I wanted to do.
The first thought was something based on MC Escher’s Infinite Stairway. It didn’t play well to my eyes. Back to the drawing board
A high front stringer and an offset pair of back stringers. Hopefully making a triangle when viewed straight on.
I spent a little while setting the rubber bands to make the lines I wanted, using the seat of the stool as the reference. Once I was set I drilled a shallow starting hole with a short drill bit and then chucked in my longest 1/4” bit.
I swiveled my head a lot to try and make sure the hit was filling the rubber band’s trajectory, but more than a little I just trusted my educated hands and eyes.
Experience pays dividends. You can’t teach it, you just have to fuck up enough to acquire it!
The picture doesn’t look like I’m following the rubber band, but I’d used the band to make a mark on the far leg, and once I’d set the trajectory through the 1st leg, I could use some thumb pressure to make the bit land where I wanted. Once the dowel sinks into place things will look straight.
Looking now… this is a decent shot of the templates, posters, and drawings I have hanging on the back wall of my shop.
I tapped the 1/4” dowels home and set them with a little hide glue. I was very pleased the triangle i was shooting for showed through. Again, I wished I had some thicker dowels on hand, 3/8” would have been perfect.
Still I’m good with the result.
This is the trio as I ended the afternoon. There’s clean up in the stools. Leg leveling and a lot of cleanup on the table… maybe some more stretchers just because…
Then a little final sanding and probably some paint. A little bit more and I will find something to call finished this year!
I kinda need to be able to say that.
Love Derek
Ratione et Passionis
Great job! I get the 2023 slump. Somehow the entire year has gotten away from me, and finally, just finally getting that turned around in late October. Hopefully that means I’ll hit 2024 with momentum. I like your stretcher solution and the thin dowels made me think of how a rope stretcher might be kind of cool especially with 3 legs. I also agree that the hexagon is underrepresented in woodworking. I made a hex stick chair a few years ago and like it a lot, one of the designs I’d like to revisit again, now that I have “experience” using better timber.