Just had a lovely weekend up in the lakes and spent some quality time with my better half yesterday on a traditional stool making course. I wanted to share the experience as our course leader Gareth Thomas was brilliant and his family business Woodmatters deserves to be shouted about.
We got to the site for 9am, which was national trusts footprint, a lovely outdoor space with a large building ideal for indoor courses as well as a large canopy area for outdoor crafts in worse weather. Thankfully it was to be a scorcher of a day so we were able to be out on the grass area adjacent. Tea and coffee were plentiful as well as biccies and as well as some stunning lemon drizzle cake
We started by splitting and cleaving the legs from locally sourced Ash, some of the knotty sections were good fun to split! Those making benches/tables had a whole round split into quarters- we had chosen to make a 3 legged stool so we split a round into 6.
Next we roughed out the legs with the axe, Gareth had brought a great range of tools so I had a lot of fun trying different axes out, and we joked about how you used to be able to buy a gransfors for 50 quid! The GB carving axe was the winner for me, really nice weight. The wildlife hatchet was just too light IMO.
The next step was finishing the legs, with the drawknife on the shave horse. I've got to get me a shave horse. Very therapeutic exercise! Good quality tools again, Ray Iles drawknives used. When the shape was done, we used a special tool like a big pencil sharpener to accurately take the leg tops down to 1".
The next step was drilling the holes in the top. We had selected larch, but we also had the choice of oak. The grain on the larch just seemed to pop, and it was a new wood to me so I thought why not. Drawing on angles and measuring up for the holes was taking me back to school. We drilled the holes with a 1" auger bit and brace, which is tough but precise work, this will test you! 14 degrees is the magic number for the tilt in the legs.
After holes were drilled, the boards were sanded with 40 all around then 80 grit on top for a better finish. The next step was checking the legs for fit, then removing legs and cutting the slots for wedges, done I pairs with one person clamping the work in the shave horse and another cutting the slot with the saw.
After fitting the right size wedges (oak) and cutting the excess flush with a fancy and dainty Japanese saw, the tops were sanded down once more to bring everything nice and flush.
Then the piece was levelled up using a great little trick. You'll have to go on the course to find that out though
Et Voila! Our 2 stools and the other benches that were made on the day, each hand built and unique.
We got to the site for 9am, which was national trusts footprint, a lovely outdoor space with a large building ideal for indoor courses as well as a large canopy area for outdoor crafts in worse weather. Thankfully it was to be a scorcher of a day so we were able to be out on the grass area adjacent. Tea and coffee were plentiful as well as biccies and as well as some stunning lemon drizzle cake
We started by splitting and cleaving the legs from locally sourced Ash, some of the knotty sections were good fun to split! Those making benches/tables had a whole round split into quarters- we had chosen to make a 3 legged stool so we split a round into 6.
Next we roughed out the legs with the axe, Gareth had brought a great range of tools so I had a lot of fun trying different axes out, and we joked about how you used to be able to buy a gransfors for 50 quid! The GB carving axe was the winner for me, really nice weight. The wildlife hatchet was just too light IMO.
The next step was finishing the legs, with the drawknife on the shave horse. I've got to get me a shave horse. Very therapeutic exercise! Good quality tools again, Ray Iles drawknives used. When the shape was done, we used a special tool like a big pencil sharpener to accurately take the leg tops down to 1".
The next step was drilling the holes in the top. We had selected larch, but we also had the choice of oak. The grain on the larch just seemed to pop, and it was a new wood to me so I thought why not. Drawing on angles and measuring up for the holes was taking me back to school. We drilled the holes with a 1" auger bit and brace, which is tough but precise work, this will test you! 14 degrees is the magic number for the tilt in the legs.
After holes were drilled, the boards were sanded with 40 all around then 80 grit on top for a better finish. The next step was checking the legs for fit, then removing legs and cutting the slots for wedges, done I pairs with one person clamping the work in the shave horse and another cutting the slot with the saw.
After fitting the right size wedges (oak) and cutting the excess flush with a fancy and dainty Japanese saw, the tops were sanded down once more to bring everything nice and flush.
Then the piece was levelled up using a great little trick. You'll have to go on the course to find that out though
Et Voila! Our 2 stools and the other benches that were made on the day, each hand built and unique.
