"Antique" German Stool

I was about to ask what my wifes cat was doing at your house… Seriously those are cool cats…

Oh yeah, nice stool too…

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

Very nice job on both the construction and the distressing. Looks like you got it just right. Good looking cat too!

Fooled me. I thought it was the real thing and you just refinished it, so I read your story. I must say, it looks even better. Great job. Do you have a cherry picker to help handle the thing? lol
I learning all I can about mortise & tenons, and usually look at them before I read. I like the wedges.

Very Nice stool. like there color of this as well.

-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"

Very good look. Of course, nothing will age it like having a few thousand behinds polish it, but that just takes time. As for cats, you should try to work in my shop – six barn cats running around! I couldn’t even photograph one project without their help:

http://littlegoodpieces.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/sauce-packet-bin-part-1/

-- Robert - Visit my woodworking blog: http://littlegoodpieces.wordpress.com

This is a wonderful, incredible stool! I LOVE IT! Oak makes a terrific and yes, very heavy stool. I will have to make one of these. Did you hand cut the mortises?

-- Homer : "Oh, and how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain."

Rivergirl,

Far too many angles to worry about to hand cut – I used my Incra-jig on my table saw for the tenons and did most of the mortise work with my dedicated mortise machine. I did have to do a LOT of hand tuning due to the 5 degree angles of the legs.

Good learning experience! :-)

I hand cut the slices in the tenons for the wedges – does that count? ;-)

-bob

-- Man is a tool-using Animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. - Thomas Carlyle http://www.ffrf.org

Very nice looking project. Great job.

Looks like the real thing. Great job. Can you share some of the distressing techniques you used on the top? I’m gonna make a couple of 5 board benches and want to distress them.

-- Vicki on the Eastern Shore of MD

Vicki,

As far as distressing, I have found the number one tip I can give is to NOT over-do it! A little goes a long way.

The first tool I use is my drill with a sanding pad attachment – an angle grinder would work as well. I use a 40 grit pad which takes a LOT of wood out at a time. I hit all the corners and the areas where the furniture would naturally wear down from use.

Then I have a dog lead chain in which I tied a knot in one end. I cut a few of the links and bent them outwards. I also threaded some bolts and nails in the knot. It looks like it would really hurt if it hit you! ;-0

I pummel the top with this – it causes random patterns of marks and scrapes. After that I basically get creative. For this one I even took a wood screw and layed it down on the top and hit it with a hammer – it left a pattern of the threads in the seat. I used a screwdriver, an awl, a large nail.

On a past project, I left the piece fall onto my gravel driveway over and over – that left some rather interesting marks on the face of it. This was a mantel shelf, so I wanted it to look like things were dragged across it for decades.

I still pains me to take nicely grained wood like this and damage it for an effect, but in the end it’s worth it! ;-)

Then comes the stain – I started this piece with a full coating of darker danish oil. I sanded some of it off on the edges and then took a toothbrush and spatter-painted on darker stains. I wiped them all down and let everything dry overnight. Then I put on a couple of coats of paste wax and hand-buffed out the finish with each coat.

It’s a lot of work, but it does get your aggressions out and from the comments I have received from others, it looks like an antique! :-)

Good luck!

-bob

-- Man is a tool-using Animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. - Thomas Carlyle http://www.ffrf.org

Thanks so much Bob! I’m like you, don’t really want to ‘mess up’ new wood. But I think the antique thing looks awesome too and suits certain projects. I think I’ll make something like you did and then practice on an old board first.
Vicki

-- Vicki on the Eastern Shore of MD

Bob, I know the work and time that went into this bench It looks great. I would have kept it. great job.

-- Mike Fritz, Verona, NJ

I dont think the cat approves. I think it looks great, and thanks for taking pictures of the underside of the joinery it makes it easier for those who might want to reproduce what you did.

-- Lotidus

thats a big statement “NEVER” break

looks really nice

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso