Salvage Lumber Foot Stool

I had enough salvage and scrap lumber in my shop to make something and I thought a foot stool for our daughter would make a good project. One problem was that my 1” thick white oak board was in pretty sad shape…it was really warped and looked like it was cut with a chainsaw at the mill and it was heavily weathered. I cut the oak down the center and flipped one of the pieces over then joined the two sections together. I then sawed the top and bottom for an overall thickness of 3/4” to eliminate the worst of the warp. The rest I had to take out with my plane and sander. I then added pine ends and sides as extensions to give it some more size. The rails under the top are joined to the legs with half-rabbet, the legs started out as solid pieces but the warp made it impossible to work on so I changed them to a square ‘U’ shape joined to the top with through mortises and tenons. I sculpted the top and the underside using my sander. I couldn’t get out all of the mill cut scars and my explanation is that they add character! All cuts and joints were made by hand.

-- 'The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.' - Chaucer