Foot stools

Wow, how did you store wood for 13 years without using it? I can not imagine holding off that long.

Nice foot stools Chelle.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Bill, Bill, Bill. You have to let wood age, like a fine wine. I’ve got some cherry thats 30 years old (All in my possession). When you plane it, it’s still dark. None of this woosie pink cherry that you have to let age for 10 years to get a great tone on it.

Besides that I can find it. “I think”

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

I would like to have old wood like that Karson, I just can not imagine storing it for so long. Until the last few years, I never had a place that I could store it. Then, I got into woodworking and would have used up any wood I had around.

One day I will have a storage place for that fine aged wood. Imagine, Oak, Cherry, Cedar, Maple all aged to perfection…

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I didn’t intend to store it for that long. I just didn’t have the right project for it. I have quite a bit of storage between the shop, the garage and the storage room next to the shop so I have a lot of aged wood.

-- Chelle http://artsgranddaughter.blogspot.com

Nice work.

Chelle, those are great foot stools. Don’t forget to let us see them once the finishing is done. I’d really like to see what happens to that hickory. Thanks for sharing!

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt!

I have all sorts of art materials all the way back to grade school…technically it’s my daughters now. Ha.

I do have some special pieces of wood I’ve collected over the past year or two. I intend to use them soon, but wouldn’t be at all surprised to find them several years from now, still unused.

Nice stools. I have to make a couple, but I bet by the time I get them done we either won’t want our daughter to be able to reach such high places, or she’ll already be able to!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Van Gogh -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

The plugs give it the look of a doweled top, in fact I thought that you used dowels to attach the top of the bench until I read that they were homemade plugs. I like the one with the two lighter colored boards with the dark colored plugs.

-- Jesus is Lord!

I am never gonna save nothin wood wise after seeing my buddies trailer full… Ill just have to make sure to take him gifts regularly…

Grin….

Drew

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

I have never worked with hickory, but have heard that it is hard. Is that true? How was it?

Nice design.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

The hickory wasn’t that much different from oak to work with. The only thing I had trouble with was getting the end grain smooth. It took a lot more sanding than I expected. Everything else cutting, routing the edges went smoothly.

-- Chelle http://artsgranddaughter.blogspot.com

Very nice! The style and construction sort of reminds me of the photo display table I just made for my mother-in-law:

http://www.loyno.edu/~cbmarsh/walnutcherrytable.htm

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Do you have a low angle block plane? I understand that they are made to smooth end grain and that they do a great job at it. Anyone know if this would be a better option than sanding?

I don’t have one, but have used my drawknife at a scewed angle and have gotten go results on end grain.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Hickory is a very open-pored wood, so… you really aren’t going to be able to get it as smooth and “solid” looking as a more close-pored wood, like cherry or a rosewood, for example.

My challenge with using a low angle block plane on the end-grain is in that last little bit on the end, where it wants to tear out the last bit. If you’re going to use the block plane, make sure to clamp a piece of scrap onto the end to prevent that.

Cheller, love the way you used the walnut strip! It looks like it was planned and adds a good bit of character to the piece! Necessity is the mother of invention – and creative design techniques!

-- Ethan, http://thekiltedwoodworker.com

I don’t own a low angle block plane. The only planes I own are a cheap, HD purchased, block plane (might be a Stanley) and a very nice Record #5. The Record has been carefully tuned and sharpened although at the moment I’m not as happy with the edge on it as I’d like to be.

As for the walnut strip, you guys and my spouse are the only ones who will ever know that it was added to correct a mistake.

-- Chelle http://artsgranddaughter.blogspot.com