A friend asked me to build a couple of sets of stilts for his kids. I found a plan that looks good, not that stilts are very complex. I'll probably use oak unless I can find some cypress locally.

What is your feeling about liability for something like this?

Also, the plan calls for finishing with polyurethane but I'd prefer using something that dries and cures much faster. Since the stilts will get banged around a lot, I thought about giving them a couple of good sealing coats with shellac.