Japanese Stool

[Alan Turner]

These are photographs of a stool I made last weekend. I have been working on the new shop building, and a bit depressed with no interesting commissions on the books at the moment, so my solution was to design and build a piece of furniture which could be produced in multiples without a huge investment of time. Were I to do a show, I wanted a piece that could be sold off the floor, as an impulse type of buy. This stool, and my hearth benches, would fill at least a part of this bill.

The stool is meant to invoke a feeling of a Japanese design. It is 23"t, with the top at 11" by 13" . The legs are 1.75" square at the top and bottom, with a narrow dimension of 7/8", 9" down from the top. The curved legs were pattern shaped with a 3 x 3 Byrd Shelix head. A pix of the setup and pattern is at the bottom. Clean up was with a Boggs spokeshave. The through round tenons on the legs are wedged. The stretchers are half lapped, hand cut. The center stretcher is open doweled with shop made cherry dowels. The angle of the leg splay is 6* off of a 45* angle, in from each top corner.

Walnut and cherry. Shellac to seal, Waterlox Original to finish. Needs 2 more coats. 2 hours of sun on the cherry, but no colors added.

I began this project as a mock up, intending to modify the design as needed, but I ended up spending enough time on the design that I was happy with it, and so went ahead and made it as a final.

Comments are invited. I intend to offer this stool for sale, and would be pleased to learn the thoughts of the members of SMC as to a fair price.

Thanks for looking.

[John Hart]

I really like your design and choice of wood Alan. Beautiful piece indeed. I'm a sucker for Japanese style. Price? I think that would depend on the venue. $125-$200 is my guess.

[Gord Graff]

Hi Alan,

I’ve always strayed away from offering suggestions on the pieces that others have made simply because my opinions could be taken the wrong way. With that said, I’d like to suggest to you that you “lighten” the seat by means of relieving the underside of the seat or by scooping out the top side of the seat. Just a suggestion.

As far as a selling price is concerned, it really depends on where the piece will be sold but I think you have a winner there.

All the best
Gord

[Jim Becker]

You're welcome to "accidentally" leave that at my house, Alan...

Seriously, that's a really nice design. I like it a lot.

[Mark Singer]

Alan,

Very nice piece! Nice joinery as well.

[Sam Blasco]

Nice lines, Alan. For pricing, that is so subjective, but a good place to start is price ot (materials x 15%) + your man hours (what's your time worth?). See what happens.

[Earl Kelly]

Alan, Stool looks good. The only thing that bothers me is the flat and square seat on top of the nice curvy legs. I don't know exactly what I would do, I like Gord's suggestion of shaping the seat, but that raises the time expenditure quite a bit. I know you'll do fine with whatever you develop and produce.

I would think, in your neck of the woods you could get $200-$350 retail.

[Alan Turner]

Gord,

I gave thought to that concept of putting a radius on the seat, and if so, I think I would do it on the top side. It would lighten it visually, which is not a bad thing. I also may norrow the seat a bit, perhpas bringing it to 9" x 13".

When I first built this, the seal was a full 1 7/8" thick. That was really heavy, and so when I resawed it down to about 1 3/16", which I think is where it is now, the difference was so striking that I thought I had it about right. But your comment makes me want to rethink that.

I note that this particular unit will not be for sale as the legs are not rift cut, which is a feature that I think is required for leg stock of this character. Also, the joinery on the half laps is a bit sloppy, which I will cure in a multiples run by jigging a router for the main stock removal on the legs to be sure that the stretcher does not have to twist when fitted, and that the joint is tight.

Jim,
You are close enough that if you would like to come down and shape a couple of legs, let me know and I let you test drive the set up. Pattern shaping is a piece of cake if the pattern is correct. The Byrd head goes against the grain pretty well if you are not taking more than an eighth off. On this Cherry I got zero tear out, and did not have to flip the head to reverse direction, which would be a huge PITA unless I were doing about 100 legs or so, but when I say a multiples run, I have in mind 5 or 10 stools.

In terms of pricing, I will wait for more feedback. On a commission piece, it is a T&M calculation, based upon an estimate, which would include design time, but on this guy, I will write off the design time by amortizing it over a large number of pieces. I am guessing that I have made over 40 of the hearth benches.
I think in weekend of 2 long days, I could make 10 of these if the material were on hand by Sat. at about 4 a.m. Should be about $35 or so of materials. Other materials would change that equation. An olive seat with Bolivian Rosewood legs would push it to about $70 or so. I have a bunch of both on hand. Another possability wold be birch base with a padauk top, at maybe aobut $45 or so, and both of these are on hand also. Did I mention I am a wood collector? Just love estate sales.

I don't think that curving the seat would add a lot of time. I would execute this with a resaw cut since I don't happen to have a 20" circular saw. I would then smooth with the Boggs shave, and finish with a foam backed ROS, or possibly a right angle grinder, both of which I have, although I have never used the grinder (another estate sale item, which is why I have it but have not yet used it).

[Rick de Roque]

love the stool.
rick

[Jon Olson]

Nice project, I agree with Gord...needs the seat lightened with a sweeping curve. I love the through tenons with the wedges. VEry nice touch. I'd probably buy one on impulse.

Jon

[Bob Marino]

Alan,

Wonderfull looking piece, but I also think scooping out the seat a bit would work out visually as well as ergonomically.

Bob

[Mark Singer]

Alan if you are going to cove the seat here are some barstools I coved using the tablesaw

[Roy Wall]

Alan - $295 each, set of 4 -$999 A fair price for craftsmanship. Nice.

Mark - those were comfortable stools...

[Jamie Buxton]

Alan --
Try sitting on the stool to see whether it is comfortable. Here's my guess, based on making a bunch of stools....
Because the seat is 24" high, you won't be able to sit flat on the seat with your feet touching the floor. That is, you'll either sit near the edge of the seat so your feet can touch the floor, or you'll sit squarely on the seat with your feet sitting on the rungs. If you sit on the edge of the seat, the square edge on it will will an uncomfortable pressure line across the backs of your thighs. If you sit squarely on the seat top, the rungs may be a bit too low for comfort.
How's my guess?

Jamie

[Pete Lamberty]

HI Allen, this is a very nice piece. I would be tempted to buy one on an impulse. I have no idea on pricing other than what the others have said. I do like the suggestion that Gord gave. I think scooping out the top like in Marks stools would help the look. One thing that visually bothers me is the through round tenons. I think that they should be through SQUARE tenons. I think that square ones would be more in keeping with the look of the rest of the stool. But this might add more time to the making of this piece.