Eye-Catching Counter Stools – FineWoodworking

In this article, Tim Coleman describes the process he employed for crafting a set of counter stools. He combined machine setups for joinery and initial shaping with hand tools for detail work. ​He shares the steps he took in creating the legs, stretchers, footrest, and seat, which required templates, precise angles, and careful shaping. ​Coleman’s assembly process highlights techniques for ensuring accurate fits and accommodating wood movement during final construction.

Beauty in a blend of handwork and machine work

I make a lot of cabinets and tables, and usually just one at a time. But when a commission for seating furniture comes my way, it gives me a chance to think and work in a different way. Seating almost always comes in multiples, and setting up machines for producing stacks of identical parts can be time-consuming, but I enjoy setup-focused work. There is logic and certainty to it. Yet I also like the freedom and connection to the material that I feel when I am sculpting and carving.

Building a set of counter stools recently allowed me to work in both worlds, combining the efficiency of shared machine setups with shaping work that is best done by hand. Machine setups produced the stools’ mortise-and-tenon joinery and the preliminary sizing of all the parts; after that, nearly all of the complex shaping of the legs, stretchers, and seats was accomplished with freehand bandsawing and a range of hand tools.

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The Poetic Stump

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