I had a few requests for plans for the cutler’s stool I built during Colonial Williamsburg’s “Working Wood in the 18th Century” conference over the weekend.
The Sheffield stool was a common sight in the factories and workshops of the tool-making city. And while the stools are rarely identical, they are similar enough to suggest they were made to a common plan. This version is a typical one, but without the incised rings on the legs.
My version is made from a single board of 8/4 red oak and is about 20” tall when finished. Here’s the cutting list:
1 Seat 1.75” x 10.25” x 18.5”
3 Legs 1.75” diameter x 22”
I shaved the legs round with a jack plane and then cut a 1.5” diameter x 2.25” long tenon on one end of each leg. I used a hollow auger in a brace and bit. I then used a tenon saw to cut a kerf in the end of the tenon for the wedge.
Saw the seat to shape and lay out the location of the mortises on the underside of the seat. The sightlines for the front legs intersect the location of the mortise for the rear leg, as shown on the drawing. Set a sliding bevel to 18° (the resultant angle). Drill all three legs using the sliding bevel as a guide. I used a 1.5” diameter “Scotch eye” auger, with a broomstick as the bar.
Then use a jack plane or a drawknife to bevel all the corners of the seat, adding comfort. Cut some oak wedges for assembly. Mine are 1.5” wide, and 2” long. The included angle of the wedge is about 2°.
Assemble the stool with hide glue, driving the wedges into the kerfs. You can then saw the legs so the seat is level to the floor. When the glue is dry, cut the protruding tenons and wedges flush with the seat. Do any “make pretty” that is necessary for a shop stool. Add a finish if you like. I used a beeswax and organic linseed oil paste.
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris,
Thank you very much for this plan. Going to build one.
Cheers,
Michael W. O’Brien
Thank you. Looking forward to putting this to use at the bench.
no tapered tenons on this one…
did you decide that the taper tenons were more work than needed??
(do not recall seeing you discuss this point in blog posts, and was unable to attend the online conference 🙁
(also did google for this. 🙂
i do love the look of the stool, and for various reasons ended up with some 8/4 walnut offcuts, and am thinking this would be a nice weekend project for those pieces.
thanks as always for the description and excellent diagrams
I was copying the original.
enjoyed you presentation at the conference.
I am always puzzled by dimensions given in sixteenths when it wouldn’t matter for the outcome if done in quarters or eighths.
A 1.75″ diameter seat seems a bit small, unless you’re a pixie or a clurichaun.
1.75″ diameter is the leg and or the seat thickness
Thanks Chris. As usual, I enjoyed your presentations. Hopefully the in-person events at CW and NWA can be revived in the future. Dinner and beer along with great conversations in the evening is always fun!
Look up ‘Lund Stool’ on your favorite search engine. Viking Age, seat is more semi circular than angular.
I did my National Service at the Kulturen museum in Lund, Sweden back in 1990, when they were putting on the Town Millenary Exhibition, in which the stool in question (or rather, the stool seat, which is what was dug up) was included. I remember that it was one of the objects of which I made drawings for the exhibition catalogue. From photos, mind you; I didn’t get to handle the actual artefact, although I did of course see it for real, once the exhibition was up and running …
Mattias
Thank you for posting this. I am wondering how would you cut the tenons if you didn’t have a hollow auger. (Or a lathe, for that matter.) Is there any reason not to use a tapered tenon cutter?
You can use a tapered tenon cutter. Or shave them round with a block plane (which is very easy to do).
Thank you!
Thank you for providing the dimensions. I needed to know the leg splay and distance of leg holes from the edge of the seat. The stool looks exactly like my granddad’s milking stool. Indestructible, he used it well into his 80s not for milking but in his garden.
I was hoping there’d be a plan available for this, I’m really looking forward to making a few! What make of hollow auger are you using for this? My google-fu is failing me.
Veritas tenon cutter.
They are Star-M bits from Workshop Heaven.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/11/18/2020-anarchists-gift-guide-day-1/