Three day stool course

The three day stool course brings together many of the core fine furniture making skills. Whilst it is open to all levels, it is preferable that you come with an understanding of working with wood (grain direction issues) and have used a hand plane before and practised sharpening. My one day floating shelf course is a good way to gain this experience and approach this course with more confidence. Complete beginners will need some help from myself to achieve the course targets for each day. The course is a steep learning curve so expect to be kept busy.

Starting with simple hardwood ‘blanks’, you will be working primarily with hand tools, using traditional techniques to create a cross halving joint, mortice and tenon joints and a butt joint. The course also features dowel joints and the use of decorative wooden plugs.

We will look at the importance of really sharp tools and how to use a handplane correctly to achieve flat surfaces with adjacent square edges, a practice which is the foundation for good quality work. This is combined with how to mark out the joints accurately in order to achieve a snug fit. We will also discuss the relevance of grain direction and wood expansion and contraction and how to plan and execute your project with these important factors in mind.

Day one focuses on handplaning and glueing up the two pieces that make up the top section of the stool. You will then move on to marking out, drilling and chiselling the mortices for the legs, before starting work on the tenons on the crossrails.

Day two focuses primarily on completing the tenons and fitting them to the mortices and then a cross halving joint, before glueing up the leg and rail assembly.

On day three you will tidy up the leg assembly and shape the stool top. Once joined together you will fit the decorative plugs and then prepare eveything for the protective finish.