Stul School – How to build a wooden stool

Posted by andy on February 15, 2013 , No comment

I often get asked if I would teach private woodworking lessons or if I offer any woodworking classes. Unfortunately my shop is too small to accomidate any students. However, thanks to Scott Stevens at the newly opened and fully Laguna equipted Community Woodshop here in Los Angeles I am now offering a class on how to make a wooden stool. The class will take place in March on Sunday mornings from 10:00am to 1:00pm. Come and join us for woodshop fun for beginners to experience crafts persons. Click here to sign up!

Stools are not chairs without backs and arms for those of lower status as history might lead us to believe. They are some of our earliest forms of seating furniture and should be celebrated for their function and fashion. One of the most beautiful examples of functional wooden stools is the milking stool. This short little fella elevates the dairy farmer right above the ground in a position comfortable for milking the cow. It is a clever device invented out of necessity that evolved with use into a standard “tool of the trade” for farmers. The evolved classic western milking stool is short, has three legs and a carved seat to keep the farmer comfortable during the laborious task. The legs are splayed out for stability that gives them an almost cute appearance easy to personify or assign living characteristics to. This is just one example. There are so many stools. From the church organ stools to bar stools when you start looking you will find them everywhere.

By looking in thrift stores, used furniture stores and street trash we will find examples of stools we like and combine or redesign these pieces into a prototype that will construct for or final project from recycled or new wood stock. Essentially we will be stool DJ’s finding samples, mixing them together to come out with an entirely new stools.

My inspiration for this class comes from the fun I Ikea Hacking my Spring Back Bankers Chair.

Cool knit stools by Claire-Anne O’Brien

Class Objectives:

To introduce students to a shop environment through hands-on making.

To teach attendees how to go from conceptual idea to final product through demonstrations and assistance teaching attendees to become comfortable and self reliant in a shop environment

To teach attendees where to find wood to recycle.

For students to learn how to remove it from the waste stream and safely prepare it for reuse.

Through the act of making a final product attendees will learn how to safely negotiate their way through the woodshop using the Joiner, Planer, table saw, band saw, sanders etc.