Thread: A Tale of Three Footstools

This stool was made from packing case timber and nails recovered and straightened. (scrounging is an art handed down from generation to generation in my family!).

Paint was left overs courtesy of the Commonwealth Government house we lived in in the early 50's.

Tools were rudimentary, in those days the timber was plentiful, so it is over an inch thick and the top is one piece. Construction is about as crude as can be, 2" packing case nails and nothing else! Legs are checked over the stretchers.

The design is simple yet very effective. Dimensions are 240 x 350 x 180 high, and the slope of the legs is such that the overhang never causes a problem with small children standing on one end.

A perfect stool for kids to stand on to reach handbasins, kitchen sinks etc, or to sit on for other activities, and great for grown-ups to stand on to reach the top shelf.

cheers,

P

A version of Mk 2 was made sometime in the first year of each of his nine grandchildren's lives (from 1978-88), in time for them to stand at the basin to clean their teeth! Each was finished with polyU, and the name of it's owner carefully (but shakily) painted in black on the top.

By then the old bloke was suffering from a few ills, had a few more tools, but materials were more scarce. Still packing case pine, but no longer dressed on the crate, this one was cleaned up with a belt sander (about 60 grit by the looks of the finish )

The timber was thinner, about 18mm and had to be joined from two widths. Probably because of the lack of thickness, but also because he wanted concealed fixings throught the top, he built a triangular cleat and used some scrounged screws (8 screws- 3 different sizes) to fix it all together with.

This particular stool has a slightly shorter (300 mm) top, probably because that was the length of the material at hand.

Cheers,

P

I've been pondering how to go about my own interpretation of these stools for some time.

I wanted to devise a structure which would not require mechanical fixings, yet keep the same proportions, and here is the result.

Five pieces interlocking, the legs slide over the stretchers and through the mortices in the top where they are wedged. The whole structure is self supporting, and I'm rather pleased with it if I do say so myself!

Dimensions are the same as Mk1, material is scraps of Camphor Laurel pulled out of a New Year's bonfire, and of course I didn't have to scrounge any screws! Finish is sprayed satin NC lacquer.

(No cheap power tools were injured in the manufacture of this piece! )

If there is any interest, I'm considering doodling a drawing of the bits in MidgeCad.

Cheers,

P

Nice one Midge, you've done your father and grandfather proud.

I like the interlocking, is it glued at all, or just reliant on its own weight/pressure from above?

I only ask because kids have a way of fiddling with things, and if they are not glued, the little darlings may consider straight legs more appropriate making it unstable. My kids pulled apart anything not nailed down.

Well done.

Midge,
great work. it is great to see how someone continues with a fine tradition, albeit using different methods/techniques. Also wonderful to see how some rescued firewood becomes a piece of fine furniture.
Regards
Les

Midge,

What an excellent idea to carry on the family tradition!!!

You have done extremely well with the knock-down design, it would of taken me ages to work it all out!

Great job & brilliantly executed!!! You should be very proud!!

Fantastic piece of work Midge, and what a great tribute to your grandad. Hope following generations follow suite. Could become a family legacy that each generation builds a stool to honour Grandad Midge. Well done.

kKind regards Vasco

Cool,

Can't wait for the midgecad drawings

Great idea and excellent execution. Your design is a beauty & I'm sure the tradition will continue.

Midge,


The footstool (MK1) is basically the same design as the one I made in High School form 1 woodworking. It took 4 hours each week for 40 weeks to make it.

First learning how to draw the thing, then make out of oversized hardwood by planing the timber to half the thicknes and size with blunt school planes whilst the teacher had access to a TS, jointer and thicknesser and used it for his sample one. :mad: Recently I made another using power tools only and it took 4 hours, no wonder I grew a dislike to handtools.

BTW my original is still in daily use. No doubt yours will be in use for many years also.


Peter.

A lovely story, and a lovely set of stools.

I'd be interested to hear more detail about how you designed the final stool. Did you do drawings, make mock-ups . . .?

Thanks Midge.

The MK1 and MK2, are exactly as my father built for me and my brothers back in Denmark, some 50 years ago. Must be a very universal design. Unfortunately, I nolonger have mine, and you are very lucky to still have yours.
Half your luck !

I very much like your MK3, and I may just make a couple for my kids, along the same lines

My old man made a couple up like MkI & II, he used one as stool to milk the house cow.
Far as I can remember the last time I used it mustabinabout 45 years ago coz thats about the last time I milked a cow.

Nice legacy Midge. Wish I had inspiration like that in my woodworking life.