19th Century Clerks Desk -Making a Matching Stool - Step 9

I decided that the clerks desk needed a stool to sit on if someone was going to actually use the desk.  So I searched around the internet for various stool pictures until I found one that I liked.  I roughed out a set of dimensions and built a quick prototype to test the height in front of the desk.  I decided it should be 25 1/2 inches.
Then I made a full size drawing.

I still had a little of the wood left over from the desk, I could get the legs of the stool to match the desk. The legs are 1 1/4 inch square.

Then I turned the ends to 1 inch round so they could fit into the seat of the stool.

I wanted to make the stool seat from a single piece of wood and not glue it up.  I needed an 1 1/2 thick piece that was at least 12 inches. I used a compass to scribe a 12 inch circle and then cut it out on the bandsaw.   I cleaned it up with a spindle sander.

Now I calculated the angle to be 5 degrees and I drilled 5 degree holes in a practice piece of plywood.   But when I assembled it, it was too narrow.  It seems that the actual angel was 10 degrees because I did not have a drawing with the correct view of the leg as it was attached to the seat.

Doug Moulder came over to the shop to help figure this out and of course he usually does. As it turns out it was 10 degrees and I did not have to tilt the seat at a compound angle.  As long as we kept the angle perpendicular to the drill and tilted it to 10 degrees everything worked out.
You can see above that I also got some practice on rounding over the edge of the seat with a router bit.  I tried various depths to see how much I wanted it rounded.

Once I dry fitted the legs in the stool seat Doug and I were able to scribe lines for the stretchers and then drill 3/4 inch holes.  The stretchers are 3/4 inch turned maple.

The bottoms of the legs where cut off on a table saw with the compound angle of 10 degrees in both directions.

  I put a 3/16 inch gap in the top of each leg and made wedges with a 1 degree slope over the 1 3/4.

 The legs stuck through an extra 3/8 inch which I cut of after the glue up.  

Everything was sanded to 180 grit before the glue up.

After the glue up I flush trimmed the stool legs through the top.  Then I pre-wet the stool with warm water and let it dry.  This raised the grain and I sanded it back with 320 grit paper.

After that I applied 2 coats of the water based dye that I used on the desk.  After the dye dried I sanded again with 320 grit to knock off the fuzzies.

Now I was ready to apply the Waterlox tung oil/varnish.  Here is how it looked after just 2 coats.  After the 2 coats I sanded lightly with 400 grit.  I applied 7 coats of Waterlox.

After the 7 coats of Waterlox were applied and allowed to cure for 5 days, I rubbed it out with 0000 steel wool and then I applied a clear paste wax.

Here it is waxed and completed.

Now to plan for the next project.

Here is today's video:

19th Century Clerks Desk -Finishing Step 8

I am starting to select the finish for the desk.  I am fairly sure that I want to use Transtint Honey Amber since I have used it before.  So I selected a board to practice on and applied different densities of the dye. This board has 3 different concentrations, the one on the right has medium brown added. That is the one that I like so I can get started.

Everything is sanded to 180, now I will pre-raise the grain by using warm water and wet down the entire piece. After it dries, I sanded lightly with 220 to remove the fuzzies.  Now the piece was ready for the dye stain.

Here it is after applying the dye stain and I am sanding again with 220 grit to remove the fuzzies again.

Now I need to fasten the desk to the frame and attach the molding.  I put 4 screws in from the bottom and attached the molding with glue and nails.  I filled the nail holes with colored wax prior to applying the finish.

Here it is after the waist molding had been applied.

Now to apply the Waterlox tung oil.  This is a slow process of applying only one coat per day and building up 7 or 8 coats.
With the heat on in the shop the blower gets a lot of dust moving around in the shop and the finish gets quite a bit of dust on it.

Here it is after the first coat. As you can see the finish pops the grain and the tiger stripes are showing.

All finished now, 7 coats of Waterlox and then I wet sanded it with 400 grit and mineral spirits.  It is smooth.  Needs a coat of wax yet. But all done.

I am making a stool to match the desk.  Don't have too much video but will post some pictures here in a new post.

Next project wife says is to fix the kitchen chairs.

Here is today's video: