Staked Stool – Assembly
2017.04.16
With a new tapered reamer from Lee Valley, I finished the mortises and dry-fit the legs.
I sawed some little wedges out of a scrap of red oak, and a kerf down each tenon. The wedges will be driven down these kerfs, pressing the tenon against the mortise walls.
I laid out everything I needed for assembly: the parts, a bottle of liquid hide glue, wet rag and toothbrush for cleanup, a hammer and a couple mallets, and a chisel (to re-open the tenon kerfs before driving the wedges). This is one of those somewhat-frantic stages of a project which is difficult to execute and photograph simultaneously. I painted glue on each mortise, then the tenon, drove the leg into place, opened the kerf with the chisel, painted glue on the wedge, and drove the wedge into the tenon. I had a couple issues with the wedges, but overall it went well.
2017.05.29
Today I sawed the tenons nearly-flush to the top with the kugihiki saw, then cleaned up with the bench planes.
After that, I marked the legs for leveling and sawed them with the dovetail saw. Next I took the stool outside with the random-orbit sander, then a little hand-sanding back on the workbench, and chamfering the bottom of the legs a little with a cabinet file.
Mortises