Number 9

Back when I started truck-farming, my field was over-grown with Alder-brush.

 Alder comes up from a central root, and spreads out in all directions, so it's hard to get at the base of it with an axe or chainsaw. Then, after all the multiple stems are cut, you still have to try to uproot the root of it, and when you do that, it sometimes jams into the plow and you have a heck of a time getting it out. There's no shortage of alder-brush in Northern Minnesota; it seems to come up everywhere.
For those reasons, I've always considered it a junk wood. I was surprised when my dad brought some over on the day he came to help me scrape maple. But when I noticed how easy alder was to peel compared with some other woods, and its interesting reddish-orange color after being peeled, I thought maybe it would be worth making a stool of.
When I split a length of it, it was even more interesting. When first split, the wood is almost white; but within less than an hour, it begins to change color to a nice salmon color.
The alder is the reddish-orange wood towards the back of this photo, just in front of the balsam.
It's just soft enough to drive a nail into without pre-drilling, but hard enough that it sands nicely without "fuzzing". I really like the looks of the stuff once it's out of the field, and no longer something to wrestle with, but something to sit down and rest on.
The seat is made from some of the pine boards I found on the brush pile behind the garden. It just happened to have been painted with a coat of off-white covered by a coat of reddish-orange, a perfect match for the alder stool.
Alder turns out to be one of the easier woods to work with. However, since I'm not charging more for the more difficult woods, I'm not charging less for the easier woods either. $65.
If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog. Or, by emailing me at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 9.  (Sorry, this stool is already sold.)
For general info about these stools, please see Introduction.

Number 8

This stool is another one made of what we locally call "popple", or more properly,

"Aspen".
I had some branches left from the first popple stool I made, and basically only needed a seat. I took a couple of pieces of firewood about 4 inches in diameter, and split them with a hatchet to form some fairly regular split boards, which I used for the seat. Then there were some boards that didn't split off evenly but were bigger on one end and smaller on the other. Instead of using round branches for this stool's legs, I nailed 2 or 3 of these uneven pieces together to form slightly tapered legs.
The seat shows an interesting grain, as when popple is split right down the middle, the first year's growth is visible as a dark heart-wood, with the smallest branches visible as they first started growing.
Otherwise, this stool is not unlike its siblings: For sale for $65.
If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 8.
For general info about these stools, please see Introduction.

Number 7

Early this spring as I was helping my neighbor cut firewood, we cut down a few maple trees. I saved a couple of twisted branches, thinking I might carve them into smoking pipes. Maple burns with a fragrant smell, and makes a pleasant burning pipe.

I never did do anything with those branches -- I quit smoking nearly 3 years ago, and really don't need to tempt anyone else to smoke -- but a month or so later, I thought of the other branches and tree tops still out in the woods as material for a stool.
I went out and got them one day, and started scraping the bark off of them. Silly me, I should have realized that after a month, the bark would be stuck on those branches like it would never come off. Fortunately, we're north of Duluth, Minnesota here, and we had several cold and rainy days right in a row when we didn't even WANT to go outside and do anything. My dad came and helped me scrape bark on those maple sticks. Finally, we had them clean.

Back in the '90's I visited Jamaica, and some wood-carving artists told me of scorching wood in a fire to blacken it. Then, any carving that is done into that wood shows white, in contrast to the black surface. I tried that, and found that maple works very well for the purpose, as it is very hard, and also contains a sweet sap -- so the scorched black surface can be polished with steel-wool and a rag, and doesn't rub off onto your hands or clothing.
It was too wet outdoors to scorch the wood over an open fire in the fire-pit as I wanted to do, but I was able to use the wood-stove inside. A couple of the sticks burned right through, and I had to toss them into the fire. There were enough left, though, to finish a stool.
The seat for this stool is from some of the Western Fir I'd found thrown behind the garage. There was a knot in this piece around which the wood curved in an interesting pattern. However, the knot later broke out, causing no small difficulty in repairing it.
Nevertheless, this stool is for sale for $65. If you're interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email, at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 7. Sorry, this stool is already sold.
(There are two photos below, each from a different angle.)
For general info about stools, please see Introduction.

Number 6

This stool is constructed of Norway Pine (the state tree of Minnesota).
I had the bright idea of taking some very small Norway Pine twigs from the ends of the branches, and bundling 5 or 6 of them together to make the legs of a stool. Then I was going to use some pine split from a larger piece of firewood for the seat of the stool.
After monkeying around for a couple of days without finding a way to tightly mount the legs to the side rails, I took them all off and unbundled them. The pieces I had planned to use for the seat were twisted, and wouldn't lay flat enough to make a stable seat, no matter what I did.
So, I took the twisted pieces I had planned to use for the seat, split them further with a hatchet, and nailed and tied them together in twos or threes for the legs. And the small twigs I had planned to use for the legs, I instead used for bracing the legs. It took a lot of short pieces of wire to tie all the joints, but it turned out very nice, if I do say so myself. The seat is made from some pine boards I found out on the brush pile behind the garden.

With all the extra time I spent monkeying around on this stool, I should by rights price it about double the others ... but I'll keep the price the same: $65. If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 6.
For general info about stools, please see Introduction.

Number 5

I still had some balsam branches left over from construction of stool Number 1, and wasn't in the mood for going out in the woods to find any more branches.
So, I used those branches to make this stool. The seat is from a short piece of board cut off a new sideboard my friend was making for the trailer we used to haul the firewood in earlier posts.
The middle section of the seat is the back side of one of the red and blue boards I used on the apple-wood stool, Number 3.
Beginning with this stool and on, I started using a heavier gauge of steel wire. The smaller gauge is plenty strong enough, but it was difficult to tuck the ends away so they don't stick anyone. With the heavier wire, I can control the ends much easier, though the wire itself is a bit harder to wind.
This stool is for sale for $65. If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog. Or, through email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 5.
For general info about stools, please see Introduction.

Number 4

My dad is 93 years old, but still very active. He's driven horses, Army jeep during WWII, school bus for over 30 years, farm tractors, and now, a riding lawn-mower.
As Dad was cutting the lawn this spring, some low-hanging apple branches snatched his cap. He went and got a saw and cut them off.
I snatched up the apple branches as construction material for a stool. The inner bark was bright pink, but later turned brown. When I scraped off the inner bark (at great effort), the wood itself had a faint pink tinge.
And I found some more old but well-preserved Western Fir boards behind the garage, these painted blue, with red paint over the blue. The red paint was stuck to some better than others, and so when I sanded, some of the boards turned out mostly red, and others turned out mostly blue.
I thought, "Hey, red's appropriate for apples! And blue for the sky!" Or something like that, anyway.
This stool is for sale for $65. If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 4.  Sorry, this stool is already sold.
For general info about stools, please see Introduction.

Number 3

One of our most common trees in Northern Minnesota we call "popple". The more correct name is "Quaking Aspen", but no northern Minnesota woodsman would be caught dead calling it THAT. It's "popple".
Popple is hard to burn when it's green because it's full of water, and it doesn't give a whole lot of heat even when it's dry. Nevertheless, there's so much of it, people who cut wood for heat usually do end up burning some popple.

 I helped my neighbor cut some wood this spring, and grabbed a few popple branches off the brush pile for this stool. The seat was constructed out of pieces that split as the trees cracked off.
I took advantage of the fact that I already had two stools constructed, and was able to sit on one stool as I peeled the bark for another one.

This stool is for sale for $65. If interested, please contact me in the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 3.  (Sorry, this stool is already sold.)
There are two pictures below, one taken indoors, and one outdoors.
For general info about these stools, please see Introduction.

Number 2

There were some boards out behind the garage, some of them partially rotted, and buried in early-spring mud. I have no idea where they came from, or how long they had been there.
However, when I picked them up and whacked them down hard, they didn't break, so I determined they were sound. I discovered upon splitting them, that they are Western Fir, which is a very strong, high-quality wood that is very resistant to rot.
I decided to make this stool an exception to my usual design, and to not use any locally gathered branches. I constructed the entire stool; legs, bracing and seat out of this excellent wood.
This stool is for sale for $65. If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 2.  (Sorry, this stool is already sold.)
For general info about stools, please see Introduction.

Number 1

This stool was constructed out of balsam branches my neighbor trimmed from trees in his front yard and threw in a pile for burning.
I scarfed some of them up, and brought them into my workspace for heat ... then started to consider using them for material for constructing a stool.
This stool is for sale for $65. If interested, please contact me through the comments section, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. Reference: Stool Number 1.
For general info about stools, please see Introduction.

Introduction

My name is Lloyd Wagner, I'm a went-broke truck farmer, and I live in Duluth, Minnesota, USA.
This blog is for displaying my hand-crafted rustic stools. Each stool is different, though they are all based on the same design. I came up with the design by trial and error.

 The seat of each stool is 32 centimeters (about 13 inches) square, and the legs are 40 centimeters (about 16 inches) long, making the finished stool about 17 inches high.
The legs and bracing of the stools are constructed of locally gathered tree branches and twigs. The bigger branches are split with a hatchet, and the smaller ones are left round. The branches are first nailed together, and after the stool is assembled, all the joints are reinforced by wrapping and tying with steel wire. Therefore, the joints are very strong, and they will not work loose, as traditional doweled joints eventually do. Though the stools are light, they are strong enough to sit or even stand on.
The seats are made of recycled boards which I split along their natural grain with a hatchet, then fit to the framework and also tie with steel wire. Some stools have seats made of boards split from a larger piece of wood, rather than sawed boards -- this is possible with some species of wood, but not so possible with others which don't like to split in a straight line.

After the stools are completed, I coat them with several coats of water-based polyurethane.
Some of the stools I made are shown in this post. Subsequent posts will show and describe each stool individually, listed by number. They are for sale for $65 each, preferably by local pick-up only. (Update, 7-12-12: I'm checking into shipping by UPS, looks like around $20 in lower 48, but haven't actually gone to UPS and shipped any, yet.)
(Update, 11-17-12: As of right now, stools #1, #5, #6, #8, #18, #19, #21, #22, and #24 are STILL AVAILABLE, and I'm working on more. Please click on the highlighted stool numbers above for more detailed information about the individual stools. If you like a certain kind of stool that's already sold, let me know. I can make another one, similar to it.)
If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com.