Number 20

Stool Number 20 is the first one I've done completely in a city apartment. It's made of what we call popple, what the hoity toities refer to as "quaking aspen".
The wood came from a huge tree that was too near a friend's house out in the country, and leaning in the direction of the house. By use of a rope tied high up the tree, a large pulley tied to another tree, a John Deere A tractor, and skillful notching on my friend's part, the tree was brought down exactly as planned -- right between two other trees that were to be saved, and at just the right angle that it didn't go out over the road.
I was there to shout advice, help trim branches and load the trailer, and as I did so, I asked for a few pieces of wood for myself.

The picture above is of my grandson posing in my new work-space, in the living room of the apartment.

The seat is made of a larger piece of popple, split with a hatchet to make rough boards, then sanded.

 I had a heck of a time attaching the stool together without making hammering noises in the apartment building. I got it done, though, without any major complaints. I went downstairs a couple of times and used the concrete floor in the back entrance of the building, so I wouldn't be pounding on the ceiling of the apartment of the downstairs neighbors.
The picture to the right is of all the wood and sticks I used to have stored in my former work-place. I had all the wood there sorted by variety, but in moving it to the neighbors' place, then piling it inside an old trailer, it got all mixed up, and is now pretty much a jumbled mess. I'm still glad to have it, though it's about 20 miles from here, and not quite as convenient as it used to be.
What's left of the popple is to the right of the picture. For the next stool I make out of popple, I plan to cut one of the large pieces to about 17 inches, then split it with the hatchet for legs, seat, and bracing. The grain is quite straight on the trunk of this old tree.
This stool, however, except for the seat, was made from the branches of the tree, which were not straight, and which split into some really interesting shapes.
As all the other stools, the joints are nailed, then tied with strong wire, so they won't work loose as traditional doweled and glued joints eventually always do. These stools are both light in weight, and exceptionally strong.
This finished stool pictured in two pics below, is for sale for $65. (Sorry, this stool is no longer available for sale.) For further information, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com.
For general information on these stools and more pictures, please see older posts, and the Introduction to this blog.

Number 19, Continued

Finally got moved into the apartment, and yesterday went out in the country to retrieve the stools from the old car. Here are a few pictures of stool Number 19 -- referred to but not pictured in its finished form in the previous post -- plus pictures of the other stools that are still available, now in their urban setting.

 The pictures below are of six of the stools that are still available, plus one in the left rear of the last picture, that I'm working on now to become Number 20. I hope to have that finished soon ...
These stools are for sale at $65 each. If you're interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. For general information about these stools, and more pictures, please see the Introduction to this blog, and previous posts.

Number 19

Well, I've gone through a fair amount of drama last week, but still managed to complete a stool. It's made of sumac wood again, from a neighbor's yard.

This is the same wood I used in stool #10, which is already sold. I link you to the blog entry for that stool so you can see example pictures, since I don't have any pictures of the finished stool #19, only pictures of the seat while I'm working on it. And, you can see two of the sides of the stool already finished, behind the unscraped boards, on the far upper left of the picture, below.

 I started with some old pine boards which had been lying out in the grass deteriorating for several years. I scraped off all the soft deteriorating wood, using a knife point, a nail, a wire brush, sandpaper, finger-nails, etc., and converted the wood on the left above into the wood on the right and below. Kind of like turning water into wine, or something like that, except it took me a couple of days to do it. (I'm turning some apples into wine, too, by the way, but that will take a few months.)

Here are a couple of pictures of the boards just about ready to mount onto the stool sides taken at two different camera settings -- there will be one more board, not yet shown.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take any pictures of the finished stool before writing this blog entry, and also unfortunately, I'm no longer able to use the garage I was using to make my stools. The half-dozen completed-but-not-yet-sold stools are now stored in the shelter of an old car parked in a field, and the pile of sticks and other wood I've peeled, prepared and had stored inside that garage are now in a 2-wheeled trailer in the same field, under the protection of a blue plastic tarp.

The owner of the garage "Needs [her] privacy!" and doesn't want the garage "All full of wood and sticks!!" anymore.
Right now, I'm living in an apartment in Duluth, and most of my stuff is still in Munger, but hopefully I'll soon have a place where I can continue making and selling these stools. Hey, I kind of need the income, if you know what I mean.
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. For general info and more pictures please see older posts, and the Introduction to this blog.

Thanks!

Number 18

This stool is made of weathered oak pallet wood. It's tough. I'll just quickly list it with some pictures for now, and maybe write more about it later. Not in the mood for writing, right now ...
This stool is for sale for $65. If you're interested, please contact me through the comments section, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com
For general information about this stool and others, plus more pics, please see the Introduction to this blog.

Number 17

A guy was walking in the woods one day and came upon this other guy squatted down in front of a campfire, holding a stick into the fire as if he were roasting a weenie, or a marshmallow. But upon closer inspection, the first guy noticed that there wasn't anything on the end of the second guy's stick -- and then the end of the stick caught on fire. The second guy quickly pulled it out of the fire and blew out the flame. He looked carefully at the stick, then turned it around with a chuckle, and stuck the other end of it into the fire, still with not a weenie or marshmallow on site.
The second guy would be me, roasting maple sticks to make stools out of, trying to make a buck, you know.

The scorched maple stools seem to be popular, so I'm trying to make as many as I can until I run out of maple to scorch. Seems as though this will be the second to the last one, unless I find some extra time to cut, debark and scorch some more maple sticks.

 The seat of this stool is made from pine pallet lumber, left over from the coffee table I made (previous post). I don't know what kind of pine this is, but it's as tough as can be.
(I'm hoping that eventually somebody reading this blog will know more about tree species than I do. I've got to admit, sometimes I've just guessed on what species of lumber I'm using, especially when it's reclaimed lumber. This has an aromatic pitch in it, though, so I'm saying it's some kind of pine.)
Anyhoo, I guess it's pretty much immaterial just what kind of wood it is you're sitting on, so long as it looks good, and is strong enough to hold you up ... and this stool is both. There are a couple of photos below.
It's for sale for $65. (Sorry, this stool is already sold). If interested, please contact me through the comments section of this blog, or by email at lewagner2002@yahoo.com. For some general information about these stools, please see Introduction.

No Number ...

  There's no number on this stool, because it's not a stool, it's a table -- and there's only one of them. A customer who bought some stools asked if I'd make a table, and I said I would. Here are a few pictures of the work-in-progress, and the final results ... and, just for the heck of it, below those pictures are pictures of tables and (prototype) stools I made while I was living in Laos. There aren't any captions, but I think you'll be able to tell what's what. If not, and if you care, that's what they make comments sections for, eh?
For general information about the stools I'm making here in the US of A, please see the Introduction.