The step stool was made to go in our guest bedroom and compliment my grandmother’s bed there. The Federal form goes will with that antique and others in the room.
It was a learning process: inlay, banding, working with cherry, beading, mortise and tenon joints…lots of new skills to work on. I practiced with the maple stool and that helped a lot to refine the templates and size, and particularly, learn to work with the inlay and veneer.
Cutting and fitting 20 mortise and tenon joints was great practice – luckily not too many mishaps. It is fun to work with a small project – both so that the mistakes are on small pieces of wood and to minimize the ‘heavy lifting’ and workspace requirements.
On to the next step – though this time a Japenese step chest!
- The twins – fraternal of course.
- Frame done – 20 mortise and tenon joints.
- Got the inlay done! Banding around the edge, oval is Cherry burl and stringing around it is holly.
- The figured cherry is finished with a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil followed by a number of coats of Arm-R-Seal.
- Leg detail with beading, back is chamfered.
- Top detail – 1/4″ cherry-holly inlay.
- Top view – big cherry burl medallion.