Making a Danish Stool

I follow the work and teaching of Richard Maguire over at The English Woodworker. Richard has a way of explaining things that make it very easy to follow his step by step instructions and techniques. When Richard posted his latest video on making a Danish Stool I knew there were two things I wanted to learn which this course was going to give me clarity on:

  • Understanding splay and rake and compound joinery.
  • Danish cord weaving.

The process wasn’t bad at all and the concepts were easy to follow, however it takes a little getting used to visualizing the angles of these compound joints. For example, the side stretcher has a square mortise, but the tenon is bent up 4 degrees to create a rake for the legs.

Tenon with 4 degree angle.
The resulting rake angle of the long stretcher.

So this is one angle, and then there is the angle of the legs at 14 degrees providing the splay angle of the legs.

Both the tenon and the mortise are angled at 14 degrees.
A look at the tenon. You can see the angle needed to make it fit into the mortise.

That combination of splay and rake results in a very strong and interesting structure to the stool.

Rake after assembly.
Splay after assembly.

I haven’t done the weaving yet. Some other work is taking precedence, and I will post more on the process when I get things rolling.

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