This was the second time I wove rush. I actually got interested in it after a conversation when I was teasing my sister and brother-in-law about wicker. They hate wicker furniture, I’m not a huge fan of it myself. However that sparked an interest in the rush chairs and stools. I do like them and think the ladder-back rush chairs have a timeless look.
This was the first stool I made, it’s just a small flat pack stool that I bought from the company who sold me the rush. The wood is pine with a dark stain on it.
The best excuse I could come up with for using rush was to make a footstool for an old oak chair that has been in my family for a very long time. My grandmother passed it down to me. It was originally my Great, Great Grandfathers examining chair. He was an country doctor. I refinished this chair back in 2005, when I first moved to Pittsburgh. At some point (mid 1960’s to early 1070’s) my Grandma Pat had it upholstered in bright red vinyl, and painted it black. Now, don’t get me wrong I love my late Grandma Pat…but good god why did she have to strip all of the finish off before painting it gloss black. If you know anything about oak you know it has very porous grain. Resulting in the oak drawing the paint deep into the grain. In order to get ALL of the black specks removed I would have had to sand down too far, effectively ruining the chair. I took it down as far as I could and then used an oil finish over that. It actually has a nice look to it. The red vinyl was replaced by a soft brown leather, I had a professional do that part.
My Great-Great Grandfathers examining chair and the finished stool for it. You can see the gain highlighted with the black paint.
This was my first attempt at drawing the project out in SketchUp. Talk about a learning curve! I am still not even able to call myself a novice with the 3D programs, but I can see the value in them and intend on learning much more in the future. I really love the ability to see things in proper scale, with this stool it helped me readjust things slightly for aesthetic reasons.
I had a through mortise and tenon idea for a stool in my head for the last few months. At this point I didn’t have very many tools for getting rough saw wood milled up (I have since picked up a thickness planer and a old 6” Delta Milwaukee jointer). It made sense to buy pre-milled lumber. At one of the big box stores I was able to find square oak legs that only need to cut to length. Oak dowels were also readily available and only need cut for length as well. I used my table saw and crosscut sled for these cuts, but a mitre saw, circular saw, or even a hand saw would work if you don’t have a table saw.
I pre-finished all of the parts once they were cut. This involved painting them black, sanding that off and then applying tongue oil. I did this to make the sand off the paint easier. Hindsight being 20/20 I would not halve done this. The dowels fit pretty snug without the finish, so it was tight to say the least. Also the glue is not as strong of a bond since the finish was on. However, I’m not concerned with a glue failure for this stool. The pets will destroy the rush long before the glue gives out.
Glued and finish applied, just need the rush woven now
Once the legs were cut to the proper height, it was time to drill the holes for the dowels. I used my drill press for this. I suppose a hand drill would work for these holes, but I would recommend a few practice runs if you are not using a drill press. I wanted to experiment with the dowels coming through at an angle, that’s also why I went with a square instead of a rectangle for the overall shape. With all of the other things that were a first for me I didn’t want to add the math to figure out those angles as well. Also, being unsymmetrical, I was not sure it would look right. Using the table saw again, I used a scrap 4x4 to create a jig to hold the legs at a 45 degree angle to the table of the drill press. They also needed to be drilled at slightly different heights. The legs cross in the middle and would interfere with each other if the hole were at the same height.
After those steps were completed, it was time to glue up. I don’t recommend using a fast setting glue. There was quite a bit of work to get it all square. I honestly don’t think there was room for one more clamp on it. Again, NOT having pre-finished the wood would have helped here.
Weaving the rush is actually pretty relaxing. Just go slow and have a good spring clamp to hold things tight when you need to move your hands or tie a new piece on. I learned how to weave the rush from where else, YouTube. Ed Hammond’s channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoWGHImhfK8tJG11dJHDYzg) had very informative, step by step videos that taught me everything I needed to know. If you are planning to do some rush weaving yourself I highly recommend taking the time to watch some of his videos.
That about wraps up my process for how I built the stool and why I went the direction I did with it. It’s not prefect by any means, but it was a fun project and it added another skill to my arsenal. As an aspiring furniture builder, I need all the skills and help I can get!