Synopsis: Here’s an exercise to perfect your round joinery skills. The author uses his experience of having built more than 1,500 chairs to guide you through every step: choosing the right materials, the differences between traditional and hybrid joints, making the seat frame, drying the rungs and legs properly and turning them, and cutting good tenons. He details how to drill the legs and assemble the undercarriage and attach the seat frame. There’s also information on how to weave a bark seat.

I suspect that for many readers the idea of building a simple stool seems rather mundane. But when taken as an exercise in perfecting your round joinery, there is more challenge here than meets the eye. Even after building 1,500 chairs, making a perfect round joint keeps me on my toes.

And there are lots of other reasons to get into stool making. Apart from providing compact, inexpensive…