Japanese Barstool With Tusk and Tenon Joint

This is my very first piece of furniture built using strictly joinery. I use a #Tusk #Tenon #Joint as well as some more traditional joinery to create this Japanese inspired chair / stool, also known as a contemplation stool. I am starting to fall in love with woodworking so I decided I wanted to create a chair strictly using wood. I used walnut and white oak. This chair will be entered into the builders challenge instagram woodworking contest.

Step 1: Watch the Full in Depth Build!

Full video of this build with all the commentary, details and instructions.

Step 2: Mill Lumber and Cut Down to Size

I am using 6 Quarter Walnut and some thin white oak for this entire build. I start off by milling up the walnut by cutting it down to size on the miter saw, using my #6 hand plane to get one side perfectly flat then ripping it down the table saw to get the other side perfectly flat. For both stool legs I put them through the thickness planer to get them perfectly flat. For the actual seat I used an already bowed piece of walnut and did not put it through the planer because I wanted to keep the bow for the natural curved look of the Japanese style stool.

Step 3: Glue Up & Secondary Inlay.

I did the first glue up by sandwiching some 1/4" white oak between the walnut in both legs and the seat. Once dried I used my miter gauge on the table saw to rip all three pieces again, so I can glue up once more some white oak down the side of each piece.

Step 4: Tapering Jig / Curving Each Piece and Rough Sanding

I used a tapering jig to taper both legs slightly at about 1/2" on either side. I think this will give it a good contrast from the wide seat. I then needed to create the curve in each piece. Both legs, and the seat will have a slight curve so I took it to the bandsaw and cut out the curve. I then used some 60 grit sandpaper to clean up all of the bandsaw marks.

Step 5: Epoxy Knot and Taper Seat

I used some black epoxy to fill in a knot that was loose on one of the legs. I then put a 70 degree bevel on the seat. This deemed a bit tricky because it was curved. I had to put a large shim under opposing side to keep the cut flat and 70 degrees.

Step 6: Shouldered Tenons on the Legs.

I created shouldered leg tenons by ripping a 1/2" cut, then finishing it off by taking it to the bandsaw. I then had to cut the shoulders by using my pull saw. I cleaned everything up with a chisel and sandpaper.

Step 7: Seat Mortise

To create the seat mortise I first bored out material with a forstner bit on the drill press, then cleaned everything up using a chisel. I then did a dry fit and luckily they fit perfectly!

Step 8: Stretcher

For the stretcher I sandwiched white oak between walnut and cut out a curve using the bandsaw. To match the seat top I also beveled both ends at 70 degrees.

Step 9: Shouldered Stretcher Tenon

I created the shouldered tenon on the end of the stretcher by making multiple cuts using my miter gauge on the table saw. To cut the curved section of this I had to bring it over to the bandsaw. I then cleaned everything up with the chisel and sandpaper. I then did a dry fit and everything fit as it should!

Step 10: Mortise in the Legs

I created a Mortise in each leg by first boring material out using the drill press with forster bit. I then used the chisel and hand files to clean it up and get a perfect fit.

Step 11: Tusks

For the Tusks I used an opposing white oak with walnut inlay. I drew out my tusk design then cut it out on the bandsaw and then finished by sanding to 220 grit.

Step 12: Stretcher Mortise

I bored out material using a forster bit on my drill press then cleaned everything up with a chisel and hand files.

Step 13: Dry Fit/ Final Sanding/ Glue Up / Finish

I did a dry fit to make sure everything fit together snugly. I then did a final sanding of every piece up to 220 grit before gluing up. I decided to use 5 minute epoxy for this glue up just to add some more strength than conventional wood glue. Once everything was dry I did some touch up sanding and finished everything using Festool's heavy duty finish.

Step 14: Watch the Entire Build!

Thank you for viewing this instructable. It was a lot of fun to build and I plan on doing some more woodworking soon!

Comments

[Sausagelink]

Fantastic piece of work! Good luck in the contest.

[BMsculptures]

Thank you!

[Bella1dog]

Great piece of furniture.I have wanted to make one myself so now i have your plans i'll have a go Some designs are pretty complicated but yours looks good. Cheers

[BMsculptures]

Thank you Bella.

[Simonius]

Great job. Perhaps you could build more furniture; you ser very good at it.
Thank you very much for the video!

[BMsculptures]

Thank you! I think i will in the future!

[Slowjoe10392]

VERY nice job! I really like your design and execution.
Additionally, I'd be interested in seeing a video and Instructable about your taper jig.

[BMsculptures]

Thank you! I actually thought about it quite a bit, and there are already a ton of instructables and videos on this same tapering jig so I don't think I will end up doing one. Do a quick search on DIY tapering jig and you can find really good plans for this exact one!

[Slowjoe10392]

OK, thanks...I will look online. I also forgot to comment on your bandsaw wheel brake. Hilarious! Keep up the good work, and the humor.

[BMsculptures]

haha thank you!

[RobertS942]

Great build. What are the dimensions of the stool?

[BMsculptures]

It is 24" tall x 20" wide x 8" deep

[pbbaker1]

Very nice build. I always appreciate it when 'mistakes are made' and you show how to fix them or work around them. I also like watching someone work out how to do things since that is how I do pretty much everything. That, and watching videos of course. Keep up the great work.

[BMsculptures]

Im almost certain that most people that have zero mistakes just edited their mistakes out lol. I also learn everything from watching other people work, it is the best way to learn! Thanks for watching!

[ArthurJ5]

That’s beautiful! And, sometimes it’s good to be lucky. I have some walnut from an old walnut farm and want to make one or two of these cool contemplation stools. I might use through mortice and tenon with wedges on the top. I have to contemplate that.

My kids think ‘BM Sculptures’ making a stool is just hysterical. They just get the galloping happies and giggle, laugh and snort for about twenty minutes. Then I send them to bed.

[BMsculptures]

haha I have really strayed away from my sculptural background I suppose. Thats amazing that you have some old walnut you can work with from the farm. That would be really cool and sentimental to make a couple of stools from it!

[abenn666]

"luckily they fit perfectly!" - not luck Blake - good work!

[BMsculptures]

haha well Thank you.... A little luck a little craftsmanship I suppose

[MarkH342]

Wow. Beautiful! I had never heard of a contemplation stool. Thanks for posting.

[BMsculptures]

Thank you Mark... I never heard of it either before starting this build haha. Once I researched it I learned that the Japanese barstool and Contemplation stool are one in the same basically.