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June, 2001 The Boot Bench This is the "boot bench" I've been working on sporadically since early spring. It's another "practice" piece in preparation for the Arts and Crafts sofa and sideboard I keep telling my wife I'm going to make "next." The wood used here was a dog's breakfast—what I had on hand, and what I could find in various nearby stores here in Japan, mostly a ragtag variety of pines, including some from the western U.S. and some from New Zealand, and a bit of factory finger-joined pine, too, when I could hide it in places where it wouldn't be too obvious. The wood for the lid I bought last, however, and based on the smell, it appears to be some kind of spruce or balsam fir. Since this was to be a study piece in preparation for the "real one" in oak, I used quadrilinear post construction (don't laugh). Ludicrous overkill on finger-joined pine, yes, but I didn't want to start out with a new technique on pricey oak and ruin it. I found, though, that the 5-piece posts went together easily enough, as long you have lots of clamps on hand. One of the Quadrilinear Posts during Glue-Up And here's a section from the end of one of the posts, showing the 5-piece construction. Section Offcut from End of Quadrilinear Post Detail after Initial Assembly (the glue-up for the floor panel can be seen in the background) For those who keep track of such things, the bench has ten through-tenons, each pegged with double dowels, forty-two stopped-tenons, seven raised panels, six corbels, —and no plywood! My first experience with mortise and tenon construction was Kanon's Cabinet that I built last year; on it, I used a Forstner bit to open the mortises, but this time I decided to try the router, and found it much easier. The bench design is my own, but given the constraints of Arts and Crafts, I suppose it doesn't have much that's original in it. On the other hand, it's not pure A&C, either—; although it started out as a rough model for the A&C sofa, I figured pine is softer and more prone to damage than oak, so I decided to make the slats a bit larger and more rectangular in section, and I also rounded over their edges to prevent gouging and other damage. With that and the addition of raised panels (and perhaps the convex contour of the corbels?) the overall effect became slanted a bit more toward "country style" (not my favorite, but. . .), so I guess you could call this "Mission-Country" Boot Bench after Initial Assembly I stained the panels before initial assembly to prevent any appearance of white wood in event of wood expansion. The only thing left at this point is to put in the floor panel, the lid supports, and of course, the lid itself. The finish is an oil stain (1/2 maple + 1/2 light oak) followed a week later by a satin polyurethane varnish, but the woods I used played havoc with the stain. Some of the New Zealand pine was lovely, clear grained stuff before finishing, but it absorbed the stain in terrible red blotches, and there was nothing I could do at that point, except learn from the experience, I guess Bench After Staining (Lid/Seat at Right) (Ego Note: I used a handheld mini-router (trimmer) to engrave my name and the year on the lower back panel of the bench, visible in the above photo.) Detail after Final Varnish The flash shot above emphasizes the overall blotchy effect of the stain; looked at from another perspective, it makes it look kind of like a "distressed" or antique finish, so I guess I can tell people "Sure, I did it on purpose that way. . ." <G>. We have placed The Boot Bench by our home's side door. . . . . . where it will be used for shoe storage (in Japan, you always take off your shoes when entering the house--that's my wife, by the way ). Our home's side door is also the one used by students coming to our little English school, so students can sit on it while waiting for class (in the room at right). . . I also built the little "god shelf" kamidana over the entryway lamp Thanks for viewing!

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Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
by Norman Havens nhavens@gol.com
Updated: February 17, 2005

URL: http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/