This stool is small and simple, and was designed and made by me by eye.
Empirical, not Imperial, is the measure of the pre-industrial maker.
This article will show you how I design simple furniture while keeping in mind the mindset of a pre-industrial, hand-tool artisan. Since I won’t be using power tools to build it, my usual machine-oriented design process can be abandoned to help me develop it. This means I wont be bothering with drafting up (or SketchUp upping) numerically defined drawings in order to generate cutlists because, as you will see, I simply dont need them. Machines require numbers that the hand-tool maker doesn’t.
Rough sketch. A thick pencil and a piece of paper is all thats needed in the initial progression of design concepts.
I start by roughing out concept sketches that satisfy the essential parameters of function and aesthetics that are the givens of the project. When I come to an iteration that looks good enough to pursue, I draw a full-scale rendering of it and from there construct a cardboard mock-up that allows me to view the piece not only in three dimensions, but placed so I can look at it in the way it will be viewed in use. Real-world views can often be difficult to see in drawings. Once satisfied with the mock-up, I commit the design to the traditional, analog recording system of tick sticks and templates. This design is created without the use of rulers or tape measures.
One foot. The width of my custom stool is one foot my actual foot, rather than an Imperial foot.
Whom The Stool Toils
How can I determine the dimensions of a piece of furniture, in this instance a step stool, if I avoid numbers? This is where the fun begins.
This stool will be to my size and intended use. I can ask my body for all primary dimensions. This is how it works: The human frame can be roughly proportioned in whole-number ratios of eight. We are eight of our hand-spans (with arms outstretched) wide and eight hand-spans high. Our head is approximately one-eighth our height. Our centerline to shoulder is one-eighth of our width, and our foot length comes out to be five-eighths of our shoulder span. This relationship makes the stepboard look very similar to the famous, and intrinsically attractive, golden rectangle. So in designing this step stool I develop its basic dimensions, as well as the location of structural intersections, around ratios of eight. Not just any eighths though: I use my own hand-span to provide the starting point information after all, this stool toils for me!
The Specifics Of The Parameters
Hand span. Use dividers to divide the space in one hand into eights. Then, use these eighths to determine every dimension of your stool.
The need here is to build a durable and stable, single-step stool for my own use in the shop it will give me just enough lift to reach the top rack of my lumber storage and a few high shelves. To prevent slipping off the stool, I want some kind of textured surface on the step board. I like the aesthetic appeal of tapered angles and softened lines with curves. Here are the requirements for this project: Designed to fit me properly
Stable no matter where I place my foot
Strong enough to support my entire weight
Non-slip step surface
Here’s how I plan to meet the requirements: The step board should be approximately shoulder-width in length. This is because the weight of our bodies, which are transferred through our feet, naturally falls below our shoulders. It should be one foot wide. That is my foot! wide. The height of the stool should be the rise of a comfortable step (again, my step). The drawing below shows how I laid all this out exactly from the span one of my hands.
Two hands. The span of two of my hands is a ratio of 16:8. This dimension establishes the overall length of my custom-designed step stool.
For strength, most any hardwood is adequate to provide adequate bending resistance and to resist distortion in the joints. Side stress against low-density grains like cedar or pine would cause loose joints and eventually catastrophic failure.
For long-lasting durability that depends on physics rather than chemistry, Ill fasten the parts of the stool together with joinery that physically locks the boards to one another and does not rely on glue for strength. As you can see in the drawings, Ill attach the stretcher to the end boards with through-wedged-tenons (which also provide aesthetic appeal), then attach this assembly to the step board with a pair of sliding dovetails reinforced against side movement with pocket screws. I will hand carve a series grooves across the step board’s face to create a non-slip surface.
Drawing By Golly
The hand-drawn sketches were too large to reproduce well, so heres a computer-
generated illustration detailing the hand-generated ratios.
In the pre-industrial artisan mindset, I can let my mind go and draw on the right side of my brain (sometimes the brightest). This is the part that isn’t too analytical and not bound by many precedents and rules. To keep me from getting too involved in the details, I take out a thick pencil and sketch a perspective sketch to capture the essential functional requirements. I make a progression of sketches until I feel Ive captured both the physical and aesthetic demands of the design. Although I strive to achieve accurate perspective and pleasing proportions in my sketches, I don’t worry about producing them in perfect scale. The next step, drawing out a rendering in three views, brings the concept closer to reality by pinning down the exact sizes and relationships of all the parts in full, true-to-life scale.
Big arc. To draw an arc with a larger radius than can be set on a compass, I use a set of commercial trammel points. The Lee Valley version has a vernier adjustment to set the focal point pin. The other end has a fixture for holding a pencil.
Once I have a sketch I like, I spread vellum or other transparent paper over 3 cm square graph papers and begin to draw the first scaled-up view of the stool. This is the side elevation. (The graph paper eliminates the need for the cumbersome, slip-prone T-square.)
Here’s the fun part. I place my left hand on top of the paper and trace the length of the line from the outermost tip of my little finger to the thumb. The dividers are now in my hands and I am going to take eight sections between these points. This gives me the ability to quickly and precisely reset the divider.
Note this: Each dimension and major structural intersection will be determined by eights of my handbreadth. It will result in three things: A stool that is easy to measure using a set dividers will fit me perfectly. Because all parts and pieces are proportional, it is almost guaranteed to look appealing and pleasing to the eyes.
Centered approach. To transfer the length and centerline of the mortise, I added the dividers.
Once I have drawn a base line, I then make a starting point and step out two handbreadths in order to determine the stool’s overall length. By using geometry, or simply by looking at the graph paper underneath, I draw perpendicular lines from the base. A safe and comfortable height of a step stool should be the rise of a natural step for the human frame, which is 18 of its height (which also conveniently happens to be a handbreadth).
To mark the height, I just step up one handbreadth along each line marked by the dividers. Then I connect the marks using my drawing stick. The drawing stick is a sample from the stock I will use to make the stool. I can trace each side of the stick to determine the thickness of the top.
Then, move the divider towards the centerline on the template.
Next, I will draw the end boards. In the final sketch, the ends are canted inwardly at the top to improve stability and durability. I realized quickly that I don’t want the ends to extend beyond the top stepboard (I don’t want to trip over them) but I also want the base as wide as possible.
The obvious solution is to make the foot of the ends even with the ends of the step board. But how much should they cant in? Just by eyeballing I can see whats too much and too little. What happens to be just right to my eye is, conveniently enough, two-eighths of my hand span. This distance is measured with a divider. Then, I use my drawing tool to draw the sides (and the exact thickness) for the end boards.
Now what about the stretcher? The concept sketch shows that the stretcher should be placed about halfway between the bench top and the floor. How wide should it be? And how far below the stepboard should it be? Again, two-eighths of my hand-span seems to fit the bill in both cases. I also go ahead at this point and draw in the through-wedged tenon and add a nice little detail: a curve to the end of its tenon.
Divide and conquer. I often create a thin plywood template to represent components with angles and/or curves. Both are present on the end boards of this step stool. To avoid the tedious and error-prone measuring process, I transfer all the dimensions from the drawing to the template using a pair of dividers.
I simply extended the height and base lines from the side view to create the end-view. Because Im setting the width of the stool step to the length of my foot which is about 16 the height of the human frame I step out ten eighths of my handbreadth. (Im rounding off one-sixth when I step off 10 out of the 64 eighths that make up my full height.)
I measure the cant-in by going in the same amount of handbreadth on the side view. However, it is too steep on the end view. Instead, I use the exact same ratio but make it proportional to the width at the top. Now the cant-ins are one-eighth of the length and one-eighth of the width. To me, the cant-in now looks just right. I then try two-eighths of the width to set the width of the feet on either side of the arch and I step out one-eighth on the centerline to determine the apex (height) of the arc. This also looks great. I then draw the arc using a compass and straightedge to find its focal point.
However, because the end board is angled inward, its true length isnt expressed in this face-on view its foreshortened. To draw the end board to its true dimension so I can make a layout template, I need to expand the drawing to show the angles on the ends of the end boards. I also redraw the arc on the expanded view.
Create A Mock-up
Mock-up. Mock-up. I almost always mock up furniture projects so that I can see it from every angle in three dimensions. A step stool is designed to be used on the ground, so I will move the mock-up onto the floor and inspect it while I evaluate the design.
At this point, rather than going any deeper into detailing the full-scale rendering, I find it best to create a full-scale, three-dimensional mock-up of the piece so I can view it more true-to-life and from all angles. I transfer the overall dimensions from the full-scale rendering to the sheets of cardboard via a tick stick and a square. Note that I use the expanded view of the end boards rather than the elevation. After I have cut out the pieces, I cut slits to accommodate the tenons on the stretcher. Then I assemble the mockup with brown packing tape.
Now that I have a 3D model to play with, it is placed on the ground. I start asking questions about its proportions. (They do.) Does the through-tenon show fully, or does the overhang of the step board partially hide it? It does show okay.
If I curved the ends of the stepboard, would it look less rectilinear? Let’s try it. I add a strip of masking tape to quickly and effectively outline the curve without having to commit to cutting the cardboard.
Story stick. Once the drawing is done, I make up a story stick to transfer the component dimensions shown on the drawing to the stock. Again, there is no need to take numbered dimensions Ill simply lay the stick right on the wood and mark the position of the cutlines (which Ill draw out with a square or straightedge).
The curve is a great help. I discovered that the easiest curve to create is a part of a circle, with the center point at the opposite end. I tried the tape trick, but it was too much work. I’ll likely just make a chamfer with variable width along the stretcher’s bottom edge, which just hint at a curve.
Once I am satisfied with the mockup, any additional information or design resolutions are transferred back to the full-scale rendering. I finalize the locations and cross sections of joints. This includes choosing the width of the tenon for the stretcher, which is tool slaved, that is, the same width as one my mortise-chisels.
Let’s Make A Remark
Captured patterns. I lay the end board template on the stock, working around knots, and encapsulating interesting and appropriate grain patterns in this case cathedral grain.
To efficiently lay out the furniture components on the stock, and with near-infallible accuracy, an analog is created. This is a physical record, not a numerical one, of the dimensions of the components, their locations, and the angles and sizes of the joints. On the story stick which is simply a clean, straight piece of wood about 110 cm thick by 2-15 cm wide by a couple feet long I mark and label the length and width of the step board and the stretcher. I also note the position and angle of the stretcher tenons shoulder lines. I create a template from 120 cm plywood doorskin to record the exact dimensions and details of the end boards.
The beginning and end. The completed stool in solid wood next to the cardboard mock-up.
At this point, I don’t need the mockup and can just throw out the rendering. The cutlist is not lost so I don’t have to worry about it. All the information I need to make this project now and forevermore is fully recorded on one little stick and a small slab of plywood. Creating a design immersed in the mindset of the pre-industrial artisan, I revel in a place where I get to draw on the bright side of my brain where rulers no longer rule and I am free from the tyranny of numbers!
Tool Listing
Drawing:
My hand (and foot!)
Ideal for drawing surface and paper (vellum works well)
3 cm square-gridded graph paper
Straight-edged drawing stick (a straight-edge piece of stock trued to the thickness of the stock from which the stool will be made)
Square
Dividers at least two plus a compass (a divider with pencil)
Trammel points
Bevel gauge (the thin, Japanese-type recommended)
Pencil (standard #2, mechanical with.07 Lead) and white plastic eraser
For making a mockup:
Cardboard sheeting (no folds if possible)
Masking tape (blue, green) and packing tape (brown).
For transferring layout to stock:
Story stick material (light-colored wood 110 cm x 2-15 cm x 210 cm)
Stock for the template (120 cm plywood, thick Mylar).
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