With the holidays approaching, I thought a Windsor stool might be a fun gift project to make. The round seat is an easy faceplate turning job, and the legs are a simplified double-bobbin style that is much easier to turn than the classic baluster leg of typical Windsor chairs.
I made my stool from ash, but other good options are maple, red or white oak or hickory. All the workpieces in the Material List on page 24 start with 8/4 stock planed to 1 7⁄8" thick. The seat is 14" in diameter. Finding an 8/4 plank that wide isn’t easy, so I edge-glued a seat blank from three 5"-wide boards. If you do likewise, arrange the three boards for a pleasing overall grain pattern.
Drilling the Leg Sockets
We’ll drill the seat for the four leg sockets first, because the tenons can be sized to a tight
