Masterful Production
The evolution of Brad Smith's ax-handle stool
Every year, Brad Smith makes hundreds of his ax-handle stools. The design of the stool has stayed essentially the same for 20 years, but Smith’s methods of producing it have evolved. Along the way, he has developed an array of beautifully logical jigs, perfectly suited to his three-man shop. Here are a few of the innovations that enable him to produce his stools and chairs quickly and economically while maintaining his demanding standards of craftsmanship.
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| Antique ax-handle lathe. Almost every process in Smith’s shop relies on common tools, with one amazing exception. After buying hundreds of ax-handles, Smith bought the machine that makes them, this automated lathe built in Cincinnati around 1900. With two motors—one to rotate the stock, the other to drive the cutters—it follows a template and cuts in one pass with a combination of ganged sawblades (roughing out) and an insert-knife cutterhead (finishing cut). |
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| Leg leveler. To make quick work of leveling the stool’s legs, Smith built a strip sander into the front edge of a dedicated stretch of countertop. A stool will rock on its high leg, so he simply sands the high leg until the stool no longer rocks. He built the counter using torsion-box construction to keep it flat over the long haul. |
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| Doing dishes. To dish the seats of his stools, Smith made a 4-ft. pendulum for a heavy router. He bought the router for $50 and welded the parts of the pendulum from discarded farm implements. The pendulum has a steel sphere at the top end that rotates smoothly in a circular hole in a steel plate. Using a core-box bit in the router and cutting in concentric circles from the outside in, Smith can dish a seat in about a minute. |
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Four notches, quick and clean. Smith uses a steel ring as a footrest on his stools. To cut coved notches for the ring on the inside of each leg, he built this turntable jig for a router. While holding the leg against an adjustable metal positioning plate, Smith moves the jig’s long handle, which swings the router through the cut. The jig is adjustable to accommodate stools in a range of heights. |
Photos: Michael O’Neill (top right); Jonathan Binzen (all others)
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