It’s time again for my office’s Community Service Fund silent auction. A perfect opportunity for an experimental project. I wanted to try a seat with deeper saddling. So this time I used the full range of tools, starting with the adze for the rough shape, scorp to refine, and travishers to finish. The wood for the seat is garry oak from our local wood rescue program. The oak was dense and hard so shaping work was slow going. But the oak is perfect for ebonizing. It’s magical to paint clear vinegar onto the wood and watch it immediately turn black. The result is a shiny smooth and very black seat. The legs go in a different direction altogether. They are made of branches from the sequoia in our back yard. I used the drawknife to do some cleanup and shaping, but took a light touch in an effort to keep them looking like branches. The result is a highly finished seat perched on some sticks. Hopefully this will raise some money for good community causes.

Ebonized garry oak, sequoia branches, osmo,