Friday, October 4, 2013

The Bullet Stool.

 Here's one piece I won't be able to replicate. This is a black locust and cedar stool that's just a bit under bar stool height, (24"). The seat plate is a section I cut from a large locust that stood along one side of the driveway.
The tree had been dead standing for years. It's had to know how long, because black locust is nearly indestructible. There are logs that I know have been laying on the ground for thirty years out in the woods that haven't even begun to rot. The bark comes off but the wood just gets darker.
Anyway, I cut it for firewood last winter, and I thought I'd save some of it for stools. On the third pass through the log, I saw a bright spot of shiny silver metal in the wood.
 I began cursing.
I thought I'd cut through a piece of old fence or rod that the tree had grown around. That ruins chainsaw chains and they aren't cheap if you use the good ones.
It didn't make sense though. The section I cut through was at least 15' from the ground when the tree was standing. So it wasn't likely to have been a fence.

 I gave the metal a press with my thumbnail and it dented easily. It wasn't iron, it was lead. I had cut through a bullet that had been in that tree for who knows how long. What are the chances of cutting through a forty foot log at exactly the right spot to hit a bullet embedded in the wood?

The photo right above shows the bullet in the stool seat. It looks like maybe a .38 or so.

The seat I rubbed with walnut husk, cause I like it. The legs I left natural cedar. Three coats of finish after. The locust was very old and dry. It sucked up a lot of urethane.

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