This is a long post because there are lots of prize winners for the Shop Stool Build-Off! If you are listed as a winner, but have not received an e-mail from me, please contact me to organize the delivery of your prize!
Thank you to all the participants, sponsors, judges, and everyone who voted. Nearly 750 votes from readers of my blog were tallied and the Shop Stool Build-Off was a success well beyond anything that I had imagined!
Sponsors
Please visit the websites of the sponsors and check out the prizes they have provided:
- Black & Decker
- Bridge City Tool Works
- Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement Magazine
- Hand Tool School
- Hock Tools
- Microjig
- Lee Valley Tools
- Milwaukee Tool
- Popular Woodworking Magazine
- Scott Meek Woodworks
- Time Warp Tool Works
- The Wood Whisperer
Judges
I hand-picked a panel of judges to evaluate the stools on a variety of criteria with which I provided them. Their job was not easy and they deserve a big “thank you”!
- Judson Beaumont & Straight Line Designs
- Rob Brown of Equinox Interiors and Canadian Woodworking Magazine
- Megan Fitzpatrick of Popular Woodworking
- Jessica Hall
- Robert Hitzig
- Morgan Holt of Earth Art Landscape & Design
- Vic Hubbard of Tumblewood Creations
- Tom Iovino of Tom’s Workbench
- Paul Limewski of Canadian Woodworks
- Scott Meek of Scott Meek Woodworks
- Meredith Nicole of Oden Gallery
- Dyami Plotke of Penultimate Woodshop
- Marc Spagnuolo of The Wood Whisperer
- Fay Wong
- Stephen Z of Stephen Z Metal Designs
Andrew Coholic’s CNC-cut shop stool earned the title of Best Concept Among Canadian Stools and won him a Shockwave Drilling & Driving 35-piece Bit Set from Milwaukee Tool.
Forty-two percent of judges agreed that Alex Leslie’s T-stool was The Most Daring Design and for that, he won a 1-year subscription to Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement from Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement Magazine.
He had an interesting description of his design, too.
The art of balancing and pivoting on this stool keeps the user alert and awake. If one dozes off, the resulting fall will either awaken the user or cause more prolonged unconsciousness.
David Picciuto’s clean-looking plywood stool joined with pocket hold screws was judged as having the Best Use of Materials, earning him a Set of 3″ Bench Dogs from Time Warp Tool Works.
Danny Siggers’s design was voted the Most Innovative Among Canadian Stools. For that, he won a Shockwave Drilling & Driving 35-piece Bit Set from Milwaukee Tool.
Sixty-three percent of the judges thought that Chris Salter’s description of his stool was the Most Critical, with the Best Attitude. For that, he was awarded a 1-Year Membership to The Wood Whisperer Guild courtesy of Marc Spagnuolo. His description was also one of the most entertaining:
Is there a “painfully amateur” category? Cuz if so, I’m totally rockin’ that. Otherwise you can probably use my entry as a dire warning for others. :-) Still – a ton of fun.
A few words about my stool: Look, it’s a terrible stool. I’m confident that it’s the worst of the build-off by far, but I don’t care because my whole reason for joining in was to have fun, try new things, and learn. By those criteria, I definitely succeeded.
Rock on, Chris! I love your attitude and willingness to push your abilities.
Judges decided that Jonathan Gunderlach’s wild-looking stool earned the title of Best Representing Hand Work, and awarded him his choice of any 1 semester of The Hand Tool School from The Hand Tool School.
The triangular intersection of mortise and tenon joints employed by Sean Wisniewski earned him 38% of the judges’ votes for Most Impressive Joinery and a 1-year subscription (or extension) to Popular Woodworking Magazine, courtesy of Popular Woodworking.
Ryan Sparreboom’s burl-seat stool attracted 60% of the votes for the Best Use of Materials Among Canadian Stools and earned him a Shockwave Drilling & Driving 35-piece Bit Set from Milwaukee Tool.
His stool also edged out Jonathan Gunderlach’s as the Most Organic and for that, he won a Set of 3″ Bench Dogs from Time Warp Tool Works.
On the international level, 15% of the judges also thought Alexandre Guertin’s stool was the Most Inspiring, so he also earned a Make a Wooden Smoothing Plane with Scott Meek DVD from Scott Meek Woodworks.
Naturally, that made his design the Most Inspiring Canadian Stool as well, so he won a Shockwave Drilling & Driving 35-piece Bit Set from Milwaukee Tool, too.
Judges also voted his stool as the Second-Best Canadian Stool, so he will receive a Porter Cable 20V Lithium Ion Drill from Black & Decker.
Jim Dillon won a copy of Marc Spagnuolo’s book, Hybrid Woodworking, courtesy of Popular Woodworking for these two updates which Best Defined “Hybrid Woodworking“.
You mean hybrid like this? (1 of 2) @WoodWhisperer #SSBO pic.twitter.com/tzB31uZPJ1
— Jim Dillon (@JimDillon6) January 25, 2014
You mean hybrid like this? (2 of 2) @WoodWhisperer #SSBO pic.twitter.com/AHAbovKo0z
— Jim Dillon (@JimDillon6) January 25, 2014
Jim’s stool was also deemed to have the Best Concept, earning him a Set of 3″ Bench Dogs from Time Warp Tool Works
The judges loved the creativeness and ingenuity shown by Trevor Green. His stool with vise and folding step earned him 57% of judges’ votes for the Most Innovative Design and a signed copy of Quality is Contagious: John Economaki & Bridge City Tool Works, 36 Years Through the Lens of Joe Felzman courtesy of Bridge City Tool Works.
With an impressive 8% of all votes from the public, Jamie Hubbard’s elegant, adjustable-height stool is the Flair Woodworks Reader’s #3 Choice. Microjig will be sending him a GRR-Rip Block (GB-1).
Garnering 15% of the official judges’ votes and 13% of the readers’ votes, Sean Rubino’s stool won a Spokeshave kit from Hock Tools and Advanced GRR-RIPPER (GR-2000) from Microjig as the Second Best Stool Overall and Flair Woodworks Reader’s #2 Choice.
The big winner was a stool which stood out in design and quality of craftsmanship. It won:
- Flair Woodworks Reader’s Choice #1 Overall with 15% of votes (MICRODIAL Tapering Jig (TJ-5000) from Microjig);
- Best Stool, Period with 23% of official judges’ votes (Veritas Pullshave from Lee Valley Tools);
- Best Canadian Stool with 51% of official judges’ votes (DeWalt Cordless Oscillating Tool from Black & Decker);
- Most Impressive Joinery in a Canadian Stool (Shockwave Drilling & Driving 35-piece Bit Set from Milwaukee Tool); and
- Most Innovative Canadian Design (Shockwave Drilling & Driving 35-piece Bit Set from Milwaukee Tool*).
*Because this is a duplicate prize, the item was awarded to the runner-up in the category.
The winning stool design belongs to Neil Cronk.
Remember that you can view all the stools from this page. Click on any number to view the stool and read about it.
Subscribe to my blog using the form at the bottom of every page for updates from FlairWoodworks.com, including information about the next Flair Woodworks Build-Off!
Sculptural Woodwork by Chris Wong 
Great to see so many of the stools recognized for their relative merits. Great job all! And kudos to Chris for putting this all together.
It’s humbling to be included on this page, alongside such truly excellent woodworkers. I’m quite grateful to Chris Wong for all the hard work he’s done to make SSBO happen. Thanks!
For those of us of a certain age and background Alex Leslie’s T-stool is a wide version of those we used when milking cows by hand.