From the seat: one chair house

I have worked as a full-time woodworker since graduating from the Vocational Wood Crafts program at Haywood Community College in Clyde, North Carolina, in 1980. I have made thousands of tables, benches, bookcases, rocking chairs, and accessories. One of my favorite items is the three-legged stool. I’ve made over a thousand of these over the years.

When I was a student, I visited the Wharton Esherick Museum in Pennsylvania, which preserves Esherick’s furniture-filled home and studio, and I was particularly inspired by its practical and whimsical three-legged stools. This was clear, simple, adaptable furniture that even beginners could make. And it was elegant too! Later, when I taught workshops at the John C. Campbell Folk School or the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, I often chose the three-legged stool as a beginner’s project, rotating the front panel of the stool and turning the spindle for the legs and rungs. I even wrote an article (FWW #36) on how to make them.

Starting out as a full-time self-employed woodworker was a tough challenge, but I was young, energetic and determined. I traveled from my home in North Carolina to craft fairs from Florida to New Jersey. Both indoor and outdoor shows and exhibitions – I went anywhere to get my work in front of an audience and make a few bucks. By selling so many pieces in so many places, I always wondered where my work ended up.

Thirty years ago I was at the American Crafts Show in Nashville. A man came to my booth and asked me: “Which of these seats would be suitable for a guitarist?” I pointed to one, and he said, “I’ll take it.” “I’m late for Chet’s birthday party,” he took the bills out of the roll, grabbed the chair and turned to leave. I replied, “Wait, you mean Chet Atkins?” He said: “Yes.” “I’m his booking agent.” I asked him to send me a picture of Mr. Atkins with the chair. “It would mean a lot to me,” I told him. He said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

I never heard from him. But all these years I’ve been telling this story, even though at some point I began to doubt that I was right.

Then in June 2024 I received an email from a stranger. He said he was writing on behalf of the Atkins family, asking me if I was the one who made this chair. He said it was loved and passed down through the family. Now owned by Chet’s granddaughter, it was in need of repairs and refinishing. He tracked me down thanks to Google and my signature on the underside of the seat.

When old clients contact me, I generally offer to refinish my own work at no cost, as it gives me a chance to reconnect with things I’ve made over the years. In the case of the Chet Atkins chair, we arranged delivery and pickup, and two weeks later it was on its way back to its owner, looking brand new. I really enjoyed refurbishing this stool; It was like seeing an old, long lost friend.

After all these years, the story has a new chapter. The things we make have a life of their own.

-David W. Scott, a longtime member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and co-owner of Ariel Gallery, a contemporary craft gallery in Asheville, N.C., works with wood on nearby Black Mountain.

Photos: Tim Barnwell (top); David W. Scott (bottom)

Three-legged stool

In this classic book from the Fine Woodworking Archives, David Scott explains how to turn a bench on a lathe.