Shaker Handled Step Stool

This is a project I've been thinking about for quite some time.  We have a little step stool in the kitchen that helps my wife reach some things on higher shelves.  But she has to reach to the floor to grab it and move it.  I don't know where I first saw a design like this, but having a tall handle seems like a great idea for a kitchen step stool.

It'll look something like this

I made this out of the red oak I got from a neighbor's kitchen remodel.  The handle is about 30" tall, the step is 8 1/2" wide and 12 1/2" long and is 9" off the floor.  The joint between the step and the low upright (front legs) used dovetails.  It's been a few months since I dovetailed anything, and I felt a little rusty.

Tails cut and waste chopped

Pins cut and waste chopped out

The fit wasn't perfect.  I filled a couple of small gaps after glue-up.  For the joint between the step and the tall handle, I used multiple (roughly) square mortises and tenons.  I left the tenons about 1/16" proud, because I like the look.

Handle board below, step above, marked and ready for cutting

Another view.  The left/right extents of the mortises and tenons were marked
with a panel gauge, referencing off the same side (edge)

Mortises in the handle piece were first bored, then chopped to the lines

Checking for square inside walls

Looking pretty clean

The tenons came out pretty good, still a little paring to do here

Got a good fit

Added a rail under the step.  Through tenons.  The tenons were offset from center
of the rail so that I could leave more meat on the handle piece between the mortises
for the step and the mortise for the rail.  A curve was added to the rail's underside later.

I wanted to add something for visual interest (and so my wife might like it), so I cut out a heart shape at the top of the handle.  The heart doubles as a hand hole.  I practiced with scrap first, and that was a good idea so that I'd get a good heart shape on the real thing.

Practicing on scrap of same width

Making a template: two overlapping circles of 1 3/8" diameter, from the bottom
of those circles, mark down 1 3/8" along the centerline.  Then join the outside of
the two circles with a slight curve to that point.  The larger heart is 1/2" offset from the smaller one.

The heart/handle came out pretty good

Next was shaping the handle piece and creating feet.  The handle had gentle curves starting 1" above the step and ending a couple inches below the heart.  The feet were made by cutting out a half-ellipse, 5 1/2" minor axis and 10" major axis (only half the major axis length was used because I'm using a half-ellipse).

Template used to mark out the shape on the handle

Handle sides shaped - awaiting the half-ellipse for creating feet (no pics)

Before gluing up, I did a few dry-runs to figure out my clamping strategy.  The glue-up went fine, but it always looks so silly with all those clamps in place.  There's a lot going on in the picture below.  They're not seen in the photo, but there are two pieces of scrap placed between the front feet and back feet.  They are the exact length as the distance between the step's two shoulder lines - the dovetail side and the tenon side.  These pieces were placed between the feet so that the joints would stay square when clamped up.

Those deep-reach clamps extending out left and right are clamping the rail to the underside of the seat.  I made these many years ago from plans in Wood magazine (I think), and they really come in handy at times.

The glue-up

These cauls were used for clamping the multiple tenons (top)
and the dovetails (bottom)

I'm happy with the result.  The dovetails look pretty good and the the through tenons fit well.  The following pics are after a first coat of shellac.

The dovetails and through tenon of the rail

The multiple mortise and tenon joint, with rail tenon on the handle side

And the final product:

First coat of shellac applied

I've got three coats of shellac on now, and I'll give it another coat or two tomorrow (but not on the underside).  Time will tell if it gets used in our kitchen.  It's intended to replace (or be in addition to) a step stool that has huge sentimental value to my wife.