I’ve been a full-time woodworker since graduating from the Professional Crafts Program in Wood at Haywood Community College in Clyde, N.C., in 1980. I’ve made thousands of tables, benches, bookcases, rocking chairs, and accessories. One of my favorite items to make has been the three-legged stool. I’ve made well over a thousand of these over the years.
As a student I visited the Wharton Esherick Museum in Pennsylvania, which preserves Esherick’s home and studio full of furniture, and I was especially inspired by his functional and whimsical three-legged stools. This was straightforward, simple, adaptable furniture that even a beginner could build. And it was elegant as well! Later, when I taught workshops at John C. Campbell Folk School or Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, I often chose the three-legged stool as a beginners project, with faceplate turning for the seat and spindle turning for legs and rungs. I even wrote an article (FWW #36) about how I make them.
Getting started as a full-time, self-employed woodworker was a daunting challenge, but I was young, energetic, and determined. From my home in North Carolina, I traveled to craft fairs from Florida to New Jersey. Shows and exhibitions both indoor and outdoor—I went anywhere to get my work in front of the public and make a few bucks. In selling so many pieces in so many places, I would always wonder where my work wound up.
Thirty years ago I was at the American Artisan Craft Fair in Nashville. A man came into my booth and asked, “Which of these stools would be right for a guitar player?” I pointed to one, and he said, “I’ll take it.” He peeled off bills from a roll of cash, grabbed the stool and turned to leave, saying, “I’m late for Chet’s birthday party.” I replied, “Hold on—do you mean Chet Atkins?” “Yep,” he said. “I’m his booking agent.” I asked him to please send me a picture of Mr. Atkins with the stool. “It would mean a lot to me,” I told him. And he said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
I never heard from him. But for all these years I’ve told that story, even though at some point I began to doubt I had it right.
Then in June 2024 I received an email from a stranger. He said he was writing on behalf of the Atkins family, asking if I was the person who had made that stool. It had been loved and handed down through the family, he said. It was now owned by Chet’s granddaughter, and it needed repairs and refinishing. He had tracked me down thanks to Google and my signature on the underside of the seat.
When old customers contact me, I generally offer to refinish my own work at no cost, as it gives me a chance to reconnect with objects I’ve made over the years. In the case of the Chet Atkins stool, we arranged a drop-off and a pickup, and two weeks later it was on its way back to its owner, looking brand-new. I really enjoyed rejuvenating this stool; it was like seeing a long-lost old friend.
After all these years, the story has a new chapter. The things we make have lives of their own.
-David W. Scott, a longtime member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and a co-owner of Ariel Gallery, a contemporary craft gallery in Asheville, N.C., works wood in nearby Black Mountain.
Photos: Tim Barnwell (top); David W. Scott (bottom)
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