White Spruce Bench

I’ve needed a bench at my cabin on my remote Wildland Fire Initial Attack Base in McGrath, Alaska for a few years now so I have a place to hang out with friends and coworkers. This summer when I had a mandatory day off (I get one every three weeks when we’re busy) I decided to build one.

I used locally sourced white spruce (the only lumber available in bush Alaska) and drew up a quick design. I wanted a high back, wide armrests capable of holding up a beer, and a comfortable, rounded leading edge of the seat.

The first try the back was too steep and felt very much like a church pew which was not the goal. This is meant to be a relax-after-a-16-hour-shift-with-a-beer bench. I removed the backrest boards and recut the uprights to give it a more casual angle and screwed it all back together. One of the boards I got from my friend with a mill is from the center of the tree and the grain from the branches gives a nice design contrast to the rest of the plain white wood. White spruce is a very plain, soft wood. The next batch of wood I buy I’m going to sort through the stack for more of it.

The armrests are plenty wide for holding up a beer and the back is tall enough to lean your head back after a long day. It’s definitely a big man’s bench since I made the height relative to my office chair. It fits my 6’4” frame well but some shorter people end up with their feet dangling a bit.

This summer I plan on using the same design with some minor modifications to make a few chairs for around the fire pit.

-- - I learn more from my failures than my successes.