Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
The seat went through at least 4 re-builds. It looks like Swiss cheese (with the holes plugged) as the rake and splay were modified a few times. In the end I preferred 11 degrees rake front-and back with 10 degrees of splay on the front legs.

To answer the question which leg preference my wife had, it was the 3-legged stool. The 4-legged was "too much like a stool".

The other question was whether 3 legs would be stable. The short answer is I could dance on this stool and it will not tip over. Solid.

All the legs were tied together with stretchers that had wedged through mortice-and-tenons. The leg-into-seat were tapered at 7 degrees. The stretchers-into-stretchers were straight. All tenons ended at 5/8".

I spent some time comparing the 7 degree reamer and tenon rounder (taperer) I made versus the 12 degree versions from Veritas. I shall post pictures at another time. What I can say is that - in my short experience! - is that the Veritas tools worked amazingly well. Mine worked well too - slower, which is a good thing when you are needing to be careful. Nevertheless, I ended up using my tools as I found the 12 degree taper was not as secure as the 7 degree taper. It would be great is Lee Valley offered these tools in 6 degrees (my tools aimed at 6 degrees but I managed 7 degrees).

The prototype ended like this ...

In the end, my wife decided that this design was "ho-hum" ... just not in keeping enough with the more modern designs I build.

So back to the drawing board!

Regards from Perth

Derek