My wife and I remodelled our kitchen - everything was replaced from floors to walls. To replace our 15 year old bow back windsor country style kitchen eating bar stools. We wanted a solid chair that will hold up to for daily use, that is cleanable, that were comforatbale, and that were in colors to match our new Craftmaid "Honey Maple" maple cabinets and black granite counter tops. Everything we saw was flimsy, the wrong color, uncomfortable, or designed so cleaning was impossible.
Saw these on Great Offer Stock and based on a positive review gave them a chance and ordered 5.
They arrived in a week. Each boxed in a 2'x2'x3' box. Unpacking took a good 10 minutes per chair with each in bubble wrap and cardboard. I folded up the boxes and rolled the bubble wrap for re-use at Christmas. (The bubble wrap wasn't taped to death). There was ZERO shipping damage.
They are shipped in two pieces - the chair top with its turntable attached, and the chair legs already assembled into one piece. Assembly was easy. Four 3/4" hex head bolts with self locking nuts (no washers to fumble with) were included. All the holes lined up fine and I tightend them with two 1/2 inch wrenches from my garage tool set. An adjustable wrench and a 1/2 socket rachet wrench would work too as there's room for the socket on the nut.
The legs are 1 1/8" square tube steel - decent guage thickness, nicely bent. The leg tops are welded to a top plate, and the leg bottoms welded to a circular foot rest made of 1/2 inch square tube steel. All the welds are clean, no torch holes, no splash, no grinder marks. The finish is a krinkle coat black with some texture and a "matte" look. This is a krinkle finish that you will recognize from 1950-60's era metal office furniture when they built things to last. It is nicely applied and is durable (nick resistant) and washable. (I tried to nick it and I washed it to be sure.) The leg tips have clear plastic inserts that are tough, and slide on the floor well without grabbing or scratching. I am sure if I ever needed to I could obtain replacements as the square tube stock is a common size.
The chair back uprights are the same steel square tube stock, with the tops capped with bevelled edge steel cap, welded on, and again with no torch holes, no weld splash, and no grinder marks. The cross back caning on our model is 1/2 wide flat steel bar stock - solid, and welded to the uprights with more clean welds. Paint is the same black krinkle - evenly applied. The chair backs are nicely angled and curved and don't cut into your back when you sit and lean back into them.
The chair seats are a maple hardwood, uniformly cut to size and shaped with nicely curved edges that don't cut your thigh when you sit on them. The wood is stained a "medium maple" which is a near perfect match to our Craftmaid cabinet color. Yea!!! If the color had been off too much the seat base comes off with four screws and I would have refinished them to the color of my choice. There is some variation in staining color due to wood grain, but its what you get with any maple hardwood stain - same as our cabinetry.
The turntable allows a full 360* swivel. The swivel is a bit tight, so I used some Tri-Flow lube to loosen them up a bit. The turntables are ball bearing design between flat steel plates and are like the ones on my old stools that lasted 15 years and still work. I have seen similar ones for sale at Home Depot or Lowe's so I am sure I could get a replacement if one ever failed. (I have notivced some other makers use custom bent plates and can't be easily matched).
All in all I think these were THE BEST DEAL IN MY WHOLE KITCHEN REMODEL.