How did they cut this a secretive groove by hand?

[C Scott McDonald]

How did they cut the grove to simulate the raised panel on the side of the door on the left in the picture below? I really big scratch stock or something?

Thanks,
Scott

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/repairman87/desk.jpg

[Bruce Page]

That would be my guess.
What a beautiful piece of furniture, is it yours? Do you have more pictures?

[greg Forster]

I would guess with a shaper of some sort. Furniture -making was fairly "mechanized" by the time this desk was built.

[Brian Ashton]

I could be very wrong on this but I don't think Wooton desks are that old. Therefore the panel I think would have been done using some sort of industrial router type machine.

[Tom McMahon]

That type of desk was made from about 1870 to1900, it would have been done by machine.

[John Coloccia]

I think the answer is 'twould be easier to make a real raised panel if doing it by hand.

[Trevor Walsh]

Yea, those marks in the corners (sharp inside, radiused outside) are certainly router like. I'd guess some type of overarm pin router or tracer.

[Mark Dorman]

How would you do a raised panel with that radius by hand?

[Tom McMahon]

It would depend on how many I had to make, if only a couple I would just rough them out with a gouge and clean them up with hollows and rounds. If I needed a lot of them I would go to the bother to make a scratch stock.

[Jerome Hanby]

Photo Bucket is blocked by many firewalls. Uploading to SMC means that everyone can see and the picture will last as long as the post...

[Frank Drew]

Yea, those marks in the corners (sharp inside, radiused outside) are certainly router like. I'd guess some type of overarm pin router or tracer.

That was my thought, too.

[Matt Evans]

Scott, I happen to be in Wooten desk territory. I can go three blocks down the street and take a look at the one in the local museum if you like. I have been planning on asking them if they wouldn't mind me doing a study on it anyhow, so this might get me in gear to do so. Also, they have a really good workup on the Wooten family and business history for sale there. I have a copy I could send you if you are interested. There is also a Wooten Desk society, but for the life of me I can't seem to find the link to it.

Pm me if you want to talk about it further.

[John Coloccia]

How would you do a raised panel with that radius by hand?

I would use a moulding plane for the beads, and maybe even one for the cove. If nothing else, I could rough it with a gouge and then clean it up with a curved scraper. Having a real panel gives you an edge to work with and allows you to use a plane. It would require some skill but I don't think it would be all that difficult with just a little bit of practice. Personally, I think that would be a lot easier than somehow carving that shape out of the middle of a piece of wood. I'm sure you could, and there are people here that could do it in their sleep with a dull pocket knife, I don't think I could ever do that.


edit: thinking about it, I would almost certainly do the cove with one of my little luthier carving planes. It would make quick work of roughing a cove that I would then just smooth with a scraper. I think most would have used an appropriately shaped gouge, though.

[Tony Joyce]

The other benefit to frame and panel construction is it will be more stable with seasonal movement.

Matt,
When you say study do you mean dimensioned sketches or drawing, photos of details? I for one would be very interested in any information, details or photos you'd be willing to pass along.
I have been gathering photos for years with the intent of building one. There seems to be very little info as to details or dimensions readily assessable on the web.

[Tony Joyce]

198109
This one appears to have frame and panel(flat) construction.

[Jim Koepke]

There is also a Wooten Desk society, but for the life of me I can't seem to find the link to it.

Doing a search on > Wooten Desk society < did not turn up the link you were trying to find, but did turn up this interesting story:

http://antiquariantraders.com/articles/in_pursuit_of_beauty.html

Here is another interesting link. It has some patent drawings an other information. It takes a bit to download since it is a 36 page file.

http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/HistoryTechnology/pdf_hi/SSHT-0003.pdf

This page has a few dimensions:

http://www.wootondesks.com/

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

Doing a search on > Wooten Desk society < did not turn up the link you were trying to find, but did turn up this interesting story:

http://antiquariantraders.com/articles/in_pursuit_of_beauty.html


jtk

And I feel brave when I spend $10 on a bucket of Shopsmith parts that I think I can resell on deBay! Man, that guy's living in the high cotton!

[Matt Evans]

The other benefit to frame and panel construction is it will be more stable with seasonal movement.

Matt,
When you say study do you mean dimensioned sketches or drawing, photos of details? I for one would be very interested in any information, details or photos you'd be willing to pass along.
I have been gathering photos for years with the intent of building one. There seems to be very little info as to details or dimensions readily assessable on the web.

Tony,

I am in the process of trying to get ahold of the curator to get photos and see if they will allow me to do dimensions and diagrams. I will definitely pass them along to you if I can get their permission. The desk locally looks as though it may have been badly stored at one time or another, and several joints are a bit off as a result, which makes the construction methods used in those joints readily apparent, even without taking the piece apart. For once, joint failure may actually work in my favor.