Neander Chippendale Lowboy Build – Part 7 Carving Ball and Claw Feet (Lots of Pics)

[Mike Allen1010]

This is my first attempt at carving Ball and Claw feet that are called for in this Chippendale lowboy. There are many accomplished carvers much better qualified to provide tutorials on this subject.My intent with this post is just to share some pictures of how I tried to do it.

Two of the feet are finished and the other two nearly so. The first leg took me about 8 hours to complete. The last one will take me about 6 hours. I hoped to be able to accelerate the pace of work a little bit more with some experience, but in practice not so much. Maybe next time around I’ll be a little faster. I’d saya lmost 30% of my time was spent just on sharpening.

For reference I relied on printed instructions provided by Mary May available on the Internet.The picture/instructions in Franklin Gottschall’s book “Building Furniture Masterpieces” where I got these plans are really limited with regard to carvingthe feet.

Here are some pictures of the initial layout – the template is included in Mary May’s instructions.
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To keep thevertical margins of the toe/claws straight I used to back saw. Later Idiscarded the step and went right to carving.
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Defining the top of the arch with the #5 sweepgouge. I’ve been using my Rubio Dench for about four years now and one of thethings I like best about it is mortising right over the bench leg – super solidallowing all the force of the mallet to be transmitted to the work.
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Used a “V” gauge tocomplete the legs of the arch.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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Used a “V” gauge to complete the legs of the arch.
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Next step is rounding the lower half of the ball to initial diameter. A bench chisel worked great for this. These no-name Japanese chisels I acquired somewhere in the last 20 years take the sharpest edge of any chisels in my shop. I wish I knew what they were so I could get some more. I’m confused by the wide range of Japanese chisel makers and prices, which has left me like a deer in headlights.

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Rounding the upper half of the ball. The 30 mm #5 sweep gouge is probably my most used carving tool and worked great for this.
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[Mike Allen1010]

Once both halves of the ball are established, I cleaned up the top of the arch carving cross grain, downhill with a very sharp bench chisel.
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Here is lay out for the next step. Rounding over the toes and carving the web for the outward facing sides.
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I ground 1095 saw plate steel into a curved scraper matching the contour of the ball. This really saved me a lot of time and left a much better surface than sanding – which I hate (before and after scraping pics). I usually struggle getting a good edge on a card scraper. This time I ground the curvature with the sanding drum in the drill press and it worked great. This really helped me get nice sharp, square edges prior to burnishing the cutting edges.

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[Mike Allen1010]

Forming the talons;I was able to get fairly close with the chisel, but final results were easierto obtain with a file and scraper.

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Forming the curved surface of the knuckles. I tried carving these cross grain, but got much better results with rasps and files. Clamping the leg horizontally in my tail vise (a quick release full with that I love and use more than my twin screw face vice), made it easier to get a uniform profile.
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[Mike Allen1010]

Next is creating the web and hollowing out the surface of the leg above the web to create tendons connecting to each of the toes. Creating the web seem to “stretch” the vertical dimension of the ball so I had to re shape it a number of times – again the large #5 sweep gouge was perfect for this.

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I sanded the first leg to remove some of the carving marks but it left a very unsatisfactory surface. Curved scrapers gave a much better result.
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[Mike Allen1010]

Here are pictures of two of the finished legs (the back – I thought it best to learn/srew up on these). I still have a ways to go to finish the two front legs on the left.

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All in all, these feet were some of the most fun carving I’ve done; larger scale and less tedious than shells and floral patterns. I’m not looking forward to doing the foliage on the knee. You think I can get away with only doing that on the two front legs – no one’s gonna see the two back legs anyway – right?

Thanks for looking

All the best, Mike

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Just amazing. Just doing one is hard; making a pair even harder; making a MATCHED pair- now that's skill!

[Brett Robson]

Wow those look great! Nice job!

[Andrew Hughes]

The ball and claw is such a dramatic detail.Kinda scary too.Good looking first.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Thanks for posting such detailed photos Mike.
Lovely work whether this is a first time or the latest of many. I wish I had such skill. Carving details like this is something I have just never been able to quite get.

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks guys. Malcolm, describing these as matched is a stretch.

I think they'll turn out good enough for me-but my standards are low. Already taking waaaaay too long. I'm ready to be done with these B&C feet and get back to some actual cabinet making. The carvings are strictly to keep the LOML happy. If it were up to me , I would be finished with Garrett Hack's side board by now.

Maybe if I better at carving and it didn't take so long I would be a bigger fan. I have more than full time day job and shop time is super valuable to me. I would rather spend it doing tuff I know and enjoy. With two college age boys I could be more than busy spending the time I do have building stuff t hey need.

Wait a minute l ....this soundsn dangerously close to me to me losing any sense of perspective about anything remotely'' worth complaining about. How embarrassing, particularity with Veterans Day soon upon us!

As a penance, I have some saws to go to NAVSPECWAR.

Best, Mike

Only easy day was yesterday