Phil Mueller
01-01-2021, 12:06 AM
I’ve posted a few pieces of this over the last year, just thought I’d consolidate for those interested. This is the leg build for a demilune table I’ve been working on for some time. Many thanks to famed Steve Latta for his articles in FWW and our own Mike Allen. If you haven’t seen his build, search for “Federal Style Table Build” back in Sept/Oct 2016. His work is stellar.
The legs started with 8/4 Brazilian Cherry. Leg blanks were sawn out and squared to 1 3/4” . First step was to make the mortises.
The back two legs receive regular mortises, the front two are essentially a bridle joint.
448345 448346
Second step was to make the shaded ovals. Here is a link to the post on making a fan...the process for the ovals was the same.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?281145-Making-a-Federal-Style-fan
448347 448348
I made a few extras knowing something would go wrong and hopefully I’d get at least four that were usable.
Next step was to inlay the ovals.
Here’s a link to that post: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?286536-Oval-inlays
Once that was complete, I rough cut the taper and hand planed the tapers to final dimension. They go from 1 3/4” to 3/4”. (no pics here, just basic leg tapering).
Next step was to create the grooves for the stringing. The top oval was done first. Here’s a link to that post:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?287903-curved-inlay-stringing
Then the straight inlay down the legs. I’ve done this with the LV inlay tool and router plane...but considering 10 leg sides/two inlays per side, the router came out. Set for depth and using an edge guide, it was relatively quick work. The inlay is 3/16” in from the side and 1/16” wide.
448351
Gluing in the inlay is pretty straight forward.
448352 448353
The legs started with 8/4 Brazilian Cherry. Leg blanks were sawn out and squared to 1 3/4” . First step was to make the mortises.
The back two legs receive regular mortises, the front two are essentially a bridle joint.
448345 448346
Second step was to make the shaded ovals. Here is a link to the post on making a fan...the process for the ovals was the same.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?281145-Making-a-Federal-Style-fan
448347 448348
I made a few extras knowing something would go wrong and hopefully I’d get at least four that were usable.
Next step was to inlay the ovals.
Here’s a link to that post: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?286536-Oval-inlays
Once that was complete, I rough cut the taper and hand planed the tapers to final dimension. They go from 1 3/4” to 3/4”. (no pics here, just basic leg tapering).
Next step was to create the grooves for the stringing. The top oval was done first. Here’s a link to that post:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?287903-curved-inlay-stringing
Then the straight inlay down the legs. I’ve done this with the LV inlay tool and router plane...but considering 10 leg sides/two inlays per side, the router came out. Set for depth and using an edge guide, it was relatively quick work. The inlay is 3/16” in from the side and 1/16” wide.
448351
Gluing in the inlay is pretty straight forward.
448352 448353