Federal style table legs

[Phil Mueller]

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.

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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

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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.

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Gluing in the inlay is pretty straight forward.

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[Mark Rainey]

Thanks for the instruction Phil!

[Phil Mueller]

Next was to add the black veneer to the bottom 3” of the leg. The veneer is approximately 20 thousands thick. After thinking for a while about using some hand tool to remove that consistent amount, I decided to go to power. I used a straight cutter in my router table with the fence set about 18 thou, and removed 3” from each side.

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From there it was just cutting the veneer and gluing it on. Back first, trim, sides, trim, front, trim.

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Once that was done, I inlayed the banding. Here’s a link to that post: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?288060-Stringing-and-cuffs

Of course all of the stringing and inlays required some leveling. I love the LV miniature plane for this.

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I should mention that prior to any of the oval or inlay work, I did three applications of grain filler with a wash coat of shellac in between each coat. After all the inlay work was done, I pre-finished with a few wipe on coats of shellac and finished with my best attempt at french polish. I plan to do a bit more once it’s all together.

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[Frederick Skelly]

Man, those look soooo good. Thanks for the tutorial Phil!

I bought a batch of LN stringing tools a couple years back, after reading one of Latta's articles in FWW. I just haven't had the nerve to try something as complex as those legs. Seeing this reminds me I need to order some stringing and start trying simpler things.

Fred

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks Fred. I started with doing outlines on the top and/or sides of boxes and occasionally across the front of table aprons or around picture frames. Adds a nice little detail. The nice thing about various widths of stringing, is that you can start small (1/16”) and if something goes wrong, just move up to 1/8”. But honestly, it’s not that difficult...just a little patience, good lighting and some magnifying glasses!

FYI, I get my stringing and banding from inlaybanding dot com. Pretty consistent size wise, and a variety of wood choices.
I used boxwood for these legs. Not as stark white as holly, but lighter than maple. I’m happy with the sort of aged color look.

[Bill Carey]

Thanks for posting the links Phil - I've bookmarked this thread for reference. Appreciate you taking the time to pull this together.