Cabriole leg design references?

[Charlie Schultz]

I want to build some Cabriole legs for a small stand. Any ideas on how one goes about designing thems (templates, books, rules-of-thumb, ...)? Thanks in advance.

[John Timberlake]

Charlie,

By cabriole leg, I assume you mean what is typically associated with Queen Anne furniture. I usually start with a design from a book. I have a number of books by Nutting, Frank Gottshall, Lester Margon, etc. that have examples. But my favorite is "American Furniture of the 18th Century" by Jeffrey Greene. It give the details of how to turn the foot (you can also do it with rasps) and shape the leg. I almost always draw a full size plan of the leg and make changes until it "looks right" in my opinion. It all depends on the length of the leg, thickness of the wood, size of the knee blocks. I cut the outline on a bandsaw before turning the foot. I turn the foot on the lathe and then use the lathe as a vise to hold the leg while shaping. Phillip Lowe also has a video that shows how to do a cabriole leg with ball and claw foot, if that is what you want. The Greene book also talks about the ball and claw procedure. Hope this helps.

[Tom Stovell]

Norman Vandal's book on QA furniture has some good information, too.

Tom

[Alex Berkovsky]

Charlie,
Here's a link to Woodcarft's how-to (http://www.woodcraft.com/articles.aspx?articleid=421&page=1). I also have a template in PDF format that I can email you.