Gateleg Table Finished

[Jerry Palmer]

Been gone for a while, but been busy while away. Finished this up.

http://xs206.xs.to/xs206/06372/Gateleg01.jpg
This is with the leaf down and the gate leg folded in.


http://xs206.xs.to/xs206/06372/Gateleg03.jpg
And with the leaf up supported by the gate leg.

It's from a Carlyle Lynch plan but I altered the orientation of the legs on the long side to the more usual 45 degree orientation. The top and legs is made of some storebought walnut. Meantime I came across some beautiful air dried and used that for the skirts. Used some amber shellac on the bleached out store bought to attempt to get the color clsoer to the air dried.

Mostly hand tools, though I did use the bandsaw to do the compound cuts for the legs and my tailed lathe for the feet, then shaves, drawknife, and rasps for the shaping. Used a table joint wooden molding set for the table joint, but had to use a router for the other edges due to the diagonal end grain. No low angle molders and though a did grind out a scratch stock for that profile, it just didn't seem to want to do the trick. Wonder how the original was done?

[Mark Singer]

Very nice work and design! A lot of skill shows here!

[Mike Henderson]

Wow, that's really beautiful work. How did you do the hinge on the drop leaf? Did you do a rule joint by hand?

Outstanding!

Mike

[Jerry Palmer]

Wow, that's really beautiful work. How did you do the hinge on the drop leaf? Did you do a rule joint by hand?

Outstanding!

Mike

I picked up a pair of vintage rule joint/table joint planes from MJD for that. I also deveated from the plan which called for swaging a pair of stock Stanley hinges, and got a pair of table joint hinges from Woodcraft. The gateleg hinge is wood with a dowel made using a home made dowel plate.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I'm envious Jerry. I have one about 2/3 done that has sat untouched since last November. Mines tiger maple, but the walnut sure looks good. Great job.

[Jim Becker]

That's a really beautiful piece!

[Bruce Page]

Beautif work, the walnut looks stunning!

[Calvin Hobbs]

Jerry,

Let me say that's a nice project. Those corner tables are great pieces that use lots of woodworking skills. I have never made a swinging leg and need to learn that technique.

But....

For my taste the legs look a little heavy and stiff. Most of the period examples I have seen have a lighter, more graceful feel. And I probably would have tried not to use the sapwood.

I enjoyed your post and do like the project so it is meant constructively.

Cal

[Jerry Palmer]

I enjoyed your post and do like the project so it is meant constructively.

Taken totally as such.

I think if I had been designing the table as opposed to working from the measured plan of an original, I'd have scaled the legs down also. The plan called for 12/4 stock and the shoulders at the tops pushed the 3" dimension to the edge. I would probably have decreased the height of the skirts also as they, too, seem a bit out of scale to the rest of the table.

As to the use of the sapwood, I often purposefully include sapwood and imperfections such as knots in visible places as accents. For a period piece this was probably not appropriate to what would have been done in the mates of the original. By the same token, though, several folks elsewhere commented positively about the inclusion of the sapwood. :)