Queen Anne Table

[Alan Turner]

Below are photographs of a just completed Queen Anne table. I did not have a commission for this piece, but just wanted to build it, so my bride has claimed it. As you cann see by the first photo, it was a traditional approach counterpoint to what I term a modern cabriole leg, which met with mixed reviews. My family by and large liked it, but I was less fond of it.
It is of mahogany, with a lacewood top and ebony cockbeading. I am not sure if this qualifies for this forum as a neander's effort, but I handplaned the top (and all other flats), handshaped the legs (after bandsawing), and hand beaded the cockbeading. Comments and criticisms are invited.

Alan

[Carl Eyman]

That is super fine work. The drawer dovetails are just right, leg shape is perfect. Is the design your own?

[Alan Turner]

This is the comaprison picture I tried to edit in above, without success.
Alan

[Alan Turner]

That is super fine work. The drawer dovetails are just right, leg shape is perfect. Is the desi8gn from your own?
Carl,
I did do the design work on the legs. But, I did not write on a clean slate, of course. I found much information on the historic design of cabriole legs in older FWW mags, a good article by Lonnie Bird, Joyce's tombe, and Jeff Greene's book on 18th century furniture. There are a variety of relationships between corner post, knee extension, ankle width, and foot size. It took me longer to draw the leg, cut and refine the pattern, make a mock up of poplar, and then refine the leg and foot than it did to make 4 of them, start to finish. But, one of my purposes was to end up with a repeatable patterns which could be made efficiently, and hopefully that has happened. I found the foot quite difficult, and from photos I have seen, I do not think that the foot is the same as any of the historic pieces that I ran across. One of the reasons for this is that I decided to retain the center edge of the foot, and to leave the ankle (and rest of the leg) without a lot of rounding.
Alan

[Dave Anderson NH]

You did a great job on the table and it came out very well. As for the appropriateness of posting here on the Neander side--- It IS appropriate. Very few of us are total and orthodox Neanderthals. I use a mix of hand and power as the whim, time, difficulty, mood, or need arises. Your comment on the shape and accuracy of the foot reproduction is off the mark Alan. Quite often the center rib was left on the foot and carried on up the leg. So you DO have a historically accurate leg. :) As for the rounding of the surfaces of the leg, it was done many diferent ways by different makers and the styles varied quite a bit by region. New England legs for instance tended to be straighter and less curved and rounded than the legs from NY and Philadelphia. A good reference book with plenty of photos is New England Furniture at Winterthur- Queen Anne and Chippendale. A warning though, the price tag is about $80-$90. Another good book is Albert Sack's The New Fine Points of Furniture- Early American. Sometimes this book is called Good, Better, and Best. A Very fine effort on your part and please post pictures of any other work you produce if it contains a decent amount of Neander content.

[Todd Burch]

Alan, VERY nice!! Very nice! Thanks for posting. Todd.

[Tom Scott]

Excellent work Alan. I'm no Queen Anne expert as my taste runs more to the Shaker style, but count me in the camp of liking the legs, historical or not. In fact, I think the center rib in the legs is a great feature.

[Michael Stadulis]

Very nice Alan. I like it very much, and I'm a traditionalist that is not to happy to see woods mixed. I like the beveled top too and I'm currently making a porringer top right now. Problem is that I have all those circular corner pieces...........and no straightaways that I can do we a long plane stroke. Congratulations.

Mike Stadulis

[Alan Turner]

Very nice Alan. I like it very much, and I'm a traditionalist that is not to happy to see woods mixed. I like the beveled top too and I'm currently making a porringer top right now. Problem is that I have all those circular corner pieces...........and no straightaways that I can do we a long plane stroke. Congratulations.

Mike Stadulis
Thanks to all for the comments and kudos. Praise from such an august group is praise indeed. As to the porringer top, might you try a rabbet block plane for the straight aways, and a spokeshave for the rounds, finishing with a paring chisel? I might first cut the notch at the corners with a dovetail saw to establish the line. Just a thought. I might give it a try just for fun to see if it can be done that way.

[Byron Trantham]

Allan,
Absolutely spectacular! How long did it take you form those legs? I made a sofa table with tapered cylindrical legs, beads and flutes and it took forever. I used a router! Here's the link to the project:
http://www.wooddreams.net/sofa_table.htm

[Brad Schafer]

on a similar topic (and excuse the ignorance), HOW do you form those legs?


b

[Alan Turner]

Byron,
I like your legs. :D And yes, I agree, a lathe would be useful to you. I have never done fluting on a round leg, but might consider trying to jig it so that I could scrape them. I have scraped flutes on a straight leg, and it goes quickly.
In answer to your question, I think I spent about 15 hours in drawing the leg, refining the drawing, making the pattern (I use 3mm baltic birch for most of my patterns), making the prototype, and then refining the pattern. As to the actual 4 legs, I think about 12 hours. I normally budget 8 hours for a set of 4 cabriole legs (including the mortises), but here the knee blocks and the slipper feet added quite a bit of time. I must have made about 5 versios of the slipper foot till I got what I wanted. Now I have the patterns for the foot also, so the next set should be a bit quicker.

Brad,
The usual way to make a cabriole leg is to make a pattern, which registers on the interior corner, and mark the profile on the two adjacent interior faces. Then cut the mortises for the apron tenons while the stock is square. There were from 2 1/2" blanks. Some are larger, some smaller.
Then bandsaw one face, and put the falloff back on with tape or nails, and band saw the other profile. A 3/8" 4-6tpi blade will get the curves just fine, with enough tension so that you can cut pretty close to the pattern line.
Then I refine the shape with a spokeshave, No. 49 and No. 50 rasps, a file, and a bit of hand sanding. It is easier than it looks.
To hold the leg for shaping, most say to use a pipe or bar clamp, end to end, and put the bar into a vise to hold the leg, which can then be turned to reveal all 4 faces of the leg. I have an Emmert, so I flip the vise 90-degrees up, like a carver's vise (above the bench), and then clamp a piece of wood acroos the bench, hanging over a few inches, to catch the foot. The corner post goes in the elevated vise jaws at the top. My emmert is mounted on the far left front of the bench.
The knee block is cut separately, and glued on after the base is assembled. I used a thick hot hide glue, and just rubbed it, and waited overnight. No clamps. I had already cut the bottom profile. Then, bring it in to the knee with a rasp, files, etc. The last thing is a shearing cut with a wide paring chisel, right at the top. Note that if you are going to use a knee block, you must be careful to leave the top of the knee a bit high, with a very square edge, so you get a good glue joint, with enough material to finish the top of the knee, with knee block installed, all at once.
Any flats on a cabriole leg will show a lot, and not be good. So, use your eye like you were sighting a board's edge, and you will see any irregularity clearly. Also, use your hands to rub the leg, and you will feel whether the cyma curve is smooth.
Alan

[Phil Phelps]

...excellent

[scott pollack]

well alan, i like it alot! you did an awesome job. its really something to be proud of.

scotty

[Jim Becker]

Superb, Alan! The figure of the lacewood combined with the mahogany base and ebony details is very nice, indeed. The photography is also great... I hope I can even do half as well on my work as this...someday.

[Mark Singer]

Great Work! Those half blinds look awesome!
Some of the best I've seen here. Thanks for sharing.
Mark