make a cabriole leg out of laminated piece of wood

[Mark Vaughn]

is there anything wrong with making a cabriole leg out of a glued up blank?

[Mike Spanbauer]

Nope, just pay very close attention to the grain and color matching. Plus you'll need to exercise extra care when finishing as it may make the line really pop.

mike

[David DeCristoforo]

Nothing other than the fact that it may be apparent that the legs are not cut from one piece. With some woods, if you orient everything "correctly", you can't even tell. Mahogany especially, is great for "hiding" glue lines. But sometimes it looks bad because the glue lines can be accentuated by the curves.

[Jamie Buxton]

I don't like it, but maybe that's just my taste. If you don't want to buy a big plank of thick lumber, you can buy leg blanks from Matthew Burak for a reasonable price. http://www.tablelegs.com/Squares-Blanks.aspx

[David DeCristoforo]

"...you can buy leg blanks from Matthew Burak..."

Since you brought it up, Matthew's products are top notch in quality, materials and "fit and finish". Maybe not as much "fun" as making your own but, unlike the offerings from most of the other suppliers of this kind of stuff, you will be hard pressed to make any better.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Mark, I make mostly Queen Anne furniture so cabriole legs are something thats jsut part of the project. The advice you've received so far is good, but we need to go further. If your legs are being made from a highly figured wood you will find it almost impossible to get a good match and after the colorant (stain, dye, etc) and final finish is applied. THe mismatch in the figure will detract from your finished results and you won't be happy. If you aare going to paint the legs, by all means laminate things up.

[Barry Bruner]

Some things catch a woodworkers eye and other people may or may not notice this may be one of them. I would use the solid stock it will not cost that much more and when you finish you will not haft to think about it might look better if.BARRY BRUNER