The other main variable in buying lumber for our chair project,
is which way we choose to build the 2 1/4" square legs.
#2. options for building up 2 ¼” square chair legs
If we build up our legs by following the original plans, each leg is 3 pieces of net ¾” stock glued together.
This should prove a stable assembly with long grain to long grain lamination lasting many seasons to come.
The solid core will serve our through mortises very well. The trade-off for this simple leg construction will by a pair of glued seems on 2 sides of each leg.
Also, if we use the traditional QSW oak, we will end up with 2 sides of ray fleck, and 2 other sides only a mother could love,
each with a pair of glued seams and plain sawn grain. (cathedrals in sharp contrast against our straight grain with flake)
Going with the original plan approach would require:
>7 bf of 3/4” thick for leg blank laminations
There are many other ways to build the legs, each with it's own pros, cons and appearance.
The ultimate choice, by my humble opinion, would be a 5 piece leg with invisible seams and quarter sawn straight grain with
attractive ray fleck on all 4 sides. If the front legs on our chosen design had poked up thru the arms, this could have been real tricky.
We could still make fake tenon caps, in that classic pyramid shape, to simulate the effect with less difficulty.
I have played with the simplest of 5pc legs previously. (not simple at all, by the way!) As linked here...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=86109
Other approaches to the quadrilinear leg include:
-Leopold Stickley's original 4pc shaper profile. Who could argue against the man that invented it? (me, with no shaper?)
(while Gustav, the most famous of the 5 Stickley brothers, was using veneer caps)
[can anyone post a picture of this gem?)
-similar to Leo's leg, is the lock miter router bit, although ww's seem to love'em or hate'em...
Both of these options leave a hollow leg, ok for our design choice this time due to no visible leg tops.
Also the hollow offers less support for our through mortises.
-dab hand and pro, fellow Creeker Mark Singer once posted a 3pc leg, with a core ripped with bevels and infilled
(can someone find that inspired post and include it here for our chair builders?) I failed to locate it...
-please post any additional methods you have ever heard of, used, or are curious to try.....
Obviously, our leg approach will require an adjustment (in the spendy direction) of our lumber purchase for this chair
stay tuned for a future post on required tools
thanks,
Walt
:)
more to come...