I like shaped legs on my stick furniture. It is easy to get an octagon leg with a hand plane by holding the leg blank in a jig or using a similar jig to run the blank through the planer. While easy to do, both are time consuming. I read somewhere that Brian Boggs used a jig and bandsaw to shape his chair legs. I've spent way too much time trying to find a photo of his jig in action with no joy. After some thought, I decided it might be quicker to just re-invent the wheel.
Come on Bubba cut to the chase. After a couple of weeks of butt scratching and "yes buts" this is what I came up with.
Wide view:
legJigWideView.jpg
Closeup of the result of all the butt scratching:
legJigClose.jpg
I would guess there is a better way to do the job but this jig works a treat. A quick four passes through the saw and a couple of passes on each facet with a plane and you have an octagon leg blank ready for the lathe.
ken