Bonnet top high boy

J

johnah5

Active member
Just got done watching Norm make a bonnet top high boy.  There was a "S" shaped molding that went around the bonnet near the center finial.  Anyway, Norm used multiple router bits in a sequential order to get close to the profile.

How was a complicated molding like this done in 18th century?  I assume hollows and rounds and custom molding plane?

Thanks
John Hoffman
 
Hi John,

I don't think serpentine mouldings such as this would have typically been accomplished through the use of radiused H&R's or specialized moulding planes. This sounds good, in theory, but the planes would inevitably encounter areas of such dramatic grain reversal as to be very problematic.

Rather, I think they were more typically executed by first "carving" a series of steps/rabbets to define key elements of the moulding. These rabbets could be established in a number of ways, using tools including, but not limited to, incannel and regular gouges, chisels, router planes, scratch stocks, and maybe even a quirk router. These steps/rabbets would then be used to guide the carving tools of the appropriate sweep to define the curved elements of the profile. In some parts of the moulding these carving tools will likely need to be curved along their lengths.

If the resulting profile surfaces are clean enough, they may require little more than careful sanding in preparation for finishing. If not, the the final profile may first need to be cleaned up with a scratch stock made up for the job.

Don McConnell
Eureka Springs, AR
 
I carve all of mine using various carving gouges and then smoothing it with scrapers.

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Ltd.
 
John - There is a description (with illustrations) on carving just such a goose-neck molding in the book "Fine Woodworking on Period Furniture".  This book (a compilation of FWW articles before the days of tool reviews and glitzy advertising) is long out of print, but copies can still be found on www.alibris.com.  If you choose to use scrapers to put the final finish on the molding (more than likely the method of the original makers - sandpaper (actually "glass paper" or sharkskin) was available, but expensive in colonial times), Auriou makes a set of profiled carving scrapers that is very, very useful.  Lee Richmond at www.thebestthings.com carries them.

While I will give Norm Abrams quite a bit of credit for elevating the popularity of woodworking, and his shows are entertaining (I'll watch anything that involves a woodshop), his "reproductions" are, in my opinion, just barely reproductions.  I sit on the fence about whether it's acceptable to use power tools for the final finishing operations on a period reproduction, but substituting plywood and biscuit joints is going a bit too far.  His Dominy clock "reproduction" was a pretty good example - a quartz movement with no pendulumn doesn't belong in anything purporting to be a reproduction of a period original, particularly when a mechanical movement can be had for about $100.
 
Those Auriou scrapers look very interesting. Has anyone purchased or used these?

Dennis. Do you grind your own scraper profiles?

Howard Steier

PS Don't knock Norm. He has brought endless people, including myself, to woodworking.

 
I own the full set of these scrapers, and I find them indispensable.  That's mainly because I fall into the camp of "don't sand carvings", but I don't want to leave a totally native finish (i.e., "tooled finish") on my furniture carvings. 

The different profiles of the Auriou scrapers let me get into nooks and crannies that I'd otherwise not be able to with a curved cabinet scraper.  I could make my own, of course, but like everyone else, it's a tradeoff between spending time making/sharpening tools, putting together jigs, and making furniture.  One note I'd make on the scrapers is that there is a fair amount of prep work you need to do when you get them, principally squaring off the edges and rolling a burr - the small burnisher sold with the sets is quite a bit easier to use than a standard size burnisher or chisel handle you'd use with a cabinet scraper.

As to knocking Norm, I'm not knocking him or his show per se, that's why I said "I will give Norm Abrams quite a bit of credit for elevating the popularity of woodworking, and his shows are entertaining".  My quibble is with the labelling he gives to his pieces - e.g, "reproductions".  I rather doubt the SAPFM judges for the Telfair exhibition would allow a piece in that was put together with pocket screws. 

I'd be much happier with Norm calling his pieces "in the style of".  This might sound like a distinction without a difference, but his show is so popular that the general public develops ideas about what constitutes a hand-made reproduction from his show, and I've had to explain on more than one occasion why a reproduction that is truly a reproduction, including the interior surfaces and joinery, is far superior to a piece that only looks like the original. 

Not a big deal in my case since I don't depend on doing this for my main source of income, but the general public's expectations of cost based on pieces made by machine tool work, with engineered wood and put together with metal fasteners, dowels or biscuits directly impacts those that do make true reproductions for a living, such as the Headleys.
 
Howard,

I grind my own scrapers.  They are very easy to make.  Take a scraper, say, 4x6 size, and cut it into strips, any size you need, e.g., 3/4' x 4".  Grind it to shape.  I find that the bench grinder leaves a burr so there is no need to use a file and burnisher like you would normally use.  You can even grind an ogee shape - any size.

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Lt.
 
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