cutting an apron profile

M

mark hickey

Member
This is more a comment than a question and has anyone tried this? I am cutting knee blocks for a Rectangular Tea Table (the Knee blocks run the length and width of table) and I am trying Jeffrey Greene's process (American Furniture of the 18th century)of sawing out the waste and carving the profile. This seems to work much better than cutting it with a turning saw and  using a rasp to take it to size. Since the mahogany I purchased is brittle, seems to chip out, this process seems to work well.
What are your thoughts?

Thanks,  Mark 
 
Hi Mark,
Like many others I'm sure, I've also used the saw to cut to the line on knee blocks, ogee feet, and even knuckle sides on ball and claw feet. Its a good technique and makes a small tenon saw worth its weight in gold. Even still, use the patternmakers rasp to bring it to final shape, especially where the grain is contrary. I presume the method predates Jeffrey Greene's book by a few hundred years, at least.
John
 
john, It seems Jeffrey Greene did the research and this may have been the procedure that was done in the 18th century. Has he ever been on our forum? It would be great to here from him. The process makes sense and seems to go very quickly. The few Tea Tables I looked at seem to back up his thought process. Does anyone know Jeffery?

Mark
 
Mark- I think John's got it right. I usually hold the block in place and trace the curve of the knee onto it, cut that out, then trace the scroll onto it and cut it out. Then glue the block to the leg only (if it's going to be carved later) holding it in place with spring clamps. When it's dry shape the piece to fit with rasps and scrapers. Take the case apart, carve the return and then glue the whole thing together.
A lot of old ones have nails holding them to the leg, and you can see rasp marks and sometimes saw kerfs where they did a lot of working of the block after it was glued on.-Al Breed
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top