Scratch Beads on a Radiused Corner Column

Rick Yochim

Well-known member
I have a two part question.

I am building a cabinet that has quartered columns on each corner where all four sides are show (its a period-ish kitchen island).

Actually they are not true quarter columns, but basically rounded corners set into the carcass as you would a quarter column on a traditional piece of furniture with a scratch bead all around to give it some definition. I start with 1 1/2 "squares and strike an arc to get the column's radius top to bottom then round it down with planes and shaves.

Design question. To best display the vertical beads on each side of the column, should they be on a small flats with the radius beginning and ending on the inside of the quirks or is the bead going to be more appealing if I strike the full radius from edge to edge of the block then have the bead follow the curve of the radius?  If anyone has seen historic examples to this, that is where I'd like to start because I've drawn it out both ways and both options look pretty good. 

Process question.  I am thinking of scratching this bead in a scratch box for the long grain verticals and scratching and carving the cross grain horizontal beads top and bottom. The bottom horizontal bead is straight across the radius and the top horizontal has rounded corners to give it a gentle arc across the face of the radius. I'm defaulting to the hand method because it is one I'm more practiced with but if a router jig or some other method can do it as cleanly but more efficiently, I'm all ears.

Hope my description is clear enough. 

Thanks.

Rick Yochim 

 
Rick-
First, the easy part. On the cross beads, unless you're using rosewood or ebony, they won't scrape well at all. Just lay them out with a light scratch and then carve them with a v-tool and maybe a small back bent gouge. You won't see beads running like that on old stuff, but that's how I'd do it.
About the layout on the beads- old ones will have the flute or reed starting either a whole fillet or half a fillet from the edge- usually a whole fillet. By a fillet I mean the space that would be between the flutes or reeds if you spaced them evenly across the whole quarter column.-Al
 
Al,

Thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioned that I'm doing this in maple.

Anyway, your approach sounds reasonable. Scratching cross grain is difficult so I think I'll just define it with a v-tool then form the round with a back bent as you say.

And having the long vertical beads with a groove, quirk or fillet between them and the edges makes sense. Whatever those things are called, I'm pretty sure I got your meaning.  Doing it that way leads me to the conclusion that I should radius the column first then stick the vertical beading into the radius, inset from the outer edge by the width of a quirk (groove, fillet, etc.).

No point in making this more complicated than it needs to be.

Rick
 
Rick- Sounds like a plan. The maple will scrape well. Make sure your scraper is nice and smooth so you don't get little scratches from the file you used to shape it-Al
 
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