Tapping in the tenon wedges
Cut hardwood wedges to fit into the kerfs make them the same width as tenons, but a few inches longer, and no thicker than inch at the broad end. Coat the wedges with glue and drive them into the slots as far as they will go with a hammer below . Let the glue set, then trim the wedges even with the end of the tenons using a flush-cutting saw. Next, use a wide, shallow carving gouge to slice the tenons flush with the surface of the seat strike the gouge with a wooden mallet inset . Finally, trim...
Index
Page references in italics indicate an illustration of subject matter. Page references in bold indicate a Build It Yourself project. Adzes, back endpaper American country colonial styles, 16-19 See also Four-poster beds Shaker style Windsor chairs Armoires, 19 Arts and crafts tables, 21 Beds. See Four-poster beds Bending jigs, 82 Biscuit joints, 109 Blanket chests, 20 Block-front chests, 13 Board feet, front endpaper Bookcases. See Secretaries Build It Yourself Pipe steamers, 83 Pocket-hole...
Installing the drawer divider and loper housings
Cut the loper housings to size page 108 , using a sliding dovetail to add a piece to the front end of each one to hide the end grain. Then rout the 'A-inch-wide slots in the housings for the loper dowels. Make the L-shaped drawer divider and attach it to the cross rail of the middle dust frame with a biscuit joint above, left . Cut another biscuit slot into the muntin and a matching slot in the top dust frame above it. Next, rout grooves into the underside of the top panel and top face of the...
Cutting the dovetail sockets in the legs
Secure a front leg upright in a bench vise and use one of the dovetailed half-laps you cut in step 1 to outline the mating socket on the leg's top end. Make sure the top end of the leg is flush with the benchtop this will support the router base plate as you cut the socket. Also ensure that the dovetail shoulder is butted against the inside edge of the leg and the rail's back edge is flush with the back face of the leg as you mark the lines. Install a Vs-inch upcut-spiral straight bit into a...
Making The Spindles
Windsor chair making starts with a freshly cut log. Because green wood is swollen and lubricated with moisture, it is easy to cleave and bend. It is also less work to shape. Splitting wood from a log offers other advantages. First, it is stronger, because the break follows the wood fibers rather than shearing them, as a sawmill does. And second, wood seasons better if it is shaped while still green. A chair spindle, for example, will season more quickly and be less prone to cracking than a...
Gluing the bedpost vase sections together
Although the joints connecting the pommel sections and finlals of the posts to the vase sections are not glued, the tang joints between the vase sections must be glued to give the posts adequate rigidity. Spread adhesive on the tenon and in the mortise of the tang joint and on the contacting surfaces between the two pieces, then secure them in a bar clamp, protecting the stock with wood pads. If the post begins to distort as you tighten the clamp, reposition it in the jaws until it remains...
American Countrycolonial
Using local wood species and unsophisticated construction methods, colonial America's pioneers adapted traditional country designs from England to produce simple, practical furniture known as American Country. Although more sophisticated styles supplanted these designs in prosperous colonial towns, rustic furniture prevailed on the ever-advancing frontier. With its simplicity, durability, and economy, traditional American Country furniture continues to appeal to 20th-century furniture makers,...
Drilling the mortises
You can cut the mortises in the posts by hand with a chisel and mallet, or use a router fitted with a mortising bit. But considering the depth of the mortises 1 inches a hollow chisel mortiser, like the one shown at right or a drill press with a mortising attachment, will do the job most quickly and accurately. Set up the machine following the manufacturer's directions. For the mortiser shown, install a 3 8-inch bit and place one of the posts on the table, centering a mortise outline under the...
Cutting mortises in the stiles
Use one of the tenons you cut in step 1 as a guide to outlining the mortises on the edges of the stiles. To make the job easier, clamp all the stiles together face to face with their ends aligned. Install a mortising attachment on your drill press and clamp one stile to the fence, centering the mortise outline under the chisel and bit. Make the drilling depth Me inch more than the tenon length make a cut at each end of the mortise before boring out the waste in between left . Repeat the...
Classic American Furniture
TIME-LIFE BOOKS ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA THE ART OF WOODWORKING was produced by ST. REMY PRESS President Chief Executive Officer President Chief Operating Officer Series Editor Series Art Director Senior Editor Editor Art Directors Designers Administrator Production Manager Coordinator System Coordinator Photographer Indexer Kenneth Winchester Fernand Lecoq Pierre L veill Pierre Home-Douglas Francine Lemieux Marc Cassini Andrew Jones Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Michel Gigu re Time-Life Books is a...
Pembroke Table
The legs of the Pembroke table feature strips of dark banding, framed by thin string inlay of a lighter wood. The Pembroke table is thought to have originated in the mid-18th Century, when Lady Pembroke commissioned the great Georgian cabinetmaker and master carver Thomas Chippendale to fashion a small casual table for her. The example featured in this chapter, however, has more in common with the neoclassical designs of Sheraton and American Federal furniture, which flourished in the following...
Notching the stiles
Leave the table saw blade angled at 45 , measure the width of each rail, and mark a line on the molded edge of its mating stile a corresponding distance from the end. Cut into the molded edge at the line, making certain that the cut will not mar the face of the stile. Slice off most of the strip of molding between the 45 cut and each end of the stile with a band saw above, left . Smooth the cut edge using the table saw. Leaving the rip fence in place, hold the stile flush against the miter...
Turning The Bedposts
and tenons. See the anatomy illustrations on page 51 for details of the posts' diameters and the locations of the various elements. Each 6-foot-long post is turned in four individual sections, allowing for the 36-inch limit of most lathes. Since the sections are joined by tang joints, remember to allow for the 2-inch-long tenons when cutting your blanks to length. Although the bottom sections of the footboard and headboard posts are different, the four posts are otherwise identical. To help...
Fitting the lopers in place
Make loper blanks as you did the housings page 113 , gluing a long-grain piece to the front end with a sliding dovetail. Then slide your blanks into their slots between the housings and the side panels, and mark them flush with the front edge of the top panel of the drawer unit also mark the location of the housing slots on the lopers. Cut the lopers to length and drill a dowel hole into each one in line with the slot outline locate the hole so the front edge of the fall-front will project...
Checking the splay and rake of the legs
Test-fit the front legs in their mortises and check whether their splay and rake angles are uniform. To help you gauge the rake angle, place a straightedge across the legs the board should be perfectly level left . Repeat for the rear legs. If any of the angles are off slightly, you can compensate for minor inaccuracies when the time comes to turn and install the stretchers page 92 .
A Milk Paint Finish
A milk paint finish is being brushed onto a sack-back Windsor chair. The transparency of milk paint, compared to other paints, along with its tendency to vary slightly in hue across a surface, complements the hand-sculpted contours of the Windsor chair. The dark green shown at right is a traditional color for Windsors. The traditional finish for Windsor chairs is milk paint, which is thin enough to allow wood grain to show through. You can buy the paint in powdered form and mix it with water or...
Anatomy Of A Pembroke Table
The Pembroke table consists of three main sections a top, the leg-and-rail assembly, and a drawer. The top is attached to a leaf on each side with a hinged rule joint. The edges of the top are rounded over and the mat ing edges of the leaves are shaped with a matching cove, forming a seamless joint when the leaves are in the up position. The leaves are supported by fly rails that swing out from the side rails on knuckle joints. As shown opposite, these joints feature interlocking fingers fixed...
Making The Legandrail Assembly
The legs of a Pembroke table have a delicate look that belies their stur-diness. They are tapered, with a simple banded inlay around each leg about 3 inches from the bottom. The banding includes a -inch-wide dark strip in this case, walnut which contrasts with the mahogany. A thin strip of maple frames the walnut. On some Pembroke tables, the inlay was used to mark the transition to a second, steeper taper at the bottom of the leg. Traditionally, legs with a double taper were tapered on the two...
Windsor Chair
The top of a Windsor chair seat is traditionally sculpted by hand. With shaping tools like the spokeshave, inshave, and drawknife, it is possible to customize the seat for its user. The Windsor chair is a study in contrasts. Originally designed as an artless furnishing, it is now considered to be a sophisticated example of modern chair making. The simple elements of a Windsor the sculpted seat and the hand-shaped legs, stretchers, arm posts, and spindles belie the precise engineering required...
Federal Period
After the Revolution, American furniture makers began to distance themselves from British influence. Endeavoring to create a new style, they turned to the classical designs of ancient Greece and Rome. For this reason, Federal furniture is often called Neoclassical. More austere than Chippendale, Federal pieces typically mimicked the lines and features of antiquity, such as columns, animal claws, reeding, fluting, and the lyre. Despite efforts to achieve independence, however, American...
Riving a quarter bolt into blanks
Once you have split a bolt into quarters, rive each piece into spindle blanks. Outline the blanks on the end of the bolt and split it above, left , then rive the blanks with a froe and a froe club made from an 18-inch length of dense hardwood, such as maple, hickory, dogwood or elm. Holding the froe in one hand with the blade offset from the outline, strike the blade with the club above, right . Twist the froe back and forth, and drive it in deeper. Once the waste breaks off, repeat to make the...
Anatomy Of A Sackback Windsor Chair
Many of the round mortise-and-tenon joints that hold a Windsor chair together are reinforced by wedges. As the illustration at right shows, the top end of the legs, arm posts, and spindles are all kerfed prior to assembly the wedges that fill the kerfs expand the tenons, ensuring that they fit snugly in their mortises. But a Windsor chair is more than the sum of its parts. For strength and comfort, it also relies on the interaction of its various assemblies. The legs and stretchers, for...
Squaring the bow and arm
Drawknife the bow and arm roughly to size page 74 , then use a bench plane to square the pieces and flatten their sides. Secure the blank between bench dogs on your workbench. Starting at one end of the stock, guide the plane across the surface to the other end keep the sole of the tool flat on the workpiece and apply moderate downward pressure right . Plane the arm until it is by inches for the bow, refer to the anatomy illustration opposite.
Honing the blade of a metal spokeshave
To remove the blade from the spokeshave, loosen the screw in the middle of the handle Set up a bench stone on a work surface a water-lubricated diamond stone is shown above. Install the blade in a commercial honing guide. Lubricate the stone with water and then, holding the honing guide, slide the blade back and forth from end to end along the sharpening surface. Apply moderate pressure with the bevel touching the stone. Then raise the angle of the blade a few degrees and continue until you...
Honing an inshave
Clamp the inshave to a work surface so the cutting edge Is facing up, as shown above. Use a slipstone to hone the edge. Start with a rough-grit stone and progress to a finer one. Work with a circular motion until a uniform shine develops on the blade. Give the flat side of the blade a few strokes to remove any burr. Once the blade is sharp, polish the bevel with a leather strop and polishing compound, finishing with a few passes on the flat side of the blade to remove the burr. If the inshave...
Queen Annes Line Of Beauty
In material objects such as furniture, I believe beauty is born from pleasing proportion and the harmonious relationship between curved and straight lines. Straight lines impart structure, mass, and solidity. Curved lines lend movement, elegance, and grace. To me, Queen Anne-style furniture presents the perfect union of straight and curved components. Simple lines, graceful curves, unpretentious decoration, and delicate proportion all contribute to some of the most beautiful expressions in...
Routing the through dovetail joints
Size the drawer parts to fit their openings in the desk unit, then join the boards with dovetails, cutting the pins in the front and back of the drawer, and the tails in the sides. To cut the dovetails with a router and the jig shown above, screw the pin-and tail-board templates to backup boards, then secure one of the tail boards drawer sides end up in a bench vise. Protecting the stock with a wood pad, clamp the tail template to the work-piece so the underside of the template Is butted...
Smoothing the spindles
Use a hand scraper to give the spindles a smooth finish. Grasping the thick end of the spindle in one hand and, bracing the thin end on a work surface, use your other hand to draw the scraper along the surface above . Work in the direction of the grain and rotate the spindle frequently to keep it uniform. A shop-made sizing gauge allows you to measure the diameters of chair spindles as you shape them. 3ore holes into a wood scrap, sizing them according to the spindles key diameters. Drill a...
Sharpening the blade of a wooden spokeshave
Remove the blade from the handle by pinching the tangs that protrude through the handle and pushing them downward. For sharpening, the blade is held with the tangs facing down. To prevent the tangs from catching on your work surface, set your sharpening stone atop a wood block to provide the necessary clearance. Holding the blade by the tangs, set its bevel flat on the stone. Because the blade Is longer than the width of your stone, hold the cutting edge diagonally as you slide the bevel back...