Thread: How are these legs (and feet) made?

They are turned on various different centres and bandsawn.

Do a search on YouTube for cabriole legs

Rough cut on a bandsaw and then the shape refined with rasps and spokeshaves is the way I was shown at tradeschool. A decent video of it is here
https://youtu.be/JfOlLlpxtNc

I have a copy lathe that does them , its a slow turning thing that can do gun stocks
and axe handles . This type of machine was used before cnc.

Before that it was band saw , then onto spoke shave and chisel.

There is the turned type with the shifted center at the foot done on a normal wood
turning lathe , they look straighter between the foot and knee of the leg though .
The more S shaped Cab leg cant be done that way.

Before the band saw which came in from 1830 to 1870 roughly , the only way is a bow saw or hand saw down to the pencil lines and knock it off with a chisel . Its a leg that was popular around the 1680s onwards in the UK you see it in oak low dressers and chairs 1730's to 1750's roughly ? ( trying to keep on the safe side with dating ) Ive never read a description of how it was done in a workshop back then . but I have cut plenty with the band saw and I think that cutting across the grain down to a line if doing them in a workshop with no power would be easier than ripping down the grain with a bow saw.

They are marked out on the two insides surfaces with a template and you cut that out to end up with a square cab leg , then finger guage pencil lines on and chisel and spoke shave them down , it gets a bit octagonal in places . Then round them off. some people like to use rasp files while doing them .

As an apprentice my Dad was at Myer heritage furniture , they were taught how to do the type in your picture and were expected in a short time to be able to complete one per hour . That's how long they take when you have sharp tools and know what to do .

The one in your pic is a screw on type as well , the older way, pre machined type have a square of timber extending above the knee which is left at different lengths depending on if its for a chair table or cabinet. Much stronger than just screwing them on .

Rob

Thanks guys for all that info. I've really learnt something today. I didn't even know what they were called. That's a great video Kuffy. Thanks for the link.
Thanks also Rob for those details. I'll look up "copy lathes" on youtube. I don't think I've ever seen one!! So if it took your dad an hour to do each one, something like the dresser in the picture would have been quite expensive in its day, just due to the high labor content. Not to mention the real timber. I would imagine around $3000.00 in todays terms. What with beveled mirror edges, etc. Would that be right?
I can't understand why furniture like the dresser in the picture is not worth anything now. This particular dresser just expired on ebay and didn't get a bid. The starting bid was only $50.00 and nobody wanted it at that. Maybe it's because the design is no longer "trendy"!!

We used to have a member here called "Woodwould", he did some very good WIP's on pieces, some that had legs like these. I just did a search, the threads are still there, but unfortunately the photos are all gone, what a shame.

Check out some of the work in his album here, a real feast for the eyes - https://www.woodworkforums.com/members/13149-albums-305

Originally Posted by Ironwood

We used to have a member here called "Woodwould", he did some very good WIP's on pieces, some that had legs like these. I just did a search, the threads are still there, but unfortunately the photos are all gone, what a shame.

Check out some of the work in his album here, a real feast for the eyes - https://www.woodworkforums.com/members/13149-albums-305

Bloody hell! Did he get time to sleep!!!

Originally Posted by Gestalt

Thanks also Rob for those details. I'll look up "copy lathes" on youtube. I don't think I've ever seen one!! So if it took your dad an hour to do each one, something like the dresser in the picture would have been quite expensive in its day, just due to the high labor content. Not to mention the real timber. I would imagine around $3000.00 in todays terms. What with beveled mirror edges, etc. Would that be right?

I don't know if you will find one under copy Lathe , or duplicating lathe , Duplicating Machine maybe ?
I have a thread here showing my one from 2010 , I just found it and there is no longer pictures with it . Did we have a short circuit here at some stage ?
I have a clip of my one working on you tube , the Goldie, an Aussie made machine, not doing a cab leg though , its copying a straight turned leg so the carriage
and the stylus , the shiny wheel at the back is not following an odd shape.

The link down the bottom is of it running .

Pictures of it doing a cab leg and a picture of a Robinson machine with a gun stock.

$3000 today for an Aussie mass produced one ? Maybe . That is the sort of thing that would have been made in numbers at the same time . maybe from 10 to 30 at a time ? Could and Aussie factory do them that cheap today built like that ? I don't think they could . Cab legs , machine dovetails,pressed veneer , sprayed . It probably depends on the number made .
To make a one off the same as that in a modern workshop would cost a lot more $ 7 to 8 G.

They are not in fashion though , plenty of furniture from that to two hundred years old and older is cheap to buy at auction now . its a great time to buy some good old stuff , it has been for a long time. A bit hard to deal in it for a living though .

This is the Goldie link . Rob.

Edit
I found my one doing cab legs after all . The top one .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQdN1rpZECE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTvCnLIYdgQ

Thanks for all that feedback Rob and the video links. What a great machine. I've never seen one before now. Would there still be many around?
I still find it hard to believe that this old furniture is virtually worthless. Pity really!!
Thanks again.

I've seen 3 more same make as mine . The way mine is set up as a one template one cutter was the old way . I was taken into an old factory in Collingwood years ago , a place called Hutchins or Hutchens ? They machined components for manufactures to buy they had one ? maybe more of a similar machine that had one bronze template of a cab leg andcacstylus that ran of that but three wooden blanks were fitted up at a time to be cut , and I saw a film of possibly a Scottish gun maker doing military rifle stocks where it was one template and it may have been 6 wooden ones being cut , I can't remember exactly . The first one I saw working was on a doco on the USA civil war , doing one stock at a time . Seeing that made me buy mine when I saw it come up on eBay , the guy delivered it from NSW for a good price , which made it easy . A lot of that style has not been in for a while . Being a dressing table makes it even harder . For a long time even Victorian twin pedestal dressing tables from the 1850s 60s were cheap and impossible to sell . They all were cut to pieces and turned into bedside chests . They then sold real quickly . I worked at a place that did many .

I wouldn't imagine that they would come up on ebay too often Rob. What a find!!
At least that old furniture gets a re-life and not just scrapped for firewood. Thanks for the details.

Actually, that one has been up three times without getting a bid. Not many people want old brown furniture now.

Originally Posted by Arron

Actually, that one has been up three times without getting a bid. Not many people want old brown furniture now.

I should have been more specific Arron. I was referring to the copy lathe, not the dresser.

I saw a video on youtube a while back. It was primarily about how to turn using a skew chisel, but then at the end he turned a leg like this. It involves repositioning the leg between centers several times and turning various parts of it in each position.

Cabriole legs are also often carved, especially when you want them to have different style (like ball and claw) feet.

Anyway, good luck.