Thread: A George I Walnut Side Table

I would normally begin such a table by preparing the legs and then the carcase (well actually I have; they're well underway – more on that in a later post), but behind-the-scenes chatter and some premature sharing of images prompts me to commence this entry with the table's top.

The groundwork for the top consists of three Pine boards, first rubbed together and then squared up. The re-entrant corner blocks are single piece items that meet the groundwork at a 45° angle to enhance the glue contact area. The positioning of the Walnut corner blocks at 45° to the front edge of the tabletop means I can carve the full 'babies' bums' without encountering end grain – which makes life a little easier.

The moulded (Walnut) edge is achieved by gluing small cross-grain blocks of Walnut to the tabletop's edge. It's worth examining this process in some detail as the two common methods of attaching the blocks can result in very different effects. One method is to plane a rebate around the periphery of the tabletop and then glue strips of cross-grain blocks into the rebate (with the grain direction either horizontal or vertical). The problem with this is that once moulded, one will see significant endgrain, which, when finished, will appear as a hard dark line along the upper or lower half of the moulding depending on whether the blocks were orientated horizontally or vertically.

I prefer the method where the cross-grain blocks are glued on at an angle (in keeping with most Walnut-on-Pine mouldings of the period) so the endgrain effect is gradual and reduced overall. To this end, I planed a 45° chamfer around the front and side edges of the tabletop. I rubbed a series of cross-grained blocks onto the chamfered edges. The glue contact area achieved with this method is not as great as gluing square blocks into a rebate, but is more than adequate.

Tabletop with Walnut edging and corners glued in place.

The tabletop was squared up for a second time and the profiles of the baby's bum corners were cut into the corner blocks.

The tabletop finely toothed and ready for veneering.

Veneer was laid vertically around the tabletop's edges prior to laying the main veneers onto the top. The quartered veneers were pinned at their corners to prevent them curling up while the glue dried.

The main veneers laid down.

The main veneers were trimmed to size and then the feather- and crossbanding were laid.

The tabletop veneering completed.

Simple 1/4" ovolo-bead scratched around the three show edges…

… and carved around the re-entrant corners.

The ovolo-bead moulding from the back.

The tabletop was scraped smooth and given a final clean up.

G'day Woodwould,

I'm impressed.

I would be very interested to see shots of what hand tools you use with each progressive component of the WIP, as it would further help me to try and understand your techniques.

Originally Posted by Waldo

I would be very interested to see shots of what hand tools you use with each progressive component of the WIP, as it would further help me to try and understand your techniques.

Waldo, I assume you're OK with everything up to the stage where the main veneers are laid. I use a simple single-blade cutting gauge which, by nature of its one-sided bevel, will in reality, only cut with the flat face of the blade facing away from the gauge's fence. The bevel has the effect of pulling the gauge fence tight against the work. Attempting to cut thick veneer like this with the blade reversed, will only result in the cut wandering. So, with this in mind, I run the cutting gauge along the tabletop edge and trim the oversized main veneers to the outer extent of the featherbanding. This leaves me with a clean straight edge.

Next I lay the crossbanding tight against the straight edges of the main veneers. I then make another clean cut in the main veneers exactly the width of the featherbanding and then pop out the waste strip and glue the featherbanding in place.

Again, I run the cutting gauge around all three show edges (on the upper face and the vertical edges) by the depth of the ovolo-bead moulding. This severs the cross-grain veneer and prevents tear-out when I scratch the actual moulding. The moulding only affects the actual inlaid Walnut blocks as can be seen in the last image in my previous post above.

I use a simple 1/4" radius scratchstock to make the moulding. I normally use carving gouges to carve the babies' bums, but having disposed of all my carving tools when I retired, I had to make do with a 3/8" bevel-edged chisel and a 3/8" skew chisel. The profile of the babies' bums in the top veneer would normally be made with two clean cuts using an appropriately radiused gouge, but I scribed the arcs (using a 5/16" flat washer) and then just crept up on the lines with the flat chisel. Needs must.

Looking good, WW. Love the attention to detail of the grain in the corners. Enjoying this one

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks for that. Reading and looking at at different times make a difference to understanding your process.

Most informative Great figure in the main veneer. Is it walnut as well ?Why did the vertical veneer have to be laid before the main veneer on the top ? I assume this is feathered into the start of the baby's bum .

Originally Posted by Peter36

Great figure in the main veneer. Is it walnut as well?

I wondered if someone would raise the disparity in colour between the various parts. It's all English Walnut and from the same tree. It will all blend together nicely when I finish it.

Originally Posted by Peter36

Why did the vertical veneer have to be laid before the main veneer on the top?

It's easier to plane the top of the edge veneer level without the top veneer in place. I also wanted the edge veneer applied and cleaned up so I could reliably use it for running the cutting gauge against.

Originally Posted by Peter36

I assume this is feathered into the start of the baby's bum.

No, the edge veneer is full thickness right into the crevice where it's butt jointed. If it was feathered, it would change the profile of the bum and would leave the bottom of the moulding looking a little thin.

I had to read this twice to get this wrapped around my head. I guess I have to see this in action to get a full understanding. Still happily watching.

Fascinating WW!!

I've often examined older pieces of furniture and wondered just what the process was for making them, It's a pity such skill and attention to detail has all but disappeared. Thank you, and others of your mindset, for preserving and sharing these wonderful ways of working.

I rummaged through my collection of furniture patterns that I built up from extant antiques over the years looking for a cabriole leg pattern suitable for this table. I found two fitting examples, but one was missing its ear, so I settled on the one complete with its matching ear. Amongst the information inscribed on the pattern were the requisite material dimensions '2-13/16" square'. Therein lay a problem: I don't have any 3" thick English Walnut at present, but a quick phone call to an old acquaintance, in which I abandoned all dignity and supplicated wretchedly… and then to my astonishment, my blandishments paid off! I not only secured sufficient Walnut for the legs of this table, but possibly another as well!

With the scrounged timber safely in my possession, I prepared four lengths for the legs, set out the mortices and traced the cabriole pattern onto them. The pad feet were first turned on the lathe and then I cut out the cabriole profiles using the bandsaw.

Turned foot and sawn leg profile.

Much shaving, rasping and scraping later and I had the makings of four cabriole legs – the upper regions will be refined once the ears are attached. The mortices and dovetails were chopped out next and the remaining carcase components prepared. I trimmed and rubbed the book-matched veneers for the sides and sized them in preparation for laying.

A selection of the table's components.

I glued the side panels to their respective legs, cleaned them up and toothed them in preparation for veneering.

One side glued up and toothed.

I laid the 3/32" (2.4mm) veneers on the table sides and when the glue had dried, I trimmed the veneers and cut the simple shaping into the bottom edges of the panels.

Veneered and trimmed.

Back outdoors, I used the two side assemblies to jig the backboard, two central drawer guides and front rail while they were all glued up.

The carcase taking shape.

The upper rail and lower drawers' divider are dovetailed to the carcase which adds immense rigidity and strength to the whole.

You seem to have an endless supply of Walnut WW. Until you began your postings and drew my attention to Walnut, it wasa timber I had never eally considered. Now I want some!!

Not only do we get to see a master at work with explanation of the work done, we have new words (blandishments) for e.g. most of us would just say "I'm on the scrounge for a bit of....."


Pete

Am I alone in thinking that WW is from 1791? Perhaps some kind of rip in the space-time continuum has brought him to us, so that the skills and techniques from that era can be re-learned. Whatever the cause, I'm glad it happened because I'm enjoying all these WW projects.

ajw

Great stuff as always. Woodwould. I'm interested to know what the thing hiding in your bench is in pic 4?

Another one. With all your experience you must intuitively known when you have shaped and scraped all the cabriole legs equally, but when you first started to learn, were there methods, other than by your eye, that you employed to get all legs equal in shape?