Good evening ladies and Gentleman.
At a recent woodworking show, I had the pleasure of seeing a fairly well known period furniture crafstman. One of the examples of his furniture was a smartly proportioned hall cabinet in walnut. Of course the piece was finely crafted. What drew my attention were the French feet. Upon inquireing about the technique, he showed me how the cabinet side was deeply kerfed along the bottom edge into the end grain. A wedge was then driven up into the kerf resulting in the fine splay of the feet. Our conversation was then interupted. I believe there is more to this technique than this. Will the front edge of the side panel be than mitered onto itself to finish the face. Does anyone have any more to add to this?
Replies
black,
Most frequently the front of the foot is simply an overlay. That is, on a case piece like a chest of drawers, the case ends will be kerfed and splayed out with a wedge, as you described. The front apron is usually butted to the bottom rail, glue blocked along the inside corner, and simply abuts (sometimes tenoned into) the case ends. An inlay banding usually conceals the apron to rail joint, and defines the base of the case from the case proper. The front edge of the case end, and a portion of the apron are recessed about 1/8" or so, and the front foot laid into the recess. The foot is thick enough to have the curve of the splay cut away, leaving the thick toe at the bottom, and thinning to the required 1/8" at the top to fill the recess. The outside edge of the foot is carved or sawn to match the splay of the outside of the case end. Rarely is it mitered along the edge.
If the front apron is veneered crossgrain (vertical grain veneer), often the foot to apron joint is simply a vertical one, and if the grain pattern is similar, it may look all of a piece. When the apron is solid, not veneered, the (vertical grain) foot to (horizontal grain) apron joint is often a miter, running from the corner of the case end, beginning at the inlay banding and running downward toward the apron's edge.
Occasionally you will find French feet made up like the earlier bracket feet, and applied to the underside of the case with glueblocks. This is usually only the case when the maker has applied a base molding, requiring the feet be moved outward to the edge of the molding, instead of being flush with the case sides and front.
Ray
Tanks for getting back to me. The piece I was looking at had a horizontal grain apron which was indeed mitered to the wide face of the front foot. In paragraph form it is hard to describe and understand descriptions of joinery, but I'll do my best. What still causes me question is that the front edge of the case side appeared to run continuos from top to bottom. Below the apron it grew wider. But uniterupted grain from floor to below the top. Will the entire front edge be an applied face, an 1/8" thick at the top of the case, growing thicker at the foot. Anything more you are willing to offer, will be very much appreciated
The other techniques you described (mitering the feet as one would a bracket, and hiding any breaks in material with banding) are very clear to me. The seamless joinery as I saw makes one ask, How did He do that? It is one asking this question that inspires me
block,
Careful matching of the grain of the edge of the (applied) front foot and the (recessed) case end will yield an inconspicuous joint. On old work, occasionally there is an 1/8" or so thick overlay on the front edge of the case end (especially on English, or English-influenced work) applied to conceal the "unsightly" dovetail joins of rails to case ends.
Ray
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