I am beginning to build a Mass High boy using figured maple as my primary wood choice. In making this piece I am wondering about the wood choice I should make for its cabriole legs. Should I use a solid maple or stick with figured maple. I have never made cabriole legs before and I am concerned about the ease of rasping and filing the legs to shape. Will the figured wood cabriole legs look OK? Will there be some issue with the final preparation of figured maple cabriole legs in comparison to cabriole legs made from solid non figured maple.
Sorry if this is a no brianer to my experienced crafts people here
Thank you
Bill (never liked my “Dubie” name choice for this forum ..:-)
Replies
Choose leg material that has more or less diagonal(45 degrees from 2 faces) grain orientation when viewed from the end grain.
Look for rift sawn pieces, or if you have thicker material, make rift sawn pieces.
This will give consistent figure on all four sides of the leg when viewed head on or from one side or the other. So when you look at the knee, you will see, essentially, concentric circles from the middle of the knee and straight grain down to the foot.
It will also add some small bit of structural integrity since the grain will run from the top of the leg to the bottom of the foot uninterrupted without run-out.
F.
Bill,
In my experience, working figured maple for cabriole legs, or carving in general, offers few surprises over working the same shapes in straight grained atock. The only areas where you might get some tearout are where the grain is parallel with the shaped surface- the crown of the knee and the ankle. Where the grain is being cut at an angle, the increased inclination of the grain makes working around the figure pretty straightforward.
Orientation of the growth rings is as Floss suggests; but, if you cannot get four riftsawn squares, then try to arrange them so they are symmetrical, e.g. 2 riftsawn legs in front, 2 flatsawn legs with facegrain facing rear and edgegrain out.
Ray
Bill,
I made a chest on frame in curly maple, using highly figured stock for the legs. In the end it was a bit of a disappointment, because the shape of the legs hid the figure. I think this is why I sometimes see such pieces from the period with plain stock for the legs.
It wasn't possible to do the customary thing with regard to the growth rings, but here the figure hid, what can be a horrible result if the growth rings don't go more or less diagonally across the blank (especially in maple, which can have flat sawn grain on one side and ray fleck (spelling?) on the other).
The figured maple, presented no problems from the stand point of shaping the legs.
You can see an article on its construction at the following link.
http://americanfederalperiod.com/Chest%20on%20Frame.html
Edited 6/12/2008 7:23 pm ET by RMillard
Bill,
I have made a cabriole legged footstool with figured maple (see attached pics).
If I were to do it again, I would change the grain direction from across the knee to from the inside out (in the one pic the mahogany footstool has the grain runnning from inside out) UNLESS I were to add carving to the knee, shell, leaves, etc.
Which brings up carving - maple is harder to carve than mahogany, but carves well. So while there is more effort, there is no special problem to carving.
Go for it, use the figured, and show us lots of pictures - during and after.
Mike
Bill,
Regardless of which way you go with your stock selection, I would save any offcuts as you may want to use some of them for kneeblock material later.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Use rift sawn material and orient the material in such a way on each leg that if you look at the piece from the top down the grain lines will form an X. If you orient the material the other way the legs will have circles and each curve. If you look at each corner you should see vertical grain lines.
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