Shaping the Legs

Last weekend was the thirty-first annual Northern Woods exhibition at Eden Prairie Center in Eden Prairie, MN. It's the best excuse I can come up with for why one might visit a shopping mall. Needless to say, there were loads of great examples of woodworking to see; all made by local amateurs and professionals.

My contributions included two small dovetailed boxes that I had made several years ago. I'll need to step up the pace to get a spec piece ready for next year's event. On the left in the photo below is a pencil holder I made out of kwila for my father. He was kind enough to let me enter it in the show. Oh, and that finely crafted item resting on top of the vitrine was the Judges' Award for my yellow birch Love Letters Box on the right. Not a showstopper, but I enjoyed talking about it with the many, many interested visitors that happened by. If you were one of them... thanks!

Now for Vidar's Chair. Work has continued on the legs. I started with some of the basic shaping. A short bevel at the inside of the upper front leg is shown below.

The front legs also received a long bevel, handplaned below the joinery, all the way down to the floor.

Here's a shot of the two bevels with the front legs set side-by-side.

Then, it was time to put a curved front on the front legs using the smoothing plane.

With each of the curved surfaces, I first figure out where to put chamfers that begin to define the curved shape. Below, you can see the transition from a more-or-less rectangular section near the joinery to a circular top where the right front leg will join with the arm rest.

The completed transition on the left front leg.

After completing the surfaces on the front legs, I moved on to the rear legs.

Again, first with the basic shaping.

More shaping.

And then some chamfering.

After establishing the extent of the curved surface and watching carefully to maintain symmetry, I completed the rest of the shaping of the curves by eye and by feel, using the spokeshave.

Tomorrow, I'll be fine tuning the fit of the back joinery and preparing for glue-up of the back.

Thanks for tuning in.

Hej då!

Craig