Cal,
This is really fascinating! You've taken something that was always a mystery to me and made it into something that seems logical. Thanks for sharing your experience and the details. I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves.
Best,
Clif

Thanks Clif. The great thing about woodworking is that it always can be broken down into smaller manageable steps. Sometimes it it tougher to know how to organize the steps than to do them. Although this is my 2nd set of b/c feet, I am using all the resources I can find to keep me on track. Thanks again for commenting. Cal

Cal,

WOW! This is only your second set...the way your going about it I would have thought that you were an old hand at BOC feet. Great job. One day in the near future I will have to make a set.

The latest on the table...

Well, I am poking along a little at a time. That's what happens when you only get an hour every couple of nights in the shop!

Well, last I left off with the hollows roughed in the front. Not sure if I should have done this as it might have repercussions when the talons are defined. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Regardless, it will need to work out somehow.

Next I rounded the lower portion of the talons and established the slope of the claw to the floor. This also sets the bottom of the talon, which I need before carving the knuckles. For now I am staying square, not worrying about the rest of the claw.

The next step in my opinion is very important, it establishes the character of the foot, and the character of the foot can really vary from piece to piece if you look at the originals. Even more so if you are talking about variance between regions. The profile of the claws are established with carving chisels and in most cases, a rasp. The grain jumps back and forth here on the lower knuckle and the rasp gives you more control with less risk of chipping off material you want to stay. At this point all the knuckles are located and the squareness, boldness, agressiveness that you want to have is determined. Somewhat abstract terms, but I think pretty well this way. Here's where it is:

After all four of the chairs are at this stage I will shape the talons in all dimensions. Whenever that might be!

Thanks for continuing to check it out. For some reason, the forum seems a little slow lately. Summer must be upon us! Cal

Cal,
Great post once again.. I'm following along and look forward to your next progress report. Your legs by the way, the ankle and the transition to the foot has a very delicate graceful feel. Your refinements and explaining the subtle details are great..
Keep up the forum activity!

Between end of school year, yard work, gardening and life I'm completely shut out of woodworking at the moment.. but come June 1st, things will be freeing up and I can get going on my Cupboard Hutch.

Hey.....You are doing a great job! I will keep watching you on this.......keep the updates on your progress coming.......Looking forward to your next post and photo's

Robin Renee'

Cal, I haven't posted any comments but I check in every day to see if you have made any progress. I'm particularly interested in your techniques and commentary on carving the B&C feet...fascinating stuff.

I appreciate your taking time to document the process.

So the shaping of the talon profiles continued. Along the way, I tried to compare each leg to the original, so they can end up looking similar to each other. I find it helps to hold them all against each other to see if anything jumps out. It also helps to remember that although you want them to look the same, they will be on far ends from each other on the table, so they don't need to be identical, plus they are hand-carved which should show some individuality.

Now believe it or not, I am nearing the end of the steps, but still there is a long way to go...

Something I did not realize until after I did my other set of b/c feet a few years ago: Often the claws in Philadelphia ball and claw feet were sharp and angular. This is also shown in the Gene Landon article. So I started cutting the claws.

All that is left to rough carve is to shape the talons. Since it is by far the easiest, I started with the back talon. In Philly furniture the back talon is really weak and embryonic, I think the local carvers just wanted to spend the time on what was to be seen and move on to the next one.

I have begun the other talons, and the feet are starting to look pretty good, if I must say. I will try to get some progress and some good pictures in the next couple of days... Thanks again for checking in and keeping me honest! I keep trying to forget that all the knees need to be carved as well! Cal

Cal,

When and how did you do the knuncks on the feet? Do you have enought of the ball left to put in the webbing between the feet?

BTW great job...learning a lot.

Cal,
they look good man, One thing yours do right that I think mine did not is have the flat spot on top o the ball. Keep up the good work.

Justin

Thanks Justin. They have a long way to go, but I think they are shaping up. I have spend a lot of time looking at photos of 18th century examples and they all have some individuality, mine are no different than yours in that respect.

Chuck, the webbing is only around a 16th thick so I have plenty of material. Actually the webbing is much higher on the ball on these feet than you might think. As far as working on the knuckles, that's what I am working on now in the process.

Here are a couple of pictures (Sorry about the crappy pics, they didn't turn out very good at all). So far I have 6 of the 16 knuckles roughed out, so I'm gaining on them. CH

Sorry guys it has been a couple of weeks since an update. My brother and I rushed a collaborated bed for one of his clients on the East coast, and I also traveled to Chicago on business last week, which was fine,but no shop time, of course.

The bed - I had very little direction, just to make it look very naturalistic, "but softer". So here is what I came up with:

I really humped it to get this done. I am really interested in what you guys think. I am not used to creating my own design, usually I copy or borrow from 18th century pieces. It was made from 16/4 poplar and it will be painted. The plywood headboard also has an upholstered piece of mdf that will inset within the "driftwood" frame.

And I promised my wife I would actually take enough time to talk to her for a while. Unless things change....look for slab table updates next week, maybe?

Cal, the bed is pretty cool, that would look great in a cabin by a small lake. I just spent the last 4 days in a cabin, so it's on my mind.

Nice job.

Rick

Well, believe it or not....I actually spent an hour in the shop tonight working on the table.

I carved three talons, so I am now up to 10 completed out of 16. I need to get after it and grind through them so I can get to the knee blocks and acanthus carvings.

It was nice to get back to them, even if it was just a short time. They had started calling me from the shop the last couple of nights. I was able to work somewhat comfortably with a fan on high, it was well into the 90s today in KC and my shop felt like it.

And happy father's day to all. Cal

Ok,

So I finally got a little time and finished carving the feet. They will need scraping and possibly some light sanding, but here they are:

So the next thing that will need to be carved will be the knees. In order to do that, I need to make the aprons and glue the knee blocks to the legs.

I will get started on this after the 4th -until then, we are packing up the family and driving to North Carolina and back... It will be great to see my Mom and Dad and my Grandparents. Sounds funny, but it will be cooler there than in Ks.

Thanks, Cal

Cal, those are awesome my friend.

Lets me ask you this, is it safe to assume on a carved leg like these that you'd want the grain direction running down toward the foot? Wouldn't that allow most of the cuts to be down toward the center of the foot?

Oh and have a safe and good trip with the family.

Rick

I'll echo what Rick said, awesome work! It's very timely too, since I've been practicing and trying to learn how to carve a B&C foot.

Thanks again for taking the time to document your build and have a safe trip.

Rick, not sure I follow. Are you talking "bullseye" at the knee vs. the grain following the leg down to the foot? If so, I don't think it makes any difference except aesthetically. In my case the carving pattern will have a center element, so I went with the bullseye effect, opposite of what I would have typically done. Let me know if I am misinterpreting your question...CH

Cal,
The feet look amazing. Its been awhile since I had an opportunity to get up close to an original antique ball and claw feet so off hand I don't remember, did they leave any tool marks on their feet? or are they refined pretty much to smoother surfaces and crisp edges? Your work is inspiring Cal.. keep up the posts.

I picked up some amazing 12/4 walnut several weeks ago.. I really want to take a stab at making one of those.

Have a safe trip and a fun 4th

Scott,

The originals do show some tool marks, but not as much as I think some people expect to see. In fact, the Newport feet show almost no tool marks. So I think there is evidence of some smoothing going on. In these, I will aim for the balls to be pretty smooth, and leave plenty of tooling on the talons. Mostly I will use a scraper, which will leave plenty of evidence of handwork. Just for fun I attached an original Philly foot from the Chipstone collection. It shows a lot of wear, as most chairs do, but you can see there is not a ton of tool marks showing.

Thanks for the comments on the feet. Cal

I was just wondering Cal if you oriented the grain to where most of your shaving and cutting could flow down toward the center of the foot. I there's noway to avoid changes in grain totally but I was just thinking I might prefer to put that off until I was at the bottom. Does that make any sense?

Rick

Rick,

I think I get you now. I have never adjusted the grain in regards to carving the foot although I guess you could. I have always simply oriented the blank for the best appearance. Usually you would have relatively straight grained material on a carved leg, not too worried about figured grain to distract from the carving.

After getting back from North Carolina, I have been able to turn back to the table a little bit. With the feet carved, now the acanthus leaf designs need to be carved on the knees. But before that, the knee blocks need to be glued on. But before that, the aprons need to be built, to ensure a good fit of the knee blocks to the leg and the apron. So there you have it, the next operation was to fabricate the four rails, or aprons, of the table. This is pretty much a simple operation.

Here is the stock I found from the pile. A nice straight piece of walnut that will result in very little waste, and some oak for the back rail that will face the wall.

Here they have been dimensioned and the tenons marked.

I cut the tenons on the tablesaw, cut the haunches, and trimmed to fit. Like a schoolboy I took the table inside to show my wife, you know, today's arts and crafts from grade school! We placed the table in it's future home just for fun.

It's really starting to look like a table now. Very simple joinery, but the embellishments will continue to take some time. Thanks all for being patient.

Also, I managed to take a shot of the stone slab for the top. I think it will look awesome when it is all said and done.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions. Until the next time, Cal.

Cal,

Why oak for the back rail? That will limit the table to be always against a wall and there will never be a choice to rotate the table for whatever reason. Is this something that was a common practice in priod pieces?

Chuck,

This table and ones like it built in the 18th century were always designed to go against a wall. You are right that four sided potentially adds some flexibility, but I just like doing things the old way. Not to mention that it saves a lot of work (cost if this were done for a customer) such as the knee carvings, knee blocks, gadrooning and egg/dart molding under the top. If meant to go against a wall, a primary wood was never used. Good question. Thanks, Cal

Cal,
I think the piece you're building just reconfirms that 18th century woodworkers still had to be very productive to make ends meet.
By reducing embellishments from one side and using cheaper secondary woods, that increased their profit margin by 20% or close that that. Even though Cuban Mahogany was plentiful in those days, the raw materials were very expensive for the Northeast Cabinet shops to obtain, much more then what it cost in Charlotte and some of the southern port cities.

Your slab of Marble is really nice, will you be sealing and finishing the marble to increase the contrast of the dark light areas? Do you know historically if they mineral oiled it or applied wax to seal it?