When you look at an attractive table, what’s the first thing that you notice? Well for me the answer is easy — the legs. A great table starts with good looking legs.
So what makes a really distinctive table leg? Part of the answer lies in what you do before you start the cutting and shaping. The key here is something that’s often overlooked. To make a really top-notch table leg you need to start with the very best possible leg blank.
The hall table project on page 10 has very graceful, flared legs. And I wanted the grain of the wood and the shape of the leg to work together — not clash. To achieve this, I realized that not just any leg blank would do.
ADD-ON.
Take a look at the left picture in the table below and you’ll see an easy way to come up with a blank for a flared leg. It saves a fair amount of material to just “add-on” a couple scraps of wood to the bottom of a squared blank. It’s simple and it gives you the thickness needed to cut out the curved foot.
But as you can see, this makes a pretty sorry-looking leg. When you cut across a glue line, you’re going to see grain changes and color differences. Short of a coat of paint, there’s just no way to hide it.
GLUEUP.
So how about a full-sized glue up? Three pieces of 3/4"-thick stock will give you a blank thick enough for all but the stoutest legs.
But the middle photo shows that you’re right back to the same problem. Three separate pieces means two glue joints and at least some color and grain variation. When you go to cut a shaped or tapered leg out of this blank you’re bound to cross at least a glue line or two.
SOLID BLANK.
The simple solution is to just go out and spend the money for some solid blanks, right? It sure sounds good and I considered it. There wouldn’t be any glue ups to mess with and no glue lines to see, and the color would be consistent.
But when I checked it out, a couple drawbacks popped up. The first is that thick blanks cost a lot more money than you might want to part with — as much as forty dollars apiece for a 3"-square blank. I wanted the right look, but didn’t want to break the bank.
The right photo below shows the biggest problem with a solid blank. You just won’t have a consistent grain pattern on all four faces. On one face you can get straight, quartered grain while the adjacent face has figured, flat grain. When you cut a shaped leg out of a blank like this the grain is surely going to be a distraction — not a complement. A blank like this still wouldn’t produce the refined look that I was after.
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| Add-on. Gluing scraps onto the bottom of a square blank to form a foot leaves too many glue lines. | Glued-up Blank. A three-piece glueup creates the right thickness, but also a lot of color and grain variation. | Solid Blank. A solid blank won’t have glue lines or color variation, but each face can have a different grain pattern. |
Mitered Leg Blank
What I wanted for my legs were blanks with no visible glue lines and matching grain on all four faces. Starting from this point, I could make legs that really showed off their shape. This might sound impossible, but it turns out there’s a fairly easy way to make a blank that fits this description.
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| With a “mitered” leg blank you’ll have an invisible glue line and matching grain on all four faces. |
Take a look at the photo above and you’ll get an idea of how this works. With a little careful wood selection, gluing, and cutting, you can end up with a two-piece blank with similar grain on all four faces and an invisible glue line.
As you can see on the end, the glue line runs from corner to corner so it can’t be seen on the faces. Even after the leg is shaped, no one will be able to tell that it was made from a two-piece, glued-up blank.
But the real advantage you get from this type of blank is the matching grain. The two halves of the blank are glued up so that the grain on all four faces is a very close match. Just take a look at the large photo at left and you’ll see what I mean. The shape of the leg and the grain pattern work together to make a great-looking leg.
TWO HALVES.
Getting this look takes a little extra work, but it isn’t difficult. Basically, you start with an oversized, glued-up piece and then cut a square out of it “on the diagonal” to get the finished blank. The key to getting the right look is in how you match the two halves of the oversized piece. The rest is just simple gluing and table saw work.
For the oversized piece you need two pieces of 13/4"-thick stock, 31/2" wide. You want to end up with a rough blank that’s 31/2" square.
Take a look at Fig. 1, and you’ll see the grain orientation you’re shooting for. This part of the process is pretty important. As you can see the rings on the ends of the two halves should form gentle arcs across the width of the pieces. I had to pick and choose the lumber carefully to get it right, but the extra effort really paid off.
LAYOUT.
After the oversized piece is glued up, check it to make sure it’s square. (This is important later on.) Then you can lay out the shape of the finished blank on one end. A hardboard pattern cut to the size of the finished blank does the job. Just trace the pattern on the ends of the rough blanks as shown in Fig. 1a. You want to center the pattern in the oversized piece and the corners should be right on the glue line.
FINISHED BLANK.
Now cutting the finished blank is straightforward. If you just follow the layout lines, you can’t go wrong. With the table saw blade set at 45°, the first cut is made as shown in Fig. 2. As you can see, the glue line is vertical. And you can just sneak up on the layout line by adjusting the fence.
Next turn the rough blank 90° to cut the second face as shown in Fig. 2a. What you’re looking for here is the glue line to fall right on the corner of the finished blank. The final two faces should be routine. Figs. 3 and 3a show you what to do here. With the saw blade set at 90°and the fence adjusted to the finished width of the blank, the glue line will fall right on the money.
That’s it. Now you’ve got the perfect blank for any leg.
