Thanks for the compliments. The process is relatively straightforward, though the shaping is a new twist that may not be a skill that everyone has tried.

As far as other resources, there have been several good articles written in Fine Woodworking over the years. If you go to http://www.finewoodworking.com and search on “cabriole” you will see them (the ones by Lonnie Bird, Phil Lowe, and Eugene Landon come to mind although they use a slightly different process than I did). The one issue here is that some/all of these may require a membership to Finewoodworking.com to be accessed (well worth the $15/year).

If you have other questions, please ask and I will do my best to answer based on my experiences. Glad you are enjoying the blog.

–Mark

Shannon

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, it’s interesting how the knee blocks interact with the scroll work on the aprons. The curves in the blocks flowing into the aprons seems to visually connect the legs to the rest of the table.

The original photo is an example of the table, but it has Trifed feet rather than a turned foot. I have used that picture as a basic reference, but I’ve also referenced other pictures of cabriole legs. The Huey design of this table in Popular Woodworking had a turned foot.

I did a bunch of work creating tenons for the aprons recently. There’s a bit more fitting to do before a dry fit of those. I’ll be posting on that activity shortly.

–Mark

Moving real well.

The knee block….. kinda cool how they work with the apron in so many different ways.

I remember seeing a photo on the first cabriole leg post: is that photo your sole base for interpretation or are you working your table from many different plans and photo’s???

Going back and forth to the photo’s makes this “craftsman’s path” a good read.

Thanks for visiting the web site. Because every Cabriole leg is somewhat different, I’m not sure that there is a standard template to be had. Depending on the application (i.e. side table, high boy, low boy, chair, etc) parameters like the height of the leg, thrust of the knee, size of the foot etc. will be different. These kinds of parameters will change based on the dimensions of the furniture piece. So, there is no set template. Generally these things are developed so that they are pleasing to the eye for a given piece.

Having said that, you could certainly develop one fairly easily based on the furniture piece that you want to build. Typically, the leg blank is no more than 2 3/4″ square and the post at the top is usually between 1 1/4″ and 1 3/4″. Another rule of thumb is that thereis usually not more than about 1″ or 1 1/8″ offset between the apex of the knee and the post. Also, the ankle is usually about 1″ in diameter. With those details, drawing some curves and connecting the curves with straight lines you can develop a good template.

One article that I know of with a couple of Cabriole leg templates is by Lonnie Bird in Fine Woodworking (#144 September/October 2000).

I hope this helps and please continue to visit the web site.

–Mark