I am making a stand-up desk with thick legs. And to make the legs I am using a technique first developed by the Stickley brothers one century ago; they developed the technique to make legs that showed quarter-sawn oak all the way around. This technique was documented very nicely in the November/December 1996 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine #121 (Stickley-Style Legs, A router bit and two jigs yield quartersawn figure on all four sides, by Patrick Nelson). I am also using a modern router bit, and walnut instead of quarter-sawn white oak.
Click on all images to enlarge them.
The Stickley brothers (Albert & Gustav) used shaper bits not commonly available today:
From the FWW magazine article:
On the left, the Stickley version; and
on the right Patrick Nelson’s profile
— very similar to mine —
The modern equivalent of the joint is typically made with one router bit in two passes, at the same fence setting, and without changing the height of the router bit – the inside face of the boards is always facing down on the router table:
- The first pass is done with each of the four sides flat on the table, and
- For the opposite edge on each board, the pass is made with the board on its edge.
The following is the router bit I use for this operation – the Sommerfeld Tools lock miter bit:
The diagram above, and the right, illustrates the perfect setting for the router bit height: The edge of the board will be razor-thin, and the interlocking teeth will be centered across the boards. Depending on the wood used and the sharpness of the router bit, the edge of the boards will have a razor-thin edge, which is very fragile. If the wood has a tendency to splinter, or if the router bit catches even slightly, there is a chance that the edge will be damaged and a large chip could result in an edge that must be trimmed (best case), or a new board machined (worst-case scenario).
To minimize the risk of damage I built a fence stop, which allows me to set the fence to the deepest cut with great accuracy – i.e., with the fence as far back as possible to result in a razor-thin board edge. With this stop I can now make each of the cuts in 2 or 3 passes, with the final pass very shallow. The best part: I know the fence will always be at the same depth of cut, regardless whether I am making the pass with the board in the horizontal, or in the vertical position.
Now some details:
My router fence is the Sommerfeld fence. It pivots on the right-hand side; it is anchored with a retractable pin. The left-hand side of the fence is locked with a large knob; moving the fence farther back, or closer to the front, allows deeper or shallower cuts with the lock miter bit. As a result, I needed a fence stop only for the left-hand side of the fence.
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In the photo on the right I show the stop against the fence; I am looking from behind the fence, toward the right-hand side of the table:
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In the photo on the left, the fence stop rides on the T-slot anchored to the router table.
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In the photo on the right I show how the micro-adjustable stop can be secured using a nut against the metal insert I used to hold the bolt:
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I am very happy with this fence stop. It will allow me to machine each of the boards that will become the desk legs in several passes, with minimal risk of blowing the edges of the boards.
In a future blog post I will show in detail how I make the legs using a century-old technique. But, instead of using quarter-sawn white oak, I will use walnut.
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