Turned Pedestal Table with Diagonal Reeds

The latest carving work I have been doing has been details for several period reproduction pieces for Greg Guenther in Savannah, GA. I will have to get the specifics from Greg of where the original came from. I was just focusing on the designs based on photographs.

One is a corner design for a table with delicate little acanthus leaves. Believe it or not, these took a lot longer to do that some larger designs because of the tiny attention to detail.

One is another corner design of a scroll and acanthus leaf design – again, very delicate with an agressive under-cut.

And finally, a reeded turned post for a pedestal table. I put several layers of tape on the delicate turned details above and below the carving because my gouges get very close and could easily damage this turning. In fact, there are several places where the tape has tiny cut marks in it, so I am VERY glad I chose to do this. Those cuts would be glaring on a smooth piece of wood. The sphere shape has been sanded, and the flat reeds have not been sanded yet – but will. I used a tiny little needle file to make sure the v-cuts were defined cleanly, and then sanded the tool marks from the reeds. Very lightly, but enough to get a refined surface.

The process of carving it is similar to the technique I showed on carving reeds.

I’ve got 7 people coming to my shop next week for a class. It looks like I will need to start cleaning my shop! I may find things that I have misplaced many years ago… maybe I will film that part of my shop as a “tour” when it is nice and squeaky clean.

Oh yeah – I filmed all 3 of these projects shown above for the video school – just need to find the time to edit…