Shaping The Cabriolet Legs - Lots of Hand Work

I started to shape the cabriolet (which my spell checker corrects from cabriole) legs.  I use the picture from the book as a reference to the final shape.

I am looking at the sharp point at the top of the leg and the almost round part near the ankle of the leg.  I am going to try to replicate that shape.

I use a carving chisel to remove the extra wood that I left when I was bandsawing the leg blank.  If I tried to get too close to the pad I might hit it with the saw blade and ruin the leg.

Then use a rasp to rough out the shape.  I refer to the picture often to try to duplicate the shape in the picture.

Once I rough out  the shape I go back to the carving chisel to get close to the final design.

Then I use a spokeshave to smooth over the curves of the leg and get rid of the saw mark.  I am trying to get one continuous curve from the knee to the ankle.

All done with one.  Now all I have to do is make three more like the first one.

So I got busy this afternoon and completed another.  So both front legs are completed.  I will do some scraping yet before sanding these legs.

I'll get to the other two legs tomorrow.  I takes me about 2 hours to complete one leg.  That is working at my pace with coffee breaks.  :-)

So here is today's video: