19th Century Clerks Desk - New Project

I have decided to leave the 18th century for awhile and build a piece from the 19th Century.  Although I suppose they did have clerks desks in the 18th century, this one is of my own design which I put together from a number of pieces that I found on the internet.
I did not want to make a large piece that would take up a lot of room, I want something that could be used as a decorative piece for an entrance hall way.

Below are three of the pictures that I found on the internet.  The lower one is too large but I like the design.  The upper left is too small and the upper right is just about right to my eye.

What I have done is select design features from each of these pieces.  I made a full size drawing of the proposed piece.

Then I made a very rough mock up of the proposed dimensions.  I like the height and depth but not the width.  So, I am going to make it narrower.  It will be in two pieces.  A desk on frame construction.

Now that I have a plan and dimensions, I can start.  I am going to use some curly (tiger) maple that I have from a previous project.  I have just four boards remaining, so I hope I have enough.  But this is some beautiful maple.  I did not have any 8/4 for the legs, so I purchased a board from Byler's in Middlefield Ohio.  I hope it matches the sides.

I start with making the legs.  I am going to taper the legs on 2 sides.  This is a common way to do tapered legs.  Federal Period pieces often have the legs tapered on 4 sides but that would not look good on this piece.

Here is the leg stock milled to 2 inches square.  I need to cut it to 32 1/2 inches in length before do the tapers.  The apron of the frame is 4 3/4 inches and will have one drawer.  So the taper begins below the 4 3/4 inches.

I have a tapering jig for 2 sided tapers I made some years ago.  It is just a matter of adjusting the slope and length of the taper for this project.  The blade starts it cut 4 3/4 from  the top and tapers to 1 1/8 inch at  the bottom.

Then I turn it to cut the taper on the adjacent edge.  The curly maple is difficult to cut even on a table saw so it  leaves quite a bit of burn marks.  I will have to plane this off later.

Once the legs are cut, I milled some 3/4 inch stock to 4 3/4 inch wide and put a 1 inch tenon 3/8 inch thick on the ends of each of the pieces.  The piece of stock laying to the left is a board that I have with a 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch mortise cut as a jig for testing my tenon thickness.  I usually cut them a little thick and plane them to size after the mortises are cut.    I will put a peg in the joint later when it is glued up.  

Now I need to cut the mortises in the top of the legs.  I use my hollow chisel mortiser since I have it.  I could cut them by hand or drill and chop them out but this is quicker for me.

After I make the mortises, I lay out the aprons and number the tops and the mortises in the legs.  

Then I clean out the mortises and fit each tenon by planing it to fit the opening.

I like a good snug fit, if I use yellow glue the tenon will swell as soon the the glue goes on, if i fit it too tight I won't be able to get the tenon in once I apply the glue.  If I use hide glue it does not swell as much so I can leave them tighter to start with.

Once I have planed all the tenons, it is time to try a dry fit of all the pieces.  Here is the result.  There is still a lot of work to do on the frame.  I need a drawer opening and drawer runners.  There are also stretchers to be added between the legs.  But it looks good so far. 

Next I want to clean up the burn marks on the legs.  I tried to do it with a hand plane but of the two that I tried they both tore the grain.  I do not have any high angle planes which probably would have helped or may be I just need to really sharpen my plane  blades better. 

I decided to use a cabinet scraper which worked well and did not tear the grain.

All cleaned up and ready for the next steps.  I am going to add the lower stretchers.

Here is today's video: