Chapin HighChest Making a Gooseneck Molding Part 1 - Step 13

Time to start on the swan neck pediments or as some call it a gooseneck molding.
This should be interesting! They are a duplicate of the side molding only bent with a volute at the end.

They are made of a composite of two pieces.  The lower piece is 7/8 inch thick and contains a 1/4 inch flat with the cove and bead. The upper piece is 1 1/4 inch thick but only at the end for the volute, the majority is 7/8 also which contains the ogee and two flat steps that transition to the lower piece.
Together they make up the same look as the side molding.
I made a cardboard template of the over all shape and height.

I will make a practice gooseneck out of soft maple so that I can figure out how I am going to make this curved molding.

I have a piece of the side molding to get the depth of each cut since they have to come out even with 7/8 of an inch in each piece.

The top piece is only 1 1/4 inches wide and contains two flats or steps. This is followed by an ogee at the top. I use the bandsaw to saw away the front waste of the molding leaving 1 1/4 inch.  I can now route the two flats in the molding using a rabbeting bit with different sized bearings to create the steps.  I can not route it all but it will help quite a bit with the carving.

At first I thought I would have to carve the entire ogee, but I decided to try to use my router free hand with a false base which is narrow enough to follow the curve.  I have used this technique before on curved work. I was able to put the ogee on much of the gooseneck,  again it cut down my carving time.

Using the right sized gouges make the work of duplicating the curves a little easier,  the grain changes directions around curves, that is something to watch out for.

Carving the lower piece of the gooseneck is a little easier. I used the router with a large cove bit to rough out the shape and remove excess material. Then I used a 1 inch gouge to carve the shape between the two lines.  I used the rabbet bit again in the router to put a 3/8 inch step in the lower part of the molding which I will turn into a bead after I carve the cove.

Here is how the two pieces look with the cove roughed out before I add the bead on the bottom.

Using the same technique that I used for the ogee, I free hand route with a beading bit on some of the the lower edge.

 I can not get too close to the inside curve because of the router base.  So there is still about 3 inches of the bead to carve.

Here is the completed two moldings after I carved the areas that I could not route.

Now I need to work on the volute. To make it work on this practice piece I will need to glue on a 3/8 inch piece to get the correct height in the front.  When making the good gooseneck I will make it from one piece 1 1/4 inch thick on the top piece of molding.

I started to carve the volute but I did not do so well. In addition I decided that the pattern for the volute was one that I did not like.  There are multiple styles of this molding on the different Chapin Highboys. I am going to reproduce the molding that is on the one that is at Winterthur.

I have decided to start over and make a second practice gooseneck. I think I need the practice.
Below is a picture of the next practice one that I am going to make.  Notice that it is 1 1/4 inch thick in the front by the volute and 7/8 inch for the rest.  This is how it will be made when I work the cherry.

So that is it for Part 1 of this making of the gooseneck.  Part 2 will be doing it over with the correct stock.

Here is today's video: