Curved Blockfront Lowboy Shaping Legs Sides & Back Step 2

In the last post I sawed the leg pattern out with the bandsaw.  The next step is to put the mortises in the legs.  I used the cardboard template to locate the mortise and mark them out on the legs.  I am going to make 3/8 inch mortises 1 inch deep.  I use my hollow chisel mortiser to complete this task although if you want you could drill out the mortises on a drill press and clean them up with a chisel

Once the mortises are in, I start to clean up the saw marks and shape the legs with a round bottom spokeshave.  I take light cuts and remove the saw marks and bumps.  I am trying to get a smooth continuous line.

I use a flat carving chisel to clean up the pad feet and a rasp to flatten the top of the foot.  This is kind of difficult since the top of the foot is all end grain.  It takes a bit of work then to get the deep scratches out left by the rasp.

Now the sides have to be rounded over with a file, rasp and spokeshave. The rear of the leg has to be filed since the spokeshave will not fit in the curve. You can see in the photographs that I have started to round over the edges of the leg and using the rasp and files to clean up the inside of the leg.

There they are all 4 cleaned up, shaped and sanded to 150 grit.  I will sand later to 180 before I glue them up.

Next is to start on the back.  This will be made from eastern white pine which was typical on this piece in the 18th century.

I have a large 16 inch pine board that I will cut to 28 1/4 inches.  The back needs to be 13 inches high.

The board is  too wide for my jointer so I will have to hand plane one side to get it flat, then I can get the other side flat by running it through the planner.

I use the table saw sled to square up the ends and cut it to length.

I use a dado stack in the table saw to put 1 inch tenons on the ends of the back and sides.

I use a small mortise block to check the thickness of the tenons.  They are a little thick at this point but I will use a hand plane to fit them to the mortises in the legs.

The sides are made the same way as the back.  Now I am ready to cut out the waste.

I lay out the tenons to match the mortises using the cardboard template like a story stick.

Saw out the waste using my dovetail saw and a coping saw.

I use a bench chisel to pare off the waste between the tenons.  It has to be flush or a little hollow.

Dry fitting the sides to the legs.  Nice tight fit.

With the three sides fitted, the next step is to concentrate on the apron.  It is a complex piece of curves.  That will be in the next posting.

Here is today's video: