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Excerpted from The Complete Illustrated Guide to Shaping Wood
Shaping Wood: Edge Treatments
Learn to shape table edges, lipped doors, and more using a router, block plane, shaper, and hand tools
by Lonnie Bird
All furniture styles, even seemingly simple designs such as Shaker, use shape to enhance, increase function, and define style. For example, the sensuous curve of a chair back adds comfort as well as visual appeal, and the slender taper of a table leg creates lightness without sacrificing strength. Shape is critical to the ultimate success or failure of a piece of furniture. It simply can't be ignored.
The choices available for shaping wood are numerous. And it's not necessary to have access to a shop full of power tools, either. Many woodworkers are rediscovering hand tools along with the pleasure and satisfaction that comes with their use. Planes, saws, chisels, and other edge tools all require patience and a degree of skill; but they yield a handmade look and texture as well as a deep sense of accomplishment.
In this excerpt, custom furniture maker Lonnie Bird offers edge profiles for your tables and doors, along with step-by-step instruction on how to create them using power and hand tools.
Lonnie Bird teaches furniture making at the University of Rio Grande in Ohio. He is the author of The Complete Guide to Shaping Wood and The Bandsaw Book.
Photos: Lonnie Bird; drawings: © The Taunton Press
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