This was an interesting commission for eight Federal-style mahogany tapered legs with holly inlay for two small side tables. The work was very exacting and provided little room for error.

I decided to make a prototype first and have it approved before I started in on the legs. There was so much work involved that I wanted to be sure my customer, another builder, knew exactly what he was getting and what level of quality. It wouldn’t do to have the legs cost more than the entire table.

I used a small laminate trimmer with a purpose built sub-base to cut the grooves for the holly inlay. The legs were inlaid on both sides and the front.

I warmed up by completing the sides of each leg before attempting the fronts.

Here you see all the legs with the side inlay done and all the fronts cut. The legs were tapered on 3 sides but not the front so each leg was marked at the top to prevent a mistake from happening.

A friend of mine had some fan medallions which fit the leg perfectly. If I had to make them myself it would have doubled the cost of the legs. The fan medallions were traced onto the leg and the mortices cut using a router. I cleaned up the edges of the mortice by hand to ensure a perfect fit before gluing in the fan.

I decided to position the bell flowers by drilling and gluing in the dots between them first. I thought this would ensure each leg would be the same and also help me to keep the flowers from drifting or becoming off-centered.

Here are the legs with the medallions in place, the checkered inlay, the holly inlay and the dots. When I was making the original prototype I experimented with the checkered inlay and how it would fit around the corners. Having the black portions meet at the corners worked best.

I carefully marked and then routed out the cavities for all the flowers. Then I began gluing in the center petals.

The last of the petals being fitted and glued into place. The petals were then scraped and sanded lightly.

Here are the legs all cleaned up with the pedals shaded. They were not finish sanded because they were now leaving my shop to be morticed and become part of two small side tables.