Cabriole Legs Session 2: Lay Out the Cabriole Leg Template

Now you and I are gonna make a leg together. The first step, let's make the template you need. And all the dimensions you need are on the template drawing included with this class. I'm also gonna give you some rules of proportion, that'll help you develop your own leg designs in the future. First, rip some template stock from some quarter-inch ply or MDF to the same width as the finished leg.

In our case, two and three quarter inches wide. And then cross cut the template stock, six to eight inches longer than the leg. And again, for this leg, a 30 inch long template will do. So we'll start laying out the guidelines by squaring a line 24 inches from the end of the template. Just make a mark at 24.

Square across that line. And this is our finished leg height, and we'll just make an X on the waist side of this line. So this is the top of the leg. The next layout is the block where the apron joins to the leg. Now the block height should equal the apron width.

And in this case, we're using a three and three quarter inch apron. So just measure down three and three quarter inches from the top and square a line across. So just measure down three and three quarter. And square another line across. The next line is gonna be parallel to the edge and this will determine the thickness of the block.

And typically you'll remove three quarter inch to one inch of stock to create this block. So we're gonna shoot for an inch and three quarter thick block. So we'll just measure in one inch that'll leave an inch and three quarter, and we'll make a mark at one inch on both of those lines that on the block and then just draw a parallel. So there's our block. Now let's move to the bottom of the leg.

Our first element is the pad and pads are generally a quarter inch to three eight inch high, and roughly half the width of the leg. If you know, the piece will set on a hard floor then a quarter inch thick pad is plenty. On carpet, go for a three-eighths inch thick pad to keep the foot from sinking into the carpet. Our paddle will be a quarter inch. So we'll simply measure up quarter of an inch, make a mark and square across.

Now the pad diameter should be roughly half the thickness of the whole leg, or inch and three eights. So we'll mark the middle of the leg at one and three eighths inch. And then we'll mark 11/16ths on either side of that, and then square a line down from each mark. And there we have our pad. Now the next element of the leg is going to be the toe, and generally toes are three quarters to one inch up from the bottom.

I like a little thicker foot, so I'll mark the toe at one inch. So just measure up an inch from the bottom, and square that line across. Now, the ankle comes next and that's the narrowest point on the leg. And it should be roughly three times the total height. So we'll strike another line up three inches from the bottom.

Again, just measure up three. And we'll square a line across. Now, the ankle thickness, by rule of thumb, is about two fifths the leg thickness from the back edge. And in our case, that's going to be about an inch of an eighth. So I'll just measure in an inch of an eighth, and make another mark.

Now, moving back up towards the top of the leg, we'll square a line for the knee. And this line should again be about three times the toe height, or in this case three inches, but coming down from the block. So again, I'll just lay my rule, measure off three, square my line across, and there's our knee block. And finally we want to draw a 45 degree line down from the bottom of the corner of the block to the bottom of the knee. So we'll just...

And there we have our template all laid out and ready to go. Now comes a part that makes some people break out in a sweat: free hand drawing. And if you're one of those people, don't sweat it. This is a lot easier than it looks, and it's not the kind of thing you need to get right the first time. That's why I use a pencil, and I carry a big eraser.

So we'll start at the 45 degree line at the top of the knee, and you will use this line as a launchpad. And with the heel of your hand as a pivot point, just draw an arc, starts on the 45, and we'll do this again. And ends right at the front of the knee. And you can see, you can take multiple shots at it, and then just erase the parts you don't want. Now you could also use a flexible curve to help you get these shapes.

And that's fine if you like using them. Personally, I don't I prefer just freehand the arcs. So I would encourage you to give it a try either way, but if you like the flexible curve, that's fine too. Now from this arc on the knee, we're going to draw a gentle curve that's going to arc inward towards the ankle mark, way down here. So this is a long gentle arc, and is perhaps a hardest to get right.

And if you don't like what you see at first, simply erase and try the line again, just like I did up at the knee. So we'll start here, and we'll gently arc down to the back. Now that's too narrow. So I'm going to try this again. I kind of like what's going on up here, but I'm going to ease that out.

We'll get rid of this first line. And I think that's a pretty nice looking curve. So if several tries leaves you frustrated by, you know, having to redraw and redraw, there's another trick that I use sometime, and that's to use the fat edge of the pencil to draw a really thick line, and then you can just erase the parts you don't like. So I would just encourage you to keep trying the free hand method and it won't take you as long as you think to get a nice looking curve. Also, as you go, check your lines with a straight edge cause you want to make sure you don't have any straight portions on your lines.

Everything should be a nice gentle curve. Now for the foot down here, we'll start our line at the toe point right there and draw an arc up to the ankle. So this line starts very shallow, and ends up steep. So we'll again, we'll just arc a line from here up to there, and now that's too consistent, I think, so I think we'll shallow it out some more and then bring it up steep. Yeah, and that's looking okay.

I think we can do better. I'm going to continue this line a little bit here. So as you can see, it's a process, a little bit of hit and miss until you get the lines you like. Now the back of the foot is drawn in much the same manner. Although this curve is gentler than the one in the front, and terminates at the pad instead of at the toe.

So we'll start right back here at the back of the ankle and end up down here at the pad. And this again will be a fairly shallow and then steep. And you might want to experiment our own a little bit. I think I want a little more arc right there. And once you have the foot of the legs sketched out, it's relatively easy to draw the curve at the back of the leg, using the front curves as a visual guide.

Now the back line mirrors the front line, and it should gradually pull away from the front edge as a leg thickens towards the back of the knee. So we'll start right back here from the bottom of the knee and make a short, tight outward arc. And I often use the arc of my thumb just to measure that. I find that that shape makes a nice initial curve. And then we'll just follow this outline as we transition around all the way down to the ankle.

Try that again... Right to the thinnest point. Now with that done, I think I'd make some adjustments here on this front line. So again, you can see that it is a back and forth. It's not like you're just going to shoot it out and get it all done in one shot.

So at this point, I'll leave the sketch leg overnight, and give it a second look in the morning. And keep in mind that what looks like an imperceptible small curve on a two dimensional template becomes much more visible when reproduced on a three-dimensional leg. When you're completely satisfied with the leg, go ahead and cut out the pattern on the bandsaw, sand out any irregularities for a smooth edge template like this. And remember that three different size patterns are included with this class, and you can just print them up and fasten them to a template board and go straight to work. But the tips I've given you here will help you create your own designs going forward.