Replies

1. 
   woodshaver | Jul 01, 2003 07:27am | #1

   HI Don , dover books has a book called the victorian cabinet makers assistant

           there is some geometry on starburst , and other patterns for veneers

           plus its great reading, on other topics , like, math ,layout, and design,

            hope this helps.  I just bought a vacum bag to.

                                        mark.

1. 
   RMillard | Jul 02, 2003 03:00am | #2

   I have made several items with starburst designs. I don’t own a press, so I can’t help you with that aspect.

   My pieces have used satinwood and mahogany or curly maple and mahogany, of course for me this was dictated by the period example I reproduced.

   The layout looks better if you have a mirror image. Also, in the case of an oval, you can’t just layout equal angles for the wedges, as this will cause the far ends to differ in width. I stepped them off with dividers starting at a line drawn on the major axis.

   The process is very simple, when hammer veneering anyway, I just scribe lines on the substrate ( don’t use a pencil) and lay each wedge planing it to fit with the pervious one. I use a sort of shooting board to joint the edges .The wedges don’t have to fit perfectly to your scribed pattern as each one will be fit individually, you can make up for slight inaccuracies Highly figured woods, require a very shape plane and a light cut. The last wedge is obviously the most difficult. One other thing will add somewhat to the difficulty and that is if your design has all the points of the star coming together in the center, this will require careful cutting. My pieces  had an inlay at the center which avoided this difficulty.

   When using a press, I guess you’d have to carefully and laboriously tape the pattern together and use a glue that resists creep.

   I have read where it was recommended doing a similar pattern in low cost veneer on the underside, but I discounted this as ridiculous, and just slapped on a sheet of veneer , which worked perfectly.

   I have attached a photo of a candlestand I made with a sun/starburst top. It is satinwood and mahogany. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it was taken with my first digital camera, which was not much of a camera.

   Rob Millard

   
1. 
   woodshaver | Jul 02, 2003 06:20am | #3

   HI RMillard, that is a beautiful, table , great job on the veneer pattern.

      thank you for sharing it .    take care 

                                                    mark

1. 
   TJW | Jul 06, 2003 06:10am | #4

   Rob:

   I just opened the discussion on starbursts and saw your candlestand.  It is beautiful, as is all your work.  I had been thinking about making one and have a couple questions.  First, are the feet applied or are they one piece with the legs?  I suspect the latter but was not sure.  Second, are both sides veneered?  I wonder if the starburst exerts the same stress as a regular veneer.  Third, what kind of catch is used?  Finally, this may not be appropriate for Federal pieces, but does the top revolve?  I ask because I'm making an elliptical Chippendale piecrust table, which may or may not have historical precedent, and am worrying about whether or not I should have it revolve.  This will be one of a set of three table tops I am making from a single board.  The other two are round and will rotate with the usual bird cage mechanism (the elliptical one came about because the board had a crack and snipe at one end and so I didn't have enough for 3 round tops).  I would like to make the elliptical table consistent but it seems that having such a top revolve would be awkward.  Thanks.

   Tom Witzig

1. 
   RMillard | Jul 07, 2003 12:56am | #5

    Tom,

   The top is veneered on the bottom side. On the originals, the only the top is veneered, and many of them have warped tops as a result. I made those tables with a substrate of very narrow pine boards, glued together so that they were in a quarter sawn configuration. This makes for a very stable substrate, but some good ply wood such as Baltic Birch would work just as well. I ran the bottom veneer with the grain running the same way as the substrate’s grain. The edges were given a quick coat of thinned down hide glue the day before I veneered them, this helps the veneer adhere well to the endgrain. The rope inlay helps to protect the somewhat fragile veneer.

   I used the round table catch sold by Londonderry brasses. I believed at the time, that the round was more historically accurate than the “teardrop” shape, but I have since learned this is not the case, and both are acceptable.

   The table does not rotate, and to my knowledge none do.

   Thanks for your comments on my furniture. It is easy to make beautiful furniture, when you steal your designs, from some long dead craftsman.

   Rob Millard

2. 
   RMillard | Jul 07, 2003 04:12am | #6

   Tom,

   I forgot one of your questions. The feet are cut from the solid. I hog off most of the waste with the bandsaw.

   Rob Millard