What’s your favorite Wainscot profile?
RouterNewb
| Posted in General Discussion on
I’m looking for a really nice “elegant” Wainscot bit with a nice profile on it. I’ve looked around and it always seems like the Freud D-99-470 is prefered by most people. I’ll admit it looks ok, but I think there are alot nicer profiles out there that I don’t know about. I’ve been to a few Victorian style houses around my area and the archritecture and wainscot are just beautiful. If anyone knows where I can get a hold of Victorian old-style wainscot/raised panel bits, or links to sites and pictures where I can purchase them, I would really appreciate it.
What kind of raised panel bits do you guys/gals use when doing wainscot? What’s your favorite bit and the kind of profile on it?
Replies
What do you guys think of the Freud 2+2 Router bit for Wainscot? work well? the best choice?
As a trim carpenter, I have found the most efficient way to make an elegant wainscot is to make the frame work square edged, assembled with biscuits or pocket screws. Apply 1/4" plywood to the backs of the frames using brads or staples, then attach the frames to the walls. For the decrotive look in the frames, you can use something as simple as a cove, or as ornate as a bolection molding around the inside of the frames. This simplifies the construction considerably compared to a "cope and stick" situation. A simple bull-nose cap with cove or whatever melts your butter on top, and you're ready for a finish!
Hope this helps. Let me know if this was any help or even if I made any sense at all!
Best regards, Sean
I think I may be of help.
I'm the developer the that wainscoting bit.
Here's a site that you may find what you are looking for: elitetrimworks.com
I don't have a router so I wouldn't know about the performance of the bits. But I find the bits I see and the resulting wainscots to be quite ugly. Its as if the folks who make them all live in arizona or china where no traditional wainscots exist to look at. Or maybe they just didn't bother.
Colonial raised panels range from very simple beveled panels with square edged frames to the very elaborate. Never have I see an ogee shaped panel raise. Never. Victorian and late colonial panels have almost no bevel angle. The raise is just a wide rabbet. A tiny quarter round often delineates the field. Early PA Dutch panels are steeply beveled and often quite large.
The frames in Mt Pleasant, which I think is one of the finest colonial homes in America, have good 3/8" deep ovolos (not 1/4 rounds). The depth of these panels really creates the bold shadows so sought after in baroque architecture.
My advice is to skip the bit sets as none of them seem to be good. You may do better making the raises with a table saw. I don't know if you can find an ovolo router bit. If I were in the router bit business, I'd produce a line of accurate colonial profiles as none seem to exist. I hear this question often. Folks suggest Whiteside bits (whatever they are). When I've looked at their profiles I've been disappointed.
I've made wainscots by hand and it's a ton of work. It would be nice to know that I could buy a bit if I wanted to wainscot my entire house for example. Its seems to me no such bit exists as yet.
Lastly a question: Why do you need the little flat spot at the end of the raise. I've never seen a traditional panel built this way,
Adam
I apologize for the rant above. Here's something that might actually be helpful:http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/hhmap.htmlDuring the Great Depression, through the WPA, the U.S. Government had a program that paid architects to photograph or draw plans of historic builds. The program was called the Historic American Building Survey or HABS for short. Today the entirety of this government funded program is available online through the Library of Congress Website or http://www.loc.govYou can do a search on Philadelphia PA and see a variety of fine buildings that stood in the 1930's. Some of the plans include interior woodwork, including windows doors, etc. Fairmount Park's Mount Pleasant was carefully drawn in detail including the fantastic interior woodwork. Independence Hall aka the State House is a fantastic structure whose interior was also carefully measured and drawn. A search for Philadelphia's "Powel House" reveals photos of it's impressive interior but no plans that I could see.For those interested in traditional or historic woodwork all across the USA and from a range of time periods, the loc's HABS offers a virtual tour with project plans attached. What more could any woodworker ask for? Adam
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