I'm building a chair (using hand tools only, of course) that has square lower spreaders with round tenons. Being inexperienced at all this, I hadn't thought ahead to how I would make these pieces. On the previous chair (my first) the spreaders themselves were round, so it was easy enough to whittle them down to tenon size. This type seemed harder, and the only thing I could think of to do was
1) cut a shallow shoulder with a saw at the point where square ends and round begins
2) chisel from tip to shoulder, going round and round
3) rasp/file it smooth
To my great surprise, this resulted in the most perfect round tenons I could have hoped for. They are the prettiest thing I've ever done with wood, and they are going to be hidden inside the legs.
So that's how I did it. I suspect there are better ways, or other ways. How would YOU have done this? Or did I haphazardly stumble on the best way? (not likely, considering my history)
1) cut a shallow shoulder with a saw at the point where square ends and round begins
2) chisel from tip to shoulder, going round and round
3) rasp/file it smooth
To my great surprise, this resulted in the most perfect round tenons I could have hoped for. They are the prettiest thing I've ever done with wood, and they are going to be hidden inside the legs.
So that's how I did it. I suspect there are better ways, or other ways. How would YOU have done this? Or did I haphazardly stumble on the best way? (not likely, considering my history)