Dentil Moulding

[greg Forster]

How should a DENTIL MOULDING be made in an 18THc manner, ie. Useing just appropriate handtoolS ?

[george wilson]

If I wanted to make some like that,I'd make up a miter box,with a locating pin,or some way to move the molding the same amount each time. Cut 2 slits per location,and chisel out the waste. I'm sure there are other ways,too.

If you were in an original 18th.C. building in Williamsburg,with the original interior woodwork,such as the Roscoe Cole house,you'd be struck by how terribly crude everything was done. The interior work was made of yellow pine. Every turned piece in the stair case is quite a bit different. They look like the turner was half drunk when he turned the pieces.( He probably was. Thousands of broken wine bottles were found all over Williamsburg,mostly in broken fragments.) Spacing of elements is + or minus 1/2" accuracy. The chair rail moldings were planed so that where the grain was the wrong way,LARGE,LONG splinters were simply left. I mean splinters 1/2" or more wide and 12" long in places. The plane must have had a HUGE throat!! No attempt to fill or otherwise doctor up the mistakes. Just painted over and left. After 200 years of repainting,it still looks terrible.

They probably just free hand cut any dentil moldings in that house. And,this was very much a house of the wealthy. The president of Colonial Williamsburg once lived there.

An 18th.C. traveler from England wrote that "The Architecture was but indifferent." There is no outside woodwork left that I can recall. I'm sure it was just as bad.

The owner of Wetherburn's Tavern was so thrifty that he hired some KIDS to paint it!! This is a large,2 tall story building. Several years ago,the Architects decided to have it painted like some kids painted it. It was painted Spanish red VERY sloppily,with large amounts of white showing through. Stayed that way for some years. Then,I guess they decided it was such an eyesore,they painted it properly again.

To tell the truth,I'll bet kids would have done a decent job back then. Kids learned to do things that only a top expert could do today. For example,they made the circular,delicately pierced and engraved fusee covers in fine pocket watches. They are magnificent. It was work or starve back then.

[James Carmichael]

What George said. Making dentils is pretty much like making box joints.

[James Mittlefehldt]

I once read about a technique that works quite well for dentil mouldings. First lay out the pattern, marking clearly the area to be removed, ie: the bit you cut. then with the thinnest blade saw you have saw down to the bottom of the cutout. that done you mark an angled line from the top left to the bottom right, and from the top right to the bottom left.

Then you saw on the angled lines and what you end up with is a point that is abput 1/3 the depth of the dentil cutout and this is actually quite ornate and colplex looking. you could leave the pointy bit or if you wish just chisel it out after, your choice.

Hope that helps.

[Kari Hultman]

Greg, I wrote a post about the technique that James mentioned. It's dentil moulding from an 18th c. hanging cupboard from the Winterthur Museum: http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com...-moulding.html
Not sure it's what you're looking for, but thought I'd throw it out there.