I'll begin this build tomorrow, and am here to question my technique. It's a sofa table or hall table, design after an original from around 1900, done by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
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The six 3/4-inch-thick plank legs all get three 1-1/2" square through-holes, and we'll see their inside faces. The holes are decorative.
I did a dining table with holes like this in the wide plank spindles of the trestle frame ends, and for that, I ripped the boards, chopped the center rip to make for the holes, and carefully reglued. It came out pretty well, but I would have preferred a through-cut if I could do it perfectly. No seams at all, no matter how well-sawn and rejoined. The sawing and required jointing removes too much material, and the grain gives the joint away.
I don't own a corner chisel, but I have a pretty nice collection of bench chisels, and keep them scary-sharp.
What technique would you use to do the through-holes?