Advice for Cutting Wood in the Shape of a Spike.

[Thomas Penrose]

I recently acquired a Howard Miller "sunburst" clock that has two missing wooden "spikes". On some of these clocks the spikes are unpainted walnut, and others have spikes that are painted, like mine. I need to duplicate the spikes to recreate the two that are missing. They are diamond shaped in section (or rhombus shaped, depending on how you look at it) and I am guessing that the most straightforward way one would go about making one would be by fabricating jigs to use on a table saw. However, I am wondering if there is a specific technique of which I am entirely unaware, and have overlooked. I was not able to find any tutorial videos online for cutting a faceted, tapering shape like this. If anyone has any advice I would appreciate it.
Thank you,
Thomas

[Bradley Gray]

If I needed just 1 of these I would use the bandsaw and a hand plane.

[Bill Dufour]

It may be easier and faster to replace them all then try to match up one or two exactly.

[Paul K. Johnson]

It may be easier and faster to replace them all then try to match up one or two exactly.

That's what I was thinking. Another way to go would be to make the two look a lot different and arrange them symmetrically about the vertical axis.

[Floyd Mah]

The spikes look like two isosceles triangles glued together. You can visualize this if you join the opposing apices of a spike that are closest together with a straight line.

You can cut a bevel on one side of a board, flip it end for end and put it in a tapering jig and cut the opposite face at the same angle. Make two for each spike. Then glue the bases together and clean up with a handplane.

[Leo Graywacz]

Or you can use a tablesaw with a jig. The first two cuts will require a taper jig and the 2nd two cuts will either require a different taper jig or to adjust the 1st one.


Very simple.

[Thomas Penrose]

Thanks all. I think I will go the route of trying the table saw, using two different jigs, perhaps cutting a hair oversized and then block sanding to a final dimension. I may make several, and use the two that turn out nicest. While it is some work to try to replicate two of them to match the others, the clock itself is a pretty collectible item with quite a bit of value, so I am motivated to try my best to match the two that are missing.

[Alan Schwabacher]

I would start by checking it carefully with a square: it might be made by tapering only two faces of square stock.

[lowell holmes]

I would hand plane them instead of sanding. But, that's just me. Sanding will work, but it will not be as crisp.