cocked bead

Re: cocked bead

Jim Toews

>Cock beads stand proud of the surface. That is what separates them from standard beads. I usually make them full width on drawers, but when I do set them in a rabbet I must confess to using a router: noisy, dusty, but quick and accurate.

Cheers!

Jim

Re: cocked bead

bill tindal, E.TN

>ditto, on Jim's response.

On second point I am not fond of mixing woods in furniture. It is currently fashionable, if not trendy, but in many cases it seems to be done for novelty, not because it looks better.

Re: cocked bead

Tony Zaffuto

>Thanks Jim & Bill,

I'm a bit uncertain also about the mixing of woods, but I've got this beautiful piece of birds eye maple that is about 6" x 5' that's begging to become a drawer front. If I do use it, it will be without the cock bead. I may make two drawers actually--one out of the maple and plain and one out of cherry with cock bead.

As to cutting the rabbet--I'm trying to stay all hand tools and since I have a pretty good stock of the cherry, may try the rabbet with a 140 before I resort to other means.

T.Z.

Re: cocked bead

mikew

>Hi Tony,

As mentioned, cocked beads stand proud of the surface. I have used my moving fillister--just a larger version of you #140--to cut the rebates for cock beads. On Cherry the #140 should be up to the task. If it were a harder wood, the larger moving fillister I would think make the task easier.

I once used some Holly to make a very fine cocked bead. If I had Holly stringing inboard on the same drawer fronts, I think it would have looked better. As it was, I didn't like the look as it simply drew the eye too heavily to the drawers.

Depending on the size of the bead, the Birdseye may be a waste of wood. If the bead is small, the eyes won't be noticed. In that case I would simply use Maple if you go forward with the contrast.

Also, staining the bead to simply a few shades darker than the drawer stock may look nice.

Take care, Mike

Re: cocked bead

Dean J in MN

>If you can find a cock bead fillister you've got it made.

Of course, I'm still looking for one myself. In the meanwhile a rabbet plane is what I use as well. I knife the edge of the cross grain rabbet, something a cock bead fillister would take care of.

Re: cocked bead

mikew

>Hah, Dean--if you find two let me know!

The saying "rare as hen's teeth" couldn't be truer...

Take care, Mike

Moving fillister

Adam Cherubini,NJ

>Hi Tony,

I too use a moving fillister. I think the key to making a nice cockbead is keeping it small. I never see them 1/8". They are typically more in the 1/16-3/32" range. I agree that any precious wood will be lost. Its just a deliniation.

Also, 18th c cockbeads are never the full thickness of the drawer front. Rather they are often 7/16" or so (I'm guessing). But small- smaller than you think they'd be.

Be careful when planing the rebate. You can grr up the face of the drawer and ruin your whole day. Tho I've never tried it, it might be a good idea to knife the depth of the cut (the thickness of the bead) with a cutting gauge.

Good luck with your bead Tony.

Adam

Re: cocked bead

Tony Zaffuto

>Adam, Mike, Dean and all: thanks for the suggestions! I was planning on a very small bead and going about half the thickness of the drawer front.

This is going to be one of those exercises in trying something just to try to do it!

Re: cocked bead

Paul in NJ

>On a recent project I applied a cock bead to a 4" wide drawer. I knifed across the two ends of the drawer and sawed the rabbets with a tenon saw. The top and bottom rabbets were easily done with a moving filletster. A bead was cut into a wider board, the quirk provided a nice guide to rip the bead free, and the saw marks on the back of the bead were planed flush.

Paul Dzioba

Re: cocked bead

mikew

>"This is going to be one of those exercises in trying something just to try to do it!"

Alone, late at night or at times early on a weekend morning when I cannot sleep is when I do things just for the fun of it. It relaxes me.

You'll have fun. I trust that.

Take care, Mike

Cock Beads

Andrew F in Australia

>Hi All,

I notice as I'm typing this in that it's a reply to Adam, meant to be a reply to the original post, sorry.

Slow dialup and in a rush so I'll post here anyway.

Adam raises a few points worth repeating, but trade training is also as follows:

Depth of the cock bead on the sides of the drawer is as deep as the base of the sockets of the lap (US half-blind) dovetail pins - ie: you cut out the wood between the front of the drawer and the dovetail, but don't touch the dovetails themselves.

Depth of the cockbead on the underside of the drawer is the same as on the sides (ie: approx 1/3 of the thickness). The clearance between the drawer bottom and the drawer blade is carefully set - don't remove all the wood from this critical gap

Depth of the cockbead on the top of the drawer is full thickness of the drawer front. Plane back to re-set fit of the drawer.

Trust that this is the information you're looking for.

(all four corners are mitred, just the mitre between the full-thickness top bead and the partial-thickness side bead is a slightly convoluted joint.)

Re: cocked bead

Ernie Miller

>It might also be pretty hard to plane the birds eye for the beading also. Where a straight stock would not.