I am currently working to build an Empire-style lingerie chest. It is build from maple (hard maple legs, soft maple, otherwise). The columns on the legs will be split-turnings that are appled to the front of the legs. The dimensions are roughly 54” tall, 24” wide, and 16” deep. The top drawer will protrude out, as is common in this style. The drawer fronts and the side panels will feature figured veneer. An example from which I drew some inspiration is shown here:

Today I turned, reeded, and split the columns to be applied to the front of the chest. The turnings are around 34” long with sort of disappointing details at the top and the bottom - I need work on my classical turning forms - and have 15 reeds scratched in around the un-split perimeter. I know 15 doesnt work out well from a symmetry standpoint, but my scratch stock wound up working best at reeding every 24 degrees. Here you can see the scratch tool:

My lathe has indexing holes on the large pully and a pin for steadying the lathe every 6 degrees:

Here are a couple of shots of the scratching in progress:

To split te columns, before turning, I glued two boards together with a piece of brown craft paper between them. I used liquid hide glue for the joint in case the splitting might require a little help from steam or otherwise. It turns out itr works even better than I expected. I attaching it with a very sharp chisel with a shallow bevel angle (probably not necessary, and perhaps not even advisable), and the piece split readily right on the glue line.

My theory is that the reason this works is it is the same as spliting a log. The log will always find the weakest fibers to split along. By adding the craft paper, you create the weak fiber line for the pieces to split from.

Once the pieces were split apart, I planed off the crafts paper remnents and set the columns aside until all the joinery in the project is complete. Unfortunately, I do not have photos of the splitting process, but when I get a chace, I will add photos of the finished columns.

I have already creasted the front legs with the top and bottom pieces scabbed on to bring the leg thickness out to the depth of the columns. Today I prepped the stock for the drawer dividers. The dividers are about 18” long with extra stock at the ends for tenons. I am starting to think that since I will use half-blind dovetails at the top and bottom rails, I might just dowel the other dividers into the legs. The dovetails will do the work to hold the legs together, and with a good fit for the dowels, the glue ought to be enough to keep the legs from bowing out between the top and bottom rail.

I got the top dovetails cut and fit today:

I got the bottom dovetail joints cut today. I chose dovetails here too because I will boring for turned legs at some point, and I wanted a joint with a wide footprint because it will probably get bored through.

Here is an image of the from assembled with the top and bottom rails in place. The columns are just loosely installed to get an idea of teh look:

Here is a closeup of a column:

Today I am heading out to find some veneer for this thing. I need to plow the grooves for the side panels, and cannot do this until I know what my veneer and substrate thicknesses are.