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The Shakers built some incredibly beautiful, 100% functional, wood pieces. One of their most versatile was the Shaker peg which graced the upper area of their walls and may or may not have a chair or candle-stand hanging from it. The lowly peg has so many potential uses it can boggle the mind. Shaker pegs can be bought at any craft store, home center, and online. Buying them is OK if that is what you want to do but wait....why not make your own????
Measured Drawings of Shaker Furniture and Woodenware by Ejner Handberg
IF you are a more advanced shop, you might want to turn a batch of pegs on your lathe. Grab you a length of scrap, fairly square, fairly long, and chuck it up between centers. Use a ruler and layout however many pegs you can get from it. Pegs of 3 or 4 inches in length will work pretty well. The base of the peg should get a tapered cut of 1/4 inch or better by 3/8ths or so in diameter. This tapered portion is what you will insert into the wall or rail, depending on how you will mount the peg. The base of the peg can be 1/2 inch or bigger. Match your diameters to your stock and your purpose. Bigger pegs will hold bigger stuff. I like to rough out a knobbed head on my pegs and then a swoopy section that runs from head to base to give it some style. ASSUMING your piece of stock is yielding multiple pegs, try to turn them all fairly uniform. Finish them off however you like. Remove the stock then part off each peg with a fine blade saw. Touch up your finish and you've got pegs ready to be used! A simple rail (a board) can be drilled for the pegs, spacing the holes to suit the purpose then glue the pegs in place. A hammer and a block of wood will be useful if the fit is a tad tight. On the other hand, for those with a less equipped shop or they just want to do things a bit different. Get out your pocket knife, grab a scrap of wood and start whittling. This is a great way to kill some time, relax, and make something useful to boot! I suggest you use a thumb protector or at the very least wear heavy gloves while you whittle. A sharp knife cuts wood real good and fingers even better.
The challenge can be as great as you want to make it. Fancy pegs with faces, simple rustic, looking more like branches, or anything in between. There really isn't a right or wrong way to make them as long as the end result suits you. Spend a little time making pegs then you might want to get serious and whittle a chess set or something. It makes a good beginning when you can do a project that only has to meet the criteria you set for yourself, not somebody else. Personally, I prefer to work in hardwood for this but YOU are the one doing it, so suit yourself! Now get out there and make some chips!!!!
Recommend this article... Last update : 15-08-2007 19:32
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