A deft stroke from an artist’s brush applies the finishing touch to an eye of the rocking horse shown at right. A good part of the appeal of a wooden toy depends on careful finishing. The runners, cross braces, and footrest of this horse were coated with pure tung oil. The rest of the horse was finished with nontoxic paint: four coats of black paint on the entire body, then two coats of white paint to bring out details like the tail, mane, eyes, nostrils, and mouth.
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Bending and laminating the runners
Use a bending form to give the runners their curved shape and glue up the pieces of the laminations. For the form, adjust trammel points to a radius of 45 inches and mark two arcs near opposite edges of a 2-by-12 plank. Cut along both lines on your band saw, then make parallel cuts on the outside pieces, to accommodate the V/a inch thickness of the runners. Screw the middle piece of the form to a plywood base, then prepare the runner stock. Rip twelve Мб-inch-thick strips from a l/?-inch-wide piece
of hardwood with good bending qualities, like ash. Line the edges of the form with wax paper to prevent the lamination from sticking to the form. Then spread glue on one side of each strip and butt six of them together against each edge of the form. Press the outside pieces of the form against the strips to bend them slightly. Send and secure the lamination with bar clamps (above). Let the laminations cure for 8 to 10 hours, then joint the edges of the runners and round their ends on the band saw.
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Attaching the body support to the braces
Once the half-laps are finished, unclamp the cross braces from the runners, dry-fit the body support and vertical braces together, and position the pieces on the cross braces. Mark and drill counterbored screw holes on the top edge of the body support in line with the vertical braces, on the bottom face of the cross braces in line with the vertical braces, and near the corners of the cross braces in line with the runners. Spread glue in the half-laps, then screw the braces together and attach the body support to the vertical braces (above).
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Installing the runners
Apply glue to the underside of the cross braces in line with the runners and clamp the runners in position. Using the counterbored holes in the braces as a guide, drill pilot holes into the runners and screw them in place (above). Glue in hardwood plugs cut from a contrasting hardwood to cover all the screw heads.
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6 Mounting the head, tail, and seat
Test-fit the head blank on the horse, outline the location of the vertical brace on it, and cut the notch on your band saw. Shape the tail and head as you would for a stand-mounted horse (page 68) and glue ears to the sides of the head. Bore a hole through the head for a dowel handle (page 70) and glue it in place. Then spread glue in the notches in the tail and head, and position them on the body support (above). Next, cut the seat to size, sand its surfaces smooth, and position it on the body support. Outline notches on the seat for the head and tail, then cut them on the band saw. Cut the footrest, round over its ends with sandpaper, and screw it to the runners, again counterboring the fasteners. Set the seat in place (left) and fasten it to the body support with counterbored screws. To complete the assembly, cover the screw heads with hardwood plugs.
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