Sheraton 4-Poster Field Bed

Reference: "More American Furniture Treasures" by Lester Margon

The original of this bed (circa 1800) is in the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego (at least is was at the time Margon saw it). I used Maple as in the original. The Posts are beautifully turned and decorated with reeds. The Canopy is a difficult construction and the joints at the very top are tenuous. I recommend no glue here, with joinery made dry with screws while erecting it in place.

Introduction

This shows my start of a new project in constructing a Sheraton 4-Poster Field Bed. There is quite a bit of lathe work in turning the four posts. The Foot Posts are more decorated and have a section of carved reeds. Mortises are shown for the Bed Rails with Bed Bolt connections.

Drilling the post connector socket

This shows my method for drilling the sockets for connecting the two halves of each Post. The connector is a 1-in. dia. dowel. The drilling is before lathe work in the square stock that is 3-in. square.

Creating the reeds in sketchup

This shows how I created the reeds in a turned Bedpost for a Sheraton 4-Poster Field Bed. I've used a Plug-in Curviloft - Skin Contours to create the face of one reed. Then copied that reed 10 times to complete the reeded section of the turning.