A few days ago, Walter Anderson wrote:

>I was rereading a couple of old Fine Woodworking magazines and came across an
>article on making Spice Chests.  The
>author had a very nice tombstone door on the chest and show the steps for
>making
>it with a router.  I've read the instructions online for making a normal raise
d
>panel door the Galoot way, my question is how would someone go about making a
>tombstone raised panel door in the proper Galoot manner?

I asked this same question a few months ago, prompted by the same FWW
article on spice chests (which I plan to make).  Here are the responses
I received (since they were public the first time around, I'm sure the
authors won't mind my reposting them):

Andrew Rappaport wrote:
>you can cut almost any sort of groove or sloped section with a rabbet
>plane.  i havent raised a curved section of a panel that way, but i would
>bet that it would work.  i would start by rough things out with a bench
>plane to establish a begining taper then finish it with a rabbet plane like
>a #90 (stanley bullnose rebate plane, jeff) and scrappers.  if you are only
>doing 1 door under a foot wide, we are not talking a huge project either.
>
>alternately, you could carve it with just a few chisels.
>
>i think there was an american woodworker a couple of years ago showing just
>this techinque.  unfortunately, all my back issues are packed with 30 other
>boxes of books awaiting me to build some new bookcases.

And Bob Brode wrote:
>I've done a small pair of arched-top raised panels this way.  Worked fine,
>although it doesn't take much looking to see that they weren't done with a
>router or shaper.  (Maybe this qualifies as "not well".)
>
>I used a 78; first cut the lip, then the inner fillet, then the slanted
>raise.  (Sorry, I don't recall the right nomenclature.)  However, I sized
>the raise to be about the same width as the 78 cutter, and avoided planing
>quite all the way down to the lip, to avoid digging in the lower corner of
>the cutter.  I think I used the fence on the arch, but I can't remember.
>Probably freehanded it to some extent.   I was content to leave it less than
>perfectly smooth for this particular piece, but no doubt you could finish
>with scrapers or a shoulder plane, as Andrew suggests.
>
>(http://modigliani.brandx.net/user/bbrode/furniture/43p.htm for a picture --
>if you look closely you can see a little faceting on the arches.)

Finally, someone pointed me towards FWW issue No. 50, Jan/Feb '85 which
has an article by Roger Schroeder entitled "Fancy Raised Panels".  He
doesn't just do simple arches on his panels, but rather variations that
include ogee, half-moon, quarter-moon, serpentine, cyma, linenfold-fan,
etc. His techniques include using machines (e.g. table saw) to remove as
much waste as possible (of course we would use our planes for this),
followed by basic carving tools to shape the hollows and rounds.  Here he
uses a v-parting tool for inside corners, or rather the recessed
intersections of two meeting curves; flat or convex areas are done with
a skew or square-end chisel, and various gouges are used for the hollows,
depending on how deep or shallow they are.

In the article on spice chests that Walter mentioned, the author does most
of the work with a router, but it still comes down to finishing up with
chisels and carving tools.

Hope this helps!

Paul Fuss
What?  Skill and patience?  But isn't there an easier way?  ;-)