Fluted Turned Baluster Leg

A classic turned leg with a fluted, leaf-carved profile. This slender spindle steps through a sequence of turned forms: a beaded collar and gentle vase-swell up top, a long tapering shaft, then a lower section broken into two bulbs — an upper barrel channelled with straight flutes and a lower bulb wrapped in carved, pointed leaf lobes — closing on a small ringed foot. It reads as a table or console leg, a bed post, or a decorative baluster for a stair or railing. The form is symmetrical in the round, so it repeats cleanly into a set of four for furniture or a run for balustrade work. The mix of smooth turning and carved fluting gives it a refined, period-furniture character rather than a plain dowel. CNC notes • This is a rotary/4th-axis job: mount round stock between centres and let an indexed ball-nose wrap the flutes and leaf carving around the full circumference. • No rotary axis? Split it into halves, machine each on a flat 3-axis bed, then glue the halves around a dowel core. • Choose a dense, even hardwood — beech, maple or oak — to hold the flute edges and leaf tips without tear-out. • Rough with an end mill, finish with a fine tapered ball-nose, and sand along the length before oiling or waxing to a warm sheen.