Crucible Design Curves

Product Description

While a compass and straightedge can design simple pieces of furniture, you also need curves that have a varying radius to draw smooth shapes that connect three or four points – the accelerating curves that give motion and life to furniture.

The tools for these important curves are commonly called French curves or Burmester curves. And they are the starting (and ending) point for any designer who wants to escape rigid rectilinear shapes and simple circles.

Traditional wooden curves, which are difficult to come by on the used market, are a joy to use. Warm in the hand, they are precise, they stick to the paper while you are drafting and it’s easy to write (and erase) notations on their surfaces.

The problem with traditional wooden curves is they were not truly dimensionally stable as they were typically made from solid hardwood. They were also fragile.

The Crucible Tool Design Curves - When designing their curves Crucible Tool wanted them to be strong and stable (like plastic curves) but warm, accurate and easy to use (like wooden curves). The solution was a special five-ply bamboo material specially designed for laser-cutting.

Crucible Tool designed their curves using an English set made in 1943 as their foundation and inspiration. The curves are cut and engraved in Covington, Kentucky, and then sanded to #220-grit in their shop in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.

Bamboo is the perfect material for this tool. It is more dimensionally stable than any hardwood or softwood that they know of, it doesn’t absorb moisture as readily as wood and the five plies of veneer ensure it will stay the same shape year round.

Like plastic curves, these will bend readily across curves shapes without breaking.

The first set of Crucible Tool curves consists of three of our favourite shapes. The large curve is about 12” long. The smaller two are about 6” long. A full set of curves encompassed many individual tools. There maybe more sets in the future...

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