When I was contemplating my curves and complaining about my coping saw, Marco suggested that I could easily make a curve by first making a series of cuts, and then cutting the waste away with a chisel.

I had learned that technique at Homestead Heritage (Waco, TX) but hadn’t yet had enough confidence to try it. It seemed too easy. But doing the curves for the supporting piece, I decided to give it a go. So here is the piece after I’ve made my cuts:

curve 1

And here it is after my chiseling:

curve 2

I pretty much just chiseled until the kerfs were barely noticeable any more, and then I took out my trusty spokeshave and smoothed it out. Outside of really needing to watch the grain flow, this was a pretty simple technique!