Yet time after time "restorations" turn up with knifelike edges at points that would have received the maximum erosion from wear. Such members as the edges and corners of table tops, the stretchers and feet of all sorts of furniture, and the finials, rungs, and arms of chairs are bound to become worn and rounded over a period of years, no matter how carefully they may have been handled. Table Tops. Tops, of old tables, varied from a %in. to a full iin. thickness, with an overhang in proportion. The four common types of molded edges (shown in Figure 7.5) were molded, oval, square, and thumbnail. TableTop Joints. The boards forming old table tops were jointed in several ways: 1. Square, buttjointed, sometimes glued 2. Tongue and groove 3. Ship lap, (uncommon) 4. Double groove and tongue in fine pieces after 1750, (spline joint) 5. Mortise and tenon, similar to the double groove and tongue, the long tenon being held in the corresponding or opposite mortises with wooden pins in very early, as well as later, furniture. 6. Doweled 7. Double butterfly made by inlaying small double wedgeshaped pieces into the under surfaces of each pair of boards (Figure 7.6). These "butterflies" were sometimes glued, but more often bradded or pinned. DropLeaf Table Hinge Joints. The three types of hinge joints common to dropleaf tables are shown in Figure 7.7. There is still some doubt at to whether type A, the square butted joint, was used on very early tables, or only on rather unimportant models about the middle of the nineteenth century. Never a handsome joint, this type was supported by hinges mortised into the underside. Until 1725, the tongueandgroove joint В was found in many of the early gateleg and butterfly tables. As previously mentioned, the year 1725 saw the introduction of the rule joint C, which left no visible opening when the table leaves were lowered. The construction of this joint was explained in Chapter 3 Fig. 7.6. Double butterflies. 388 FURNITURE MAKING AND CABINET WORK Molded Ш Thumbnail Fig. 7.5. Table edge moldings. in connection with the butterfly table . Its supremacy has remained unimpaired up to the present day, in modern tables of this type. Tavern and Stretcher Tables. A most useful little table, which in its original or modified forms retains its popularity as a side, end, or lamp table in modern living rooms, is the English and Early American or Colonial tavern or stretcher table (Figure 7.8). Constructed for individual or small group use in the early taverns and inns, these tables had stretchers on all four sides where the weary traveler could rest wet or cold feet above the draughty floor. Tops. The square, rectangular, round, oval, or octagonal tops were often formed from a single board stiffened with a central cleat across the grain. A Be Fig. 7.7. Dropleaf table hinge joints. Fig. 7.8. Typical tavern table. RESTORATION, REPAIR, AND REFINISHING 389 Larger tables with twoboard tops were cleated at each end in one of four ways: 1 Doweled with wooden pins extending 3 or 4 in.