How to Make a Curved Hardwood Bullnose

The Curve

• 1

  Trace the curve of the edge you want to install your bullnose on onto a piece of cardboard to create a template.

• 2

  Cut the cardboard template out with a utility knife and lay it on top of a piece of wood that is approximately 1/4 inch thicker than the edge you will attach it to.

• 3

  Install a 1/4-inch rabbet bit with a bearing that has a cutting face at least as tall as the edge you are installing the molding on. Set the depth of the bit equal to the thickness of the edge.

Routing

• 4

  Clamp the curved wooden piece to your work table. Starting from the left end, run your router along the back edge of the curved piece, to cut a 1/4-inch deep rabbet along the back of the curve, as high as the thickness of the edge it will be attached to.

• 5

  Dry fit the molding to the edge, use wood chisels, files, rasps and sandpaper to adjust the rabbeted face to fit the edge snugly.

• 6

  Fit a roundover bit with a bearing into the router. Select a bit whose height is just less than half that of the bullnose you are creating. Set the height so that the shoulder of the curve is just above the base of the router.

• 7

  Clamp the molding down and run the router left to right along the top edge on one face. Unclamp the molding and flip it over. Clamp it down again and run the router a second time, on the other face to complete the rounded front edge of the bullnose. Sand the molding smooth with a spindle sander.