Term for the Day: Spindle

In furniture-making parlance, a “spindle” is a wooden shaft which has been decorated either by turning it on a lathe or by hand carving to give it a more pleasing shape.

A spindle can act as decoration or can offer support for a piece of furniture. Often a spindle will act in the same capacity as a column would in architecture, by absorbing the upper weight of the overall design. Other times, a spindle will take the form of chair or table legs. Wooden spindles were often employed as informal candle holders. An integral design element of furniture design from the Seventeenth thought Twentieth Centuries, the spindle will always have its place in the furniture-maker’s arsenal.