Kathy writes:
I bought a mid century kidney shaped coffee table in excellent condition, but it’s missing the metal feet. Where might I be able to find replacements — preferably in silver.
You ask — we research! This was actually a bit more complicated than expected, because we had to learn about ferrules and sabots first. But we have three places to find replacement table let feet for you, Kathy.
What is a ferrule? What is a sabot?
In order to be able to find the metal tips that Kathy needs to restore her table, we first needed to understand what these “metal leg tips” are actually called. Pam asked me to do some research on the subject, and I found that these metal tips are referred to as both ferrules and sabots.
What better place to look for answers to this question than my mid century furniture making books? First I checked Cabinetmaking and Millwork by John L. Feirer. In this book’s section about furniture legs, five different styled metal leg tips were shown and referred to as ferrules.
Ferrule is defined by Merriam-Webster as:
A usually metal ring or cap that is placed around the end of a wooden stick or handle to strengthen it.
My other mid century furniture making book, How to Build Modern Furniture by Mario DalFabbro, shows an illustration of a metal leg tip and refers to it as a metal shoe. The book also states:
Rubber, plastic tacks, and metal glides are the end fittings most commonly used with wood legs to prevent scratching of the floor. Other types largely used include the ferrule metal shoe, metal shoe with adjustable glide, and swivel glide caster.
After looking up the word sabot, I found that it means “shoe” in French.
Further searching led me to the Artisans of the Valley hand crafted custom woodworking site, where their glossary of wood working terms defines both words:
Ferrule: Normally a metal cap attached to the end of a slender shaft for strength or to prevent splitting.
Sabot: A French term for the gilt-bronze “shoe” at the bottom of furniture legs.
Having read all of this, I believe that when referring to “mid century metal furniture leg end caps or tips or shoes” either term — ferrule or sabot — is technically correct. I’m thinking: A sabot is always a ferrule, but a ferrule is not always a sabot — as a ferrule could also be used to strengthen a part other than the end of a furniture leg. With proper terms now in place, I began the search for replacement ferrules/sabots.
4 Sources for metal ferrules and sabots
1. Pampco, Inc. — Pampco, Inc. was the first company I found that mentioned manufacturing ferrules, sabots and leg protectors for straight or tapered furniture legs. Their website didn’t offer much information on the specifics of ordering their products, so I reached out to the company for more information.
Adam Prestwood replied to my questions on behalf of Pampco, Inc.. He writes:
We do in fact make leg ferrules and our company probably made a lot of the ones that you or your readers have on tables or chairs. We will be able to manufacture something if we have tooling for it. The best way to determine this, is to forward us the top inside dimension, bottom inside dimension, and the height. That way we can look at our existing tooling and see if we can find a match, or something close that may work.
Unfortunately due to the time sensitive nature of our business, we had to implement a $100 minimum charge in order to keep our production schedule on track and satisfy our customers with larger orders.
While is seems like Pampco, Inc. is an authentic producer of ferrules for mid century legs — the company has been making them since 1930 — their $100 minimum order (an assuming they have a tooling match) doesn’t make them a likely source for individuals who are looking for one or two or even four ferrules to repair their retro furniture.
2. IFSCO Industries — The search continued, and led me to another authentic retro company in business since 1946 — IFSCO Industries, Inc. — which offers five sizes of steel brass plated ferrules to fit wood furniture legs. At $1.50 each, these ferrules could be an excellent solution for small scale furniture repair except for the minimum purchase quantity of 16. Still, if they have the measurement you need for your furniture repair project, ordering 16 ferrules would cost $24 — much lower than the $100 minimum order needed for Pampco, Inc. and the cost of just two (all-brass) ferrules from tablelegs.com (profiled below.) Note, IFSCO Industries, Inc. also has a juicy looking selection of vintage vinyl colors and patterns including retro favorites like pink, aqua, pale yellow, orange, olive and goldenrod that can be purchased by the yard; the company is gearing up to load all this inventory in ebay and will let us know as soon as they are ready to sell it efficiently via that channel. Watch the blog!
3. Tablelegs.com –– I ordered McCobb style mid century legs for my bathroom vanity from the third source on today’s list, tablelegs.com. I noticed they have added several new products, including metal tips for their mid century styled furniture legs. The metal tips — or ferrules — are made in six finishes and are fabricated to fit their offering of McCobb wooden legs.
According to TableLegs.com:
These metal tips are designed to accent the line of Mid-Century Modern McCobb Table Legs.
The tips, also referred to as ferrules, are a hefty weight. No skimping here. Made from solid brass. Choose from six finishes.
When you buy McCobb Mid Century Modern Legs to go with these metal table leg tips, the leg will be serviced with a turning to accommodate the thickness of the brass ferrule. Tip slides onto table leg and attaches securely by a brass pin that taps into wood.
These metal tips are not cheap — $11.95 each, but they are made of solid brass and will likely hold up for many years to come. I am unsure if these ferrules fit vintage mid century legs, but you could contact the company to compare the measurements to your existing table legs with the ferrules they offer and possibly find a match.
4. Horton Brasses, Inc. — A tip from Facebook follower Tom lead us to Horton Brasses.
Hank Tosh says
Love the Mario Del Fabro books. I have a couple myself!
miyapiya says
I have a whole box of miscellaneous wooden furniture legs some with and some without ferrules that I have collected over the years. I bought all of them at estate sales. They are a great source for vintage hardware, casters and furniture parts for really cheap prices. I usually head straight for the basement workshop where the man of the house had his workbench and you will find all kinds of treasures that cannot be found elsewhere.
pam kueber says
The basement workshop is also one of my very favorite places to rummage around — and virtually every estate sale house I visit has one!
Mary Elizabeth says
I never thought of going to the basement at an estate sale house or even asking if it was open; not, that is, until Pam did her article about the right way to “work” an estate sale. My DH never wants to so with me. Perhaps the possibility of furniture parts and tools would be a draw.
Kate Pix says
What about peg legs? Are there any other sites to buy some wooden MCM style furniture legs? I’ve only found a few choices on tablelegs.com. Wondered if I was missing something…
Thanks fellow MCM’ers.
pam kueber says
Story coming next week!
Susan says
Did you happen to come across the type of ferrules that have an attached disk on the bottom that rotates to be flush with the floor? (Similar to the swivel floor glides shown on IFSCO’s site, but with a taper to the ferrule section.)
I have a mid-century glass-front display cabinet that has ferrules with this additional little bit and was hoping to find those, too.
If anyone has seen them, I’d love to find out where!
Kate says
I didn’t find any like that so far Susan, though I did find some vintage legs with those type of ferrules/swivel glides at my local ReStore. Perhaps you could find a vintage replacement leg for the piece?
Sam R says
At least around here, ACE Hardware stores still sell tapered legs in various lengths that feature brass ferrules and nylon swivel glides. I think the glides are a separate piece, so you might be able to find them separately and install with the ferrule.
Jivesnake says
I found some ferrules with sabots at Elliot’s Hardware in Plano, TX. They aren’t great- black hard plastic caps with gold metal topped black feet- but they did the job. They are made by MintCraft and come in packages of 4. They had 5/8″, 1/2″ and 1″ sizes available. I got the 5/8″ ones for around 4 dollars (sku #821-0692). They just call them swivel chair glides. I was able to fix my 60’s dinette table (rusted out ferrules/sabots). You could always paint them silver or whatever color you needed. I also saw swivels without the ferrules- you would have to nail them directly into wooden feet.
Bill Eppel says
I posted this to the FB as well…I wonder if it would be a complete bastardization to put a set of these on our Lane swivel table. It has black painted leg ends right now, and I’ve always wished it had more standard metal ones. (For those who haven’t seen one: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_07nddTWSp2I/SgcNwj3EhUI/AAAAAAAAAK4/u5zkd0m7G_M/s400/Zenith%2BTV%2B007.jpg) I can certainly find a non-invasive way to keep them attached. But I’ve always thought the metal ones look better than painted.
Allen says
The series that came out before the Acclaim series of which your table is from is called “Copenhagen” and it had all of the same styling that the acclaim series had except for the fancy inlay on the top. The Copenhagen series features solid walnut veneer tops and brass ferrules on the feet. Everything else is the same as the Acclaim Series. I believe they changed from brass ferrules to painted legs to put the Acclaim series at a better price point for middle class consumers of the time since the Copenhagen series did not sell well. I say all that to say that the Acclaim series was not sold with brass ferrules and always painted feet but since all the other parts are the same I would suspect that brass ferrules from a table of the Copenhagen series would fit an Acclaim table.
Bill Eppel says
Thanks Allen,
I appreciate your input. I had always assumed that it was an Acclaim, although I don’t think most people know that there was that previous model. I’ve seen the brass ferruled versions listed as Acclaim before as well. I’m going to consider that adding brass to mine won’t be too much of a stretch then. Mine has a particularly nicely figured bookmatched walnut top, and when I found it, was in pristine condition. The ‘under’ table is a bit lighter in finish, having been protected from light more than the top table. I’ll also post this up…Not me, but local to me, and at a good price: http://syracuse.craigslist.org/atq/4293170732.html
Allen says
I did notice the book matched veneer on your photograph and it looks to be an exceptional example of the series as well as one of the less common pieces.
I found an old listing of some of the Copenhagen series for sale with
a good closeup of the brass ferrules lane used:
http://furnishmevintage.com/livingroom/2-retro-lane-mid-century-modern-step-end-tables/
And here is a good article about the Acclaim Series as it relates to the Copenhagen Series:
http://jetsetmodern.com/lane.htm
Enjoy!
Bill Eppel says
That’s actually not mine, but one that I could easily link to. the Walnut on my exact table has way more figure to it, which is nice. To me that swivel table is a ‘quintessential and iconic’ Mid-Century piece, which is sort of what we look for. Thanks for the links, I’m looking forward to getting a chance to go through them. I’m much more versed in Heywood Wakefield than the Lane stuff. I think in particular, its of interest because they both are great examples of mass produced and still reasonably priced pieces.
pam kueber says
Ooooooh, what pretty sabots those are, in the Furnish Me Vintage photo!!!!
Allen says
I agree!! I love the Copenhagen line from Lane and these ferrules are one of the reasons! Thanks for letting me post Pam and keep up the FANTASTIC work you all are doing. I read every day!
Jay says
Now I know what to call those metal thingies on the ends of my Duncan Phyfe legs. Le Sabot! Thanks!
midmichigan says
Great resource post! Thanks!
Mary Elizabeth says
Kate and Pam–always the go-to gals for MCM history and product information. Thanks for the thorough research. As a former college expository writing teacher, I really appreciate that your sources for this story include a 1977 book and personal contact as well as the web. I also appreciate the way you always analyze your sources rather than just pasting them on your site.
pam kueber says
Well, thank you! That is high praise indeed from a college writing teacher! You made our day — thank you!!!
Becky from Iowa says
This former college Rhetoric instructor agrees! A+
pam kueber says
Haha, but both your and Mary Elizabeth’s comments inspired me to go through it one more time — there were a few grammatical (if that is the right word) errors.
I admit: Our stories have such errors. I move very fast — often to the detriment of getting that A+. Ask Kate, I am crazy with working on 1,000 things at one time.
Mary Elizabeth says
Yep, “Composition and Rhetoric I” was the name of the course. 🙂
About grammatical errors: If the research was sound and the writing clear, I would just circle the errors and ask the students to fix them and resubmit the paper. When they would ask me what they needed to do to get an A in the course, I would tell them to keep revising until we both thought their portfolio was perfect.
But I did make a deal with other faculty members that e-mail and web postings, etc. were not formal papers, and so we wouldn’t correct one another’s errors–unless, of course, they were hysterically funny. 🙂 And I am definitely not in charge of grading your work, but just in charge of appreciating it.
pam kueber says
Oh and to be clear: Kate gets the A+. I was the editor 🙂
Kate says
Pam is an excellent writing teacher!
I’ve always liked creative writing and journaling about my life and experiences, but had little knowledge about how to write journalistically before I started writing for Pam/Retro Renovation. I’ve learned so much in such a short time.
Thanks for the praise. 🙂 That helps build my confidence in my writing skills!
linda h says
Just in time! My daughter bought a desk at Vintage Freak in Bedford TX which is missing one of it’s ferrules. Great to find out where to get a replacement! The desk was just like my childhood one; too bad I didn’t still have mine to give her.
teardown townie says
Cabinetmaking and Millwork by John L. Feirer is an awesome book! I picked a copy up at an estate sale and have found it very inspiring….Now if I could just develop some woodworking skills to bring my dreams to fruition.