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.
These steel brass-plated tapered ferrules from IFSCO are just $1.50 each, but you must order 16.
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.
See all of our stories about mid century furniture legs:
- 9 places to buy metal hairpin table legs — raw steel, stainless steel, rebar, powder coated & more
- 4 sources for mid century modern tapered furniture legs
Julie makes a mosaic tile table from our 1960s ebay motherlode — $48 masterpiece 
15 retro upholstery and curtain fabrics from Waverly 
10 midcentury style finds we like from Ikea 
Jeff builds a midcentury modern TV cabinet for his flat-screen TV 
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Douglas Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
My built in breakfast banquette has tapered legs on it. I ended up cleaning them up on the bench grinder, but suspect I will need to replace them eventually. Thanks for the sources!
In the trivia department…sabot is the base for the word sabotage, whose etymology derives from the textile workers in the Netherlands who, in the 15th century, threw their wooden shoes (sabots) into the machines to break them as they feared it would put them out of work.
Douglas Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
…or at least, that is one of the most popular explanations. 🙂
Kate says
Wow, that’s a really cool bit of trivia Douglas — thanks for sharing! 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
When my high school French teacher planned an exam for our class and found the school’s copier broken, he burst through the door of our classroom accusing us (in French) of sabotage. He then told us all to take off our shoes and put them on our desks so he could see if anyone was missing a shoe. While we were looking at one another and circling our fingers around our ears (as in, “Is he nuts?”) he told us the story about the wooden shoes and the machines, and this evolved into a history lecture on the use of sabotage as a workers tactic or a means of warfare from the 15th century up through World War II. Years later, when I was teaching, I realized that is exactly what a teacher does when he or she is suddenly forced to teach a class without preparation.
And when I picture the Mid Century Modern chair/desks we sat in, they were made of blond wood with brass ferrules on the tapered legs. The class seems to have wandered off the topic. Rap your ruler on the desk, Pam. 😉
pam kueber says
Wonderful story!
lynda says
This might be interesting too:
http://www.prettypegs.com/en/
Son-in-law sent me the link the other day
June Cahill says
What an AWESOME site this is! The legs are so different – and FUN!
Roundhouse Sarah says
‘Ferrule’ is also the name of the peice of metal found on paintbrushes that helps attach the bristles to the wooden handle. : )
Sam R says
And the plastic bit that finishes the transition between the head and shaft of a golf club. There are a zillion different types of ferrule out there.
Douglas Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
I feel like we need a “like” button for comments. 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
You can just say, “Me like!”
Julie Kinnear says
Me like, me like :)!
pam kueber says
I’ll see if there’s a plugin for that!
Jennifer says
What about brass caps that would go on top of the leg on a table? I have a triangular table with three legs that have these top end caps that are glued on and one fell off and got lost when we moved. I really need a replacement!!
Ron Corl says
You say Sabot and I say “that sounds like French for I love you” to me!!
I’m a furniture designer with my feet planted in MidMod and you just solved an issue for me. I’m developing a new bedroom line based on the Amish buggy – deconstructed. I didn’t set out to do it, but It’s turning out very MIDMOD! The shafts have a very heavy, but closed “Sabot” on the end up by the horse. Trying to use as many real buggy parts as I can but I need to grind these down or cut the end off to use them on the furniture legs. That can get costly and time consumin though. I’d seen the far-too-expensive Mcobb ferrules, but hadn’t come across the IFSCO. Those look perfect. Thank you for that research!!!!
I’m going to order a sample and see what the quality is. If it’s good, I would be happy to order more and pass them on to you and your readers here for cost plus shipping. No need for everyone to order 16 when they only need 4!! It’s the least I can do for solving this problem for me!!!
Thanks so much!!
Ron C.
sandi says
What about the little plastic tips that go on the bottom of chair legs? The only ones I can find are the big white or grey ones. I’m looking for a thinner one, maybe in a brass color to match my 1950’s formica table set.
Thank you!!! 🙂
Laura Chastain says
I rarely say this, but OMG!! This site offers such breadth and depth of fun-ness, my highly caffeinated self can barely sit still…
As to the Ferrule Sabot Foot comments, my question is this: I have 7 HeyWoodite desk chairs, with classic chrome crossed legs. Several are 3-footed, i.e., lacking the little metal foot caps, but otherwise in good shape. I’d like to fix those up, but can’t figure out how to remove some shoes off other other chair legs, and then how to attach one to a 3 footer.
Assuming this question makes sense, can anyone provide guidance?
pam kueber says
Thank you, Laura, for your nice comments, we’re workin’ it!
NIELS says
Hi everyone,
My mid-century table that has square legs. Would anyone have an idea about where i could find square shaped “sabot” or “ferrule” ?
Nancy Stewart says
I,too,need replacement “sabot”? for a square but tapered fruitwood end table . If you received any positive responses would you let me know?
Scott says
I read this article when it was new but for some reason forgot to thank you for pulling together such awesome research.
I just picked up a cheaply-made when new but sharply styled little record cabinet this weekend that overall looks pretty nice except for almost non-existent brass on the tips of the legs. Knowing the words ferrule and sabot probably saved me weeks of searching not to mention all the specific resources to check for them. Thank you! 🙂
pam kueber says
You’re welcome!