"Nobody bothered to write it down? I'll grant you it's not a hotly researched field, but there is certainly a fair amount of information on the period technology, and current reproductions to be found. I list a few of the recent references in the post (Link below) I made a few years back on the topic, including articles from Fine Woodworking and Furniture and Cabinet Maker Magazine and others. Lets not forget the historical texts like Diderot's encyclopedia, and Roubo which may not have the process explained as we enjoy consuming it on youtube, but has allowed folks to recreate the mechanism with a bit of modern ingenuity thrown in. http://bit.ly/RippleMolding"