My uncle was recently trying to fix up a cabinet that used to belong to my grandfather for my mother. It used to be part of a modular set and you attached the same drawer set on each end.
Since she only had the one my uncle wanted to embellish the outer edges with chair legs. He then told me he basically tried to cut them in half free hand with the table saw. While he didn't hurt himself he did say "Never doing something that stupid again."
What could you do to cut a turned chair leg in half? Table saw and band saw come to mind but the leg will not have the same dimensions from top to bottom. Cutting a dowel in half could just be a matter of a 45 degree box jig but that wouldn't work here exactly? Also would be hard to secure it given the round curves and what not.