I’m sure some of you recognize the chest from the Klingspor Show or from Dave O’s post concerning the same. Initially, I considered doing WIP photos & descriptions but those thoughts were short lived as it proved to be quite a task to just “git er done” much less document it. For those interested, I decided to post a few more photos here and offer a little explanation of the construction.
The basic chest is constructed using dovetail and half tail joinery. The drawer blades are set in place with half tails as was the chest bottom. Two sleepers are blind dovetailed into the top and hold the case sides in place in addition to providing a means to fasten the case top down. The case sides were resawed from 8/4 Cherry and bookmatched together to get the necessary width. A bit of a gamble to resaw, but I was able to plane out the bow the pieces took on and squeaked out the required thickness.
The splayed (French) feet are formed by sawing a deep groove in the bottom of the case sides and inserting and gluing a wedge shape forcing a layer of the case side outward. This is done to the front apron of the case as well and mitered into the case sides.
The stringing was largely done with scratch stock using 2 complimentary tools. The first tool was ground with a correct width “tooth” and an inverted “V” into the center. Its purpose was to define the boundaries of the groove. The second tool was not the full groove width and had a square profile to clean out the center of the inlay groove. The Serpentine or undulating surfaces requiring inlay were done differently. I scribed a line outlining the stringing location then used a homemade tool similar to a straight screwdriver to “stamp” the groove following the scribe line.
The drawer fronts are made up of brick layed 6/4 poplar. In other words, the first piece is routed to a master template then the second piece is added to the first and routered to the shape of the first (front face) and so on until the final width is reached. The interior side was bandsawed and spokeshaved to remove saw marks. 1/8 veneers were cut from 8/4 cherry and glued to the drawer fronts (I used hide glue for 75% of the construction). The balance of the drawer is made using traditional dovetail drawer methods.
The finish is rubbed amber shellac over BLO.
Sorry to ramble on….maybe there is a useful tidbit in there somewhere. Stephen
Living proof Froglips(Jim) worked during the show....
The basic chest is constructed using dovetail and half tail joinery. The drawer blades are set in place with half tails as was the chest bottom. Two sleepers are blind dovetailed into the top and hold the case sides in place in addition to providing a means to fasten the case top down. The case sides were resawed from 8/4 Cherry and bookmatched together to get the necessary width. A bit of a gamble to resaw, but I was able to plane out the bow the pieces took on and squeaked out the required thickness.
The splayed (French) feet are formed by sawing a deep groove in the bottom of the case sides and inserting and gluing a wedge shape forcing a layer of the case side outward. This is done to the front apron of the case as well and mitered into the case sides.
The stringing was largely done with scratch stock using 2 complimentary tools. The first tool was ground with a correct width “tooth” and an inverted “V” into the center. Its purpose was to define the boundaries of the groove. The second tool was not the full groove width and had a square profile to clean out the center of the inlay groove. The Serpentine or undulating surfaces requiring inlay were done differently. I scribed a line outlining the stringing location then used a homemade tool similar to a straight screwdriver to “stamp” the groove following the scribe line.
The drawer fronts are made up of brick layed 6/4 poplar. In other words, the first piece is routed to a master template then the second piece is added to the first and routered to the shape of the first (front face) and so on until the final width is reached. The interior side was bandsawed and spokeshaved to remove saw marks. 1/8 veneers were cut from 8/4 cherry and glued to the drawer fronts (I used hide glue for 75% of the construction). The balance of the drawer is made using traditional dovetail drawer methods.
The finish is rubbed amber shellac over BLO.
Sorry to ramble on….maybe there is a useful tidbit in there somewhere. Stephen
Living proof Froglips(Jim) worked during the show....
