A Fall Front Desk in Walnut

O.k. so my last few blogs have been about other people’s handy work, hand tools and the like and I’m happy to say that I’m back in the wood shop working again on my own projects.
These last few weeks have been busy with life outside of the wood shop so it’ll be great to make some shavings again. I’m working on a new piece that follows in the realm of the ‘hand made modern’ line I’d been designing over the past year. The first was the walnut entertainment cabinet and the second the walnut and aluminum sideboard. This new piece is also made from solid walnut with an interesting take on some through dovetails I’ve been calling a finger tail split… It’s basically a technique where I cut wide through dovetails as per normal procedure and then split each one again with a finger joint. It makes for a unique look but can be a little tricky to execute. The photo shows the main carcass dry fit together with the door panel glued up in the foreground. The upper main carcass is a basic box with a fitted interior secretary incorporating drawers and shelves. The door panel will have bread board face and the cabinet will have a rabbeted back dust panel. The leg frame will really be the component that transforms this piece from a simple dovetailed box and draw it into a more, Mid-Century Modern vein. (at least that’s the plan on paper) Funny how things can change when you start to ‘get into the grain’.
I’ll be posting some more details as I go so stay tuned…
Work really does make life sweet!

I was recently commisioned to build a full set of cabinets for a kitchen in an older Arts and Crafts Style Bungalow. This is a large project that I’ll document here as it develops. The first step was going to the home, discussing design elements, wood species, special requests from the clients etc..After this first meeting I designed, with lots of input from the home owners, a set of cabinets that I thought would complement the Home style while incorporating the owners lifestyle. The cabinets will have a very much Arts and Crafts feel being made from Black Cherry, which I was quit happy about. Building a full kitchen is quite different than building a one-off cabinet. First of I’ll be using 3/4″ Cherry plywood for all of the cabinet boxes. These will be fastened using dadoes and rabbets cut into the panels to accept the mating pieces, with glue and pocket screws to fasten. All of the cabinets are furniture quality, meaning each box is it’s own enclosed space seperate from the next. This is a bonus for a kitchen by way of containing any smells or spills from one area to the next. A rock-solid building method that will last for the next hundred years.
Once the boxes are built, they’ll get a full solid Cherry face frame, no plywood here, just solid wood. A full 7/8″ thick this will stand up to any abuse. From this point on it’s all traditional joinery, frame and panel, mortise and tenon doors with centre stiles; hand cut dovetailed, solid cherry drawers with half blind dovetailed fronts. The finish is going to be a hand rubbed oil and varnish mixture. I find it really brings out the wood grain without adding too much gloss. I use a safe, non-toxic finish from a small company out of New York. Tried & True Traditional Oil and Varnish finish is a combination of highly refined polymerized linseed oil and natural-resin varnish (modified pine sap). Its high resin content produces a durable water-resistant finish that buffs to a warm semi-gloss sheen. It strictly adheres to the standards established by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and qualifies as non-toxic and safe for food-contact surfaces in both their uncured and cured (wet and dry) states. A perfect finish for a custom made kitchen.

This piece although rather plain and simple looking was a real challenge in construction. It’s made from solid Mahogany for a corner Cabinet space. The piece had to be custom fit to the space due to the corner not being 90 degrees.
The doors are coopered, another challenge in cabinet construction but rewarding when properly built. The grain that naturally occurs in Mahogany is a real pleasure to re-match once the panel is cut and beveled in the coopering process and once glued back together make for a seamless fit. James Krenov’ book “A Cabinetmakers Notebook” has a great chapter on making coopered doors. The sides and top are attached using dowels as well as some mechanical fasteners. The interior has three non-adjustable shelves.