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!

Here’s a sneak peak at the latest project from my upcoming book. It’s a small book case with doors featuring through mortise and tenon joinery. I had some beautiful Flame Birch sitting on my shelf for the past few years and decided this was the time to use it. After sitting for more than two years in my wood shop back in Cape Breton air drying, to six more months here in my new shop in Toronto, I figured it would be good and dry. Stable is perhaps a better word to use…man, was I wrong. Sure the moisture content was low but stable it was not. Once I cut into it and planed it the pieces for the doors and the top warped like a banana…Seeing as this was a limited stock I had and I figured I wouldn’t find any other Flame Birch locally I decided to use a few bits of Walnut from my off-cut pile. I’m very happy with the results however if this piece had of been for a client, it would have ended up in the firewood pile. I would have never taken the time to try fixing it. Seeing as it’s for demonstration purposes and was my prototype I took the extra steps and worked through these challenges. It changed the aesthetic of the piece which probably changed some of the design features as well. The sticks captured inside of the door frame as well as the desicion to use hand made paper for the panels…I’m happy I decided to keep going with it and make what I had work. I guess thats the point here, doing the best with what you have. So my Birch bookcase with Walnut top turned out to be a good thing .

Cheers!

Things are moving along quickly these past few weeks, projects are coming together, designs are being discovered, adapted and constructed…work is good.
The made by hand inspiration is becoming a reality. The sideboard I designed back in September is finally being delivered this week. My clients will hopefully be as excited and delighted with the finished piece as I am.
‘A hand made-modern, mixed medium-urban sideboard’…there Google that! The carcass is Walnut from a local wood mill and supplier, the glass shelves and door panels were cut by a great little glass store just North of the Danforth on Broadview ave. for anyone that knows or is in the area…You can’t miss it, they have a beautiful Stained Glass sign over the sidewalk a couple of blocks up. The aluminum started as two solid plates of 1 1/4″ thick aluminum plate…140 lbs. I had this pair of monolithes cut and brushed at another company in the greater GTA. www.rciwaterjets.com. Thanks Rob. The interior LED fixtures came from EUROLITE, a local business with an incredible selection of high-end fixtures. www.eurolite.com
The hinges and door pulls are from Lee Valley Tools.
I consider this design to be a continuation from the last ‘hand made modern’ entertainment cabinet in its evolution and joinery. Both are Walnut but that is purely coincidence. My two clients decided the wood species separately. I thoroughly enjoyed the design challenges this piece offered and while working with the different elements I couldn’t be happier with the completed results.
Cheers!

A Lesson in Hand-Cut Dovetails

This is a small project I made this past winter. A gift for my wife, a school teacher who always sits with a pile of books and papers on her lap, it proved to be a pretty useful gift. Although it looks like a simple enough project, the joinery quickly became a lesson in cutting dovetails by hand.
The piece is a Shaker design I modified slightly in overall dimension. This version seemed to actually fit on my lap better and the angle of the top was adjusted as well. I used Black Walnut for the piece, the main carcass has hand cut through dovetails and sliding dadoes house the inner shelf, dividers and bottom.
The drawer was built in a very traditional way, solid wood for the interior as well as the drawer bottom. I used Butternut for the drawer sides and back with Poplar for the bottom. The top lid has battens on the interior to help keep things in place; I fastened these with Maple dowels down through the top for added strength as well as a visual accent. A fun piece to build it didn’t take up too much time and doesn’t need a whole lot of material. I used a hand rubbed oil finish on the exterior with wax on the inside. You could easily change the dimensions of the piece to suit your size requirements.

This piece is a Recipe Box with Birds Eye Maple Body, Black Walnut doors and drawers with a Quarter Sawn Oak stand.

The Oak for the stand is locally grown and milled featuring through mortise and tenon construction with Walnut wedges. The cabinet sides are held together with dowels while the drawers are through dovetails. The hardware is cast Bronze, giving the piece an Asian inspired feel.

This small side table is constructed with traditional hand cut joinery. It features a Walnut drawer front and aprons.
The table top, legs and drawer pull are in Cherry.
The legs are mortise and Tenon joinery with the drawer made with half blind dovetails. The drawer interior is Poplar with a scratch beading on the top and bottom all done with hand tools only. The detail shot shows the under side of the table top with a bevel on the bottom giving the top a lighter feel. The finish is a hand rubbed oil and varnish mix.