My hand tools are another story. They all travel with me and I never had a suitable method of transporting my hand saws or my water stones so today I finally did something about it. I had worked out a design for a briefcase style saw till that will carry a small nest of saws but for my needs this week I needed a full chest that carries 11 of my most used hand saws. The little fancy briefcase saw till will have to wait until the fall…

I carry one other panel saw in my large ‘widow makers tool chest’ and two other small back saws on the rear of my ‘Cabinet makers Tool chest’. That’s 14 saws to transport with all of my hand planes, chisels, lay out tools etc..etc…

The mobile wood shop if you will…

; )

So these two boxes are almost complete- they still need some hardware and the large saw till needs some smoothing and finish. Nothing fancy, just some quick through dovetails and simple lids and bottoms. I’ll show the process for the larger chest to give you a sense of the steps needed in making a throw together tool chest in an afternoon.

It’ll serve the purpose and get my tools safely to my work shop on Cape Breton Island in 5 days – I can’t wait…the salt air, the sun filled wood shop, the timber frame. I’ll be sure to get some shots of the little side server I made last summer while I was there. If you remember I never did post a final shot of it! I also have a couple of projects to build while I’m there, a few pieces for friends and a couple of commissions. Jeez, I thought this was a summer vacation !!?? ; )

cheers~

Even though these are quick boxes I still lay out the sides and end panels across the length of the plank for continuity in the wood grain. Hey, I said they're quick to make but that doesn't mean they have to look bad!

Once cross cut the ends are squared on the shooting board and the widths are all planed even. I lay the carcass pieces on the bench and clearly mark the sequence on the inside of the panels. This will make the lay out go faster and keep things running smooth.

The dovetails are laid out with the two panels clamped together in the vise- another time saver. I also used the same skip a tail design I used in my Cabinet makers Tool Chest- lay out seven tails and then refrain from sawing out the center. This is purely visual and also saves a little time. The dovetails I'm making these days are a 1:6 angle...I used to always use a 1:7 or even 1:8 but lately have been enjoying the wider splay in the 1:6. Maybe I'm getting older (and wiser)...Some may argue the 1:6 or 7 or 8 should depend of soft wood vs. hard woods and the dovetails will be stronger if I use a higher pitch etc..I'm starting to think this is complete gibberish and the fact that I'm using a dovetail joint will make things strong enough regardless of the angle used. Even if I kept going and they became finger joints- completely vertical, I think it would still be quite strong. Use your eyes and trust your instincts.

Again I may be going against the grain here but hey what can I say? It works for me...I'm not going to talk about the many varieties of fret saws or coping saws or tooth counts or give countless examples of wood workers in history books using this type of method or that one- Lord knows there's enough blogs out there doing that already! The method that works for me is my bow saw- It'll cut fast and smooth and 'the twist' to begin the cut is never an issue. Because of the ability to turn the blade effortlessly in the frame, its a perfect tool for this job and you won't exhaust your arm with those tiny strokes, back and forth with a fret saw. Give it a try and you'' see what I mean. This one is made by Gramercy Tools and is available from Tools for Working Wood in NYC.

After the dovetails are cut and fit I plough a groove for the bottom panel. Yes, a groove from one side to the other! No stopped dado here my friends- The Horror! The Horror! You'll see the little 'hole' in the outside of the chest- not a big deal...(at least not to me .....today). These are quick, almost 'throw together' tool chests I'm making- if I had the time I'd cut stopped dados like I did when I made the Cabinetmakers Tool Chest but unfortunately, time is a luxury I don't have these days...

So that's basically it- The lid on the large chest is just sitting there and will get a few hinges and a clasp or a latch...the small box is a little different where I made the two short end panels slightly narrower and the lid is fit between the long sides. It's also stepped on the inside with a rabbet around the perimeter so it registers into the chest opening when assembled. I think I'll find some nice strapping or a leather belt to keep it closed. It has a quick rub of oil and wax to protect it. Once I fit the lid, I slightly rounded over the entire edge where it meets the top of the sides giving a more traditional 'chest' feel. And in the back ground you can see the utilitarian dovetails in the saw chest- they didn't turn out too bad considering the speed at which it was made.

An interior view- there are fitted pieces of wood between the water stones so they don't budge while en route. The box lid is an off cut of aromatic cedar and the sides and bottom are butternut. The stones are (from left to right) 220 grit, 1000 grit, flattening plate with grooves, 1000/4000 combination stone and finally an 8000 polishing stone. All are made by Norton.

The interior of the saw chest- 1 disassembled bow saw, 4 panel saws and a half dozen back saws. You just never know right? This box is curly maple with a poplar bottom. Tomorrow will be smoothing and finishing- oil and wax again; nothing too fancy. I'll also install some hinges and a clap or latch to keep it closed then either build a handle or use something 'off the shelf'...depends on what? you guessed it- TIME...

Habinet 1st position

Side table detail

Dinner time- 2nd position.

Bed time- 3rd position.

The second part of  the project is a large Armoire that’ll stand next to the habinet offering ample and much needed storage for my clients  one room palace. Cherry and curly maple with aromatic cedar and walnut accents will be carried over to this piece reflecting a common theme between them. I have my over-all dimension as well as some sketches but I’ve conscientiously decided to allow this piece to evolve in a natural way and follow my instincts instead of any paper trails. This is where I’m happiest while building- letting the piece find its own way. Yesterday was a great start and the following pics will show some of my work.

Stay tuned…

Starting with the lower front frame I rough dimension the cherry.

Working from center, the top and bottom stretchers are laid out between the two front legs.

The upper apron gets a housed dovetail joint into the leg tops- a reliable joint for this large sub-frame.

The socket is scribed off of the tail which happens to be a 1:6 slope for anyone interested.

The waste is removed and the joint is tested.

I decide to shape the lower rail and after a series of cross cuts to establish the curves depth, my draw knife removes the waste.

With the bottom of the stretcher shaped, I decided to split the piece making more of a statement. A rip saw determines the top of the split and I bore a hole to establish the center points.

Rip saw and saw bench to remove the waste between- I learned while building boats how easy it is to saw on a curve with a hand saw- try it sometime...

An array of rasps and files will clean up the saw kerfs- some fine sanding to finish. 'I hate sanding'~did I mention that yet?

tapering the curves into the tenons- I cut them before I split the piece.

With the lower stretcher shaped I mark out the mortise location...this may seem backwards but it turned out to be the natural way to allow the piece to develop on its own. A little Krenovian influence here?

A dry fit- this area will hold two large drawers... not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon. This is the front frame for the lower portion of the armoire. The top will be made as a seperate unit with a closet area and 4 more large drawers.

Kristen waiting for her new table top to be attached! The paper and blue tape are wrapping two strap hinges that allow the table to fold up and fasten to the bed.

Pictured is Kristen, one of my clients who is showing the unit in ‘diner mode’. The maple table top isn’t attached here but the photo illustrates the feature as it folds down from the bed bottom and nests onto the side table support. Two people living in a small space need furniture that serves dual purpose and allows multiple use of valuable floor space- this design does just that.

Through the day the maple diner table is folded up and out of the way, creating visual interest in the walnut-framed cut-out perhaps somewhere to display a special piece of art work or just allowing a focused view of the cherry behind it?

Then when its time to chow down you simply roll the side table into place and un-latch the table top, gently lowering it down to nest onto the walnut lid of the rolling side table.

When supper is over you simply fold the table back up into place, roll the side table out of the way and fold down the bed for some sweet dreams…the side table now doubles as a night stand and this is why I chose to have one drawer accessed from one side of the small table and the other drawer on the opposite side. The walnut top has a cork ‘plug’ under neath it that lifts off allowing access to more storage space within the upper portion of the side table.

I’m just putting the finishing touches on the second part of the design, a large storage closet incorporating drawers and doors and using the same three wood types through out. It’ll live next to the Habinet and add lots of much needed storage space in my clients home. Some final tuning later this week is still needed but I thought I’d share this early picture with you here.

Designing and building custom furniture is an incredibly rewarding process but its not only those enjoyable hours hand planing aromatic cedar for the drawer interiors nor is it applying those final coats of natural orange wax for that final gleaming finish.

No, the real charm of this kind of work is giving the gift of comfortable living to people that put their trust in you and have chose to support local craft people and not just stroll into the local big box store to buy their furniture. Seeing the expression on their faces when you finally deliver the piece – that same ‘vision’ you sat down and sketched together onto scrap paper all those weeks ago; the input they gave you along the way and the creation you work through together and developed for their own specific requirements…that’s the real charm and the hidden beauty in custom furniture construction.

stay tuned for more…

cheers!

blasphemy!

sculpting

attempting

‘creating’

dare I say -

‘working’

through  the daily re- inventions-

nothing out of the ordinary here except-maybe-for

the necessity of good design through traditional application.

hand made modern-

another week closer.

A half way point in the spokeshave-polish. Cherry frame pieces- under early morning eyes these shapes are blended by hand. Nothing is measured. There is no sketch up...honest shapes formed by human hands. Evolving and discovering with each and every piece.

A rare and 'final' view inside the haBinet side table. Before the panels of curly maple and cherry blanket over them... This carefully fitted interior frame of quarter sawn white oak; runners and guides for the aromatic cedar boxed dovetailed drawers. At this point nothing is glued- all dry fit and still in need of finish...these pieces will be 'finished' before the final glue up.(in my best Captain Kirk voice)...must...plan....ahead!!

Pushing traditional design and construction elements... a hand-made modern blend of longevity and aesthetic... 'Floating panels' have a whole new meaning... Yes indeed, frame and panel construction- but hopefully, not another regurgitated example of it. stay tuned...

Installing the folding bed hardware.

As mentioned in the last post, the dining room has become the assembly area and my trestle table a make shift workbench.

The shop is full of hardwood- cherry, maple, cedar and poplar.

Back down stairs on the regular workbench I’m finally shaping some beautiful cherry and hand planing lots of curly maple. The maple is for the table top and will be laminated strips. To edge plane the incredible figure I had to use my bevel up jointing plane with a 53 degree bevel on the iron and  my low angle smoothing plane also with the 53 degree iron creating an effective pitch of 65. When using a hand plane with a pitch this high I have to take very light passes and it’s giving me quite a workout.

The figure in the maple reminds me of the ocean.

It’s a slow process but the table top will be full of this incredible wood and the extra work will be worth it. When I look at this wood I can’t help but think of the ocean and even fresh fish fillets-strange isn’t it? Anyhow, I’d better get back at it- lots of fish to fry!

Shaping the cherry with a spokeshave is one job I could do for days- what a pleasure it is!

Good quality plywood should have at least 7 layers of veneer and no voids between layers.

Do I like working with plywood? Well let me say that once you get it dimensioned it really has some advantages- its extremely stable, much more than solid wood.  It comes with beautifully matched veneers that are 90% finished and because of the high quality of the products available,  it’s very durable. The current project I’m working on is a ‘fold away bed’ so I have large surfaces in the neighbourhood of 7′ high and 5 ‘ wide- using solid wood for this application while possible, wouldn’t be very practical. Weight alone would be tremendous with wood movement issues being a thorn in my side to say the least. My shop time alone would be close to tripled thus elevating the cost of the piece out of reach for most clients.  The plywoodallows me to use these large panels without the associated wood movement issues, much less jointing and finishing involved so a less expensive outcome, with a finished look that once complete, the common eye won’t be able to tell the difference anyway. Using plywood is conjunction with solid wood edging, face frames and drawer and door details can really make a project work well.

To begin, its important to use a quality product and plywood comes in many grades with different characteristics. Veneer core, particle board, medium density fiber core as well asdifferent combinations of all the above. I prefer using a veneer core for its stability as well as holding power when any mechanical hardware or fasteners are being used.  The face veneers are also graded and some plywoods are sold with only one good surface. Watch what you’re buying and try to use a product that works for your specific situation and budget.

The extra thickness will be removed once the glue has cured.

So that’s some of the good points of plywood but obviously there are some bad- first off is the size of the sheets so the initial dimensioning can be a challenge. Fortunately for me, a friend came over on Saturday and we ripped all of the components to size in my back yard on a portable table saw. The saw was more than adequate but having an extra set of hands to handle the 3/4″ sheets was essential. It was minus 16 on Saturday but thankfully the sun was out and the wind wasn’t blowing too strong. We made quick work of the cut list and I moved the pieces in doors. From there, on Sunday I cross cut the pieces to length using a fine tooth panel saw (12 tpi) and then went on to attach the solid wood edgings. You could purchase the iron on veneer tape with matching wood species or apply a slightly thicker edge treatment- I chose to edge the stock with 1″ solid cherry. The cherry is dimensioned 1/8″ wider than the plywoodnd the extra thickness will be planed down once applied. I don’t own a biscuit joiner so I pre-drilled holes in the plywood edge and inserted my dowel centers.The solid edging is pressed into lace leaving small dimples to show me where exactly where to drill for a perfect fit. I drilled the solid wood with mating holes and used some blind hardwood dowels as fasteners. I could have only used glue or went with a spline or tongue and groove typejoinery option but felt this method would be more than adequate and didn’t take hours to execute. Once the glue is applied I clamp up the pieces to let cure and with a series of hand tools I bring the solid wood edging flush with the plywood. I think alot of woodworkers find this last step to be the most intimidating part of the plywood process but can be easy and effective when some simple hand tools are used.

5 1/2 Bench plane removes the bulk of the waste

 I take down the bulk of the material with my 5 1/2 bench plane being sure I’m always working out and away from the plywood surface. At this point I still have 1/8″ to remove so there really is no danger of damaging the veneer. A fairly light shaving and I’m soon ready to move over to a low angle block plane.

Again setting the tool for a very fine shaving, I work down the side making sure to check my progress as I go. Once I no longer feel than tiny solid wood lip I move on to the next area. The front of the plane rides up onto the edge treatment and this protects the delicate veneers on the surface. Working down until that final shaving brings the two surfaces flush. 

Notice the front of the plane is riding up onto the edge material. This will keep the cut off of the delicate veneers.

Always working out from the veneer I keep the plane at a skewed angle and before long I’m ready to switch again over to a simple card scraper. This will finish off the process and clean up any plane marks from the skewing action of the previous cuts. I wathc for the darkened surface where the glue squeeze out slowly lightens telling me that I’m done. The card scraper is a great tool for this final pass, it doesn’t remove much material so again there is little danger of tearing through the surface veneer.

The card scraper, with a well honed edge will finish off the process.

I follow with a light rub of 220 grit sand paper. If you still see tiny voids along the edge a trick I will sometimes do is after sanding, before you brush away the dust, apply a light coat of finish, in this case I’m using an oil and varnish blend. I deliberately mix it into the light dust left behind from the previous step and work it into any small voids along the edge treatment. Once applied I’ll wipe off any access and let dry as normal.After its cured I’ll go back and rub out the finish with some 000 steel wool and then follow with a tack cloth. Re-apply the finish as normal, coat after coat until you’ve reached your desired sheen and protection. Edging plywood shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone but using very sharp tools set for a very fine cut is key to a successful project.

Cheers!

Habinet- modern living in small spaces

The folding mechanism works with a pair of pistons that raise and lower the bed so if solid wood was used there would be the potential of wood movement issues and the pistons getting pushed or pulled slightly out of line. This in turn would cause the entire system to break down creating both unhappy clients and a less than ideal piece of furniture. So plywood it is and yesterday I picked up some 3/4″ cherry. (after finally getting my ‘vehicular troubles’ sorted out!) 

The plywood I’m using is a high quality veneer core and is ‘good’ on two sides meaning it doesn’t have a dedicated ‘face’ side. Some cheaper plywoods on the market have only one good face and usually a secondary wood for the back veneer. This is alright when only one side is seen but the bed panels will be seen when its folded up and then the interior will be seen when the bed is in use.

The cherry veneer is a nice looking product that’ll sit well and be extremely stable for the required purpose. Now the fun part- dimensioning it. To answer the obvious question- No…I won’t be using my sweet ‘ol Cororate Kangaroo 28″ rip saw…no, I think I’ll either be using a hand held circular saw or a portable table saw. A friend is coming over on Saturday morning to dimension a large 6″ x 6″ fir beam on the portable table saw so we may rip all of the plywood to size at the same time. Once I have the plywood dimensioned I’ll then add face frames and end caps using solid wood- no edge tape or thin veneer applications. These secondary elements will be done downstairs in my shop with hand tools. For the front edges I’m planning on a full two inch strip of solid cherry- this allows me the freedom of shaping the edges and beveling pieces as if they were solid wood throughout. The back edges will get thinner strips in the 1″ neighbourhood.

One interesting part of the design is while the bed is folded away during the day time hours, I’m making a table top that will fold down from the underside of the bed- so we now have a piece of furniture that has dual purpose. My clients live in a small urban space here in Toronto and having a form that is both a dining area as well as a sleeping area is ideal.  I’ve named this new design the ‘Habinet”. 

There is a small side table that also is linked to the first piece. The table top portion of the original piece has a cut-out which the top of the side table will nestle into creating a stand to support the table top. Then when in ’sleep mode’ the side table serves as a night stand. The side table is on casters and easily moves in and out of the way when not in use. This part of the design is all solid wood. The rough sketches attached will show you the three ‘positions’ for the design and I’m anxious to get started on it in the morning.

Stay tuned…

To speed up the project I used hardwood dowels for joinery instead of more elaborate and time consuming joinery such as dovetails; nothing fancy but it turned out to be a nice little gift. I took lots of pics through the build and will write a full article about the entire process, from the design to the finish. It’ll be featured on a new wood working website that is slated to start up sometime in the early new year. It’s an international woodworking magazine and will feature different wood workers from all over the world. The Woodworker’s Republic is coming soon!!!

Stay tuned and have a healthy and Happy New Year.
Cheers!

It was a fun little project to make and will help you hone your dovetailing skills. If you’d like to learn the details on how I built it as well as a complete cut list and specs, you can pick up the next copy of Canadian Woodworking Magazine (Dec/Jan 2010, issue #63) It’s one of the featured articles.

Speaking of woodworking magazines, if you’d like to see a nice little slide show of Made by Hand: Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop, Popular Woodworking has just uploaded one here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/popularwoodworking/sets/72157622472483565/show/
Enjoy!

I’m using reclaimed Angelique for the main bench carcass and frames with some Mahogany off cuts for the top cross slats and hand rails. After spending my winter building cabinets, frame work and square straight surfaces, the arms on this bench offered a nice change of pace for me. Nothing straight, gentle flowing lines and all done by eye with spokeshaves, gouges, rasps and scrapers. It’s a great place to be, shaping wood without any sense of structure; free form sculpting, a little off of here, a bit more of a sweep there. Liberating indeed!
I use Veritas spokeshaves and have been for the past few years; I originally purchased them when I was building boats and have found them to be extremely easy to set-up and work with. The flat bottom and curved sole were both used in this project. I haven’t had a chance to try the Lie-Nielsen/Brian Boggs spokeshaves but would be interested to hear what people think of them. I’m sure being designed by Boggs and manufactured by LN they’re superb. It’s mostly the weight of the tools I’m mostly curious about, the Lie Nielsen models seem to be bronze and look like they’d have a bit more weight to them…something I think would be a real asset to the working of the tool.
I find this to be one of the more enjoyable elements of wood working-this shaping wood. The bottom frame pictured has bridal joints in the corners and the horizontal pieces are just sitting for now. I’m going to fasten them with only dowels so in a few years as my children grow and get taller I’ll be able to take out the bottom cross piece and lower the sitting height of the bench. These bottom cross pieces were an after thought to raise it up to 3 and 4 year old height. A place for children to sit is also what inspired the flowing arms…a little gentler on the head when they bang into it! I’m gearing up for another long haul of projects and am going to try to bring some more of these techniques into my cabinetwork; a blend of sweeping frames and square, structured carcass’…I’ve been designing some new pieces that will easily blend these two design features…stay tuned.

Thinking on this shop made tool line I decided to look back through my shop notebooks over the past two years and found about a dozen different design ideas I’ve come up with. Nothing in there that’ll solve Global Warming; who am I kidding, it wouldn’t even draw a parade of rats behind me! Oh well…what is in there are some pretty cool ideas for some work shop aids and bench top appliances. A couple of neat new tool ideas and a few more new designs. I tend to write allot while I’m still waking up at 4:30 a.m. when I usually start my day, so I can sometimes forget what the hell I wrote from one day to the next! Things get forgotten about and later found and fresh again. That said, it’ll be interesting to follow through on some of these ideas and build myself some prototypes. I’ll keep you posted when I get around to it…put it on the ‘long-list’ so to speak.
Making tools is a ton of fun and it really helps you understand the angles, bevels and reasons why some planes can chatter and others can run on so smoothly. Why one saw cuts and the other tears. What makes a mallet feel good in your hand? One of the first tools I made in recent years was the Lee Valley spokeshave kit; a Christmas gift from my wife it really covered allot of good workshop techniques. From dimensioning wood to super accurate lay-out. Understanding angles and final shaping and finishing. From there I made a couple of hand planes and some sanding planes,
(readers of Fine Woodworking magazine may remember my Tip of the Month a few issues ago-the sanding planes pictured above.) a mallet and hammer and a little bow-saw my father in law cracked in half last year while limbing an old apple tree! My point is this: Try out new things in your shop whenever you can and time permits. Making your own tools and workshop aids is a great learning exercise for any woodworker at any level.
Try the link on the side bar for www.toolmakingart.com
you’ll find lots of tool making inspiration there.
Another wealth of tool making information is: www.norsewoodsmith.com

Speaking of tool making and workshop appliances, due to all of the feedback, traffic and e-mails I get about wooden tool boxes, I’m going to offer a few for sale. I’ll probably only have time to build six or so..it’ll be first come first serve. In my next blog I’ll feature some of the design elements and show some of the tool chests unique features.
A Cabinetmakers Toolchest.

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

Butternut drawer sides

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.

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.

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.