The following shots never made it into the book due to space limitations but were shot during those same few days last winter while I worked this beautiful walnut into shape. Small cabinets such as this are meant to be unique and I would never consider building two the same.
The planning stages, the walnut lies waiting while the ideas are still floating…
I welcome your comments and hope you adapt this simple form into a piece you too can truly call your own. Door styles and interior drawer configuration alone can change the overall feel of a piece.
I recently finished another small cabinet with outside dimensions very close to this one but changing the wood species, door style and interior gives it a completely different aesthetic appeal. I’m including a couple of shots of the new cabinet here so you can see what a few simple changes in design can do to make a similar piece seem very different.
A small piece such as this demands attention to wood selection. You can also clearly see the shallow rabbet across the end grain used to help accurately register the tails over. This is the ’140 trick’.
My No. 4 Smoothing plane draws out the wonderful, yet subtle figure of the walnut.
Sawing dovetails - notice the dado already ploughed into the back edge of the cabinet sides.
A fret saw removes the bulk of the waste between.
Even after sawing thousands of dovetails, I still take the time to scribble in the waste with some pencil lines. This helps to prevent cutting down the wrong side of the scribe line.
Transferring the tails onto the pin board.
The waste is carefully chopped away with a Japanese style chisel.
Considering the interior arrangements.
…
Re-sawing purple heart for the lower drawer front is not for the faint of heart!
The photo above shows the finished interior.
Secret compartment accessed from the rear.
Here’s another detail that didn’t make it into the book: the lower drawer has a false bottom and a secret compartment accessed from the rear. A fun little feature my 5-year old son Nelson really enjoys.
When laying out the grooves for the drawer bottom panel I simply ploughed out a second about 3/4″ of an inch above the first.
The following two photos are another small cabinet built almost a year later…a Christmas gift- 2009.
These two cabinets are very close in size but are very different in ‘feel’.
Quarter sawn white oak with walnut accents.
The doors are frame and panel construction with hand made Japanese paper panels. ‘Sticks’ within the door panels are a deliberate reflection of the book cabinet in Project 4.
Two tiny dovetailed drawers in walnut and poplar. The drawer pulls are cherry.
Ironically enough, the walnut used in these two drawer fronts a year later are off cuts from the original cabinet.
Do these drawers have any secret compartments?
If I told you then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?
Feedback
Good luck with them and happy shavings!
I am wondering if you have any projects that are written for someone looking to begin a hobby in “unplugged” woodworking. Something not too difficult that requires a few tools that will be an investment for for most future projects. or maybe you could recommend a book?
mike
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the question. Although I haven’t read it myself, I’ve heard that The Joiner and Cabinet Maker
by Christopher Schwarz and Joel Moskowitz covers some pretty basic projects while using only hand tools. Maybe that would be a good place to start AFTER you’ve read my book- Made by Hand !
Hope that helps-
all the best.
Hi Tom, I am not clear on the back of the cabinet and how it is put together. On the pdf drawing you show it to be a 1/4″ piece (mahogany, I imagine) in front of a 3/8″ panel of, presumably, some other wood (I’m guessing). It also shows a dado only at the top. In your book on page 85 it shows that this dado also continues down the sides, so it looks like the 1/4″ piece is supposed to slide up from the bottom following the dados. Is that correct? If so, then what prevents it from falling out when the cabinet is wall mounted? Finally, how is the 3/8″ back panel attached to the frame?
Robin
Robin,
Thanks for noticing and for the question-
it may seem like a 1/4″ panel sitting in front of a 3/8″ panel but its only a 1/4″ panel in front of 3/8″ of SPACE- no second panel except the cleat fitted at the top of the cabinet.
The pdf. or the illustrations may be deceiving- my apologies.
Try to think of the cabinet as a drawer, with the back of the cabinet being the bottom panel of that same imaginary drawer; the small space between the bottom panel and the bottom edge of the drawer sides and front would be the same as the distance from the back panel of the cabinet and the wall. I think the back panel of a cabinet should never touch the wall its hanging off of- too many variables when hanging it…instead, the back panel should be inset from the wall and the cabinet frame or carcass be the determining element creating this space.
The dado that holds the 1/4″ back panel do indeed run down through the sides as you mentioned- and this panel slides up from the bottom at the end of the construction.
A bit of glue along the top edge and gravity is all that’s holding it in place. Its been hanging on the wall for over a year now and believe me its solid. The two interior drawers have been ‘claimed’ by my young son and daughter- they both have ‘secret hiding spaces’ inside and that cabinet gets lifted off of its cleat on the wall every few days.
Then when the kids hide some new tiny treasures inside I simply hang the cabinet back on its cleat on the wall.
The back panel is some re sawn walnut- solid wood- not ply I dimensioned from a 1″ plank I had from an earlier project.
Here’s a few more thoughts on the cabinet design, shape and scale.
Another friend, while visiting sometime during this past year had the cabinet off of the wall taking a closer look at the wood grain and joinery I suppose; he didn’t feel comfortable hanging it back on the cleat himself so he placed it on its back across my dining room table; we both looked at it and realized how well it worked that way as well- sort of a small, slightly ‘flattened’ treasure chest.
The interior drawers would be eliminated of course and maybe replaced with a tray or something but opened up another possibility and another way to think of this piece. I plan on making one sometime as a gift for that same friend-
Design is always evolving- embrace it and enjoy the journey.
Hope that helps.
Cheers!
What is your preferred saw for resawing? Also do you clamp the work piece in the vertical?
hey james,
my re sawing saw is an old corporate kangaroo 28″ rip saw filed at 5 tpi…i plan on making myself a frame saw for resawing but its still on the list-
cheers!
Humm… Interesting idea, flattened treasure chest. I have been working my way through nieces and nephews making each a unique treasure box to suit each. One is an aspiring artist so her box is sized to suit project materials/storage, one is a game-boy boy and his box locks and is sized to the game parts…etc.my next niece in line has a collection of tea-cups and pots and such and I have been wondering how to make a “box” for her that would suit all the small parts and still be both practical and beautiful, Now I think your idea of the “wall cabinet on the flat” may give me an idea for her box. Thanks Tom.
Robert.
How in the world do you re-saw a board to get a 10×17 sheet that’s 1/4 inch thick? That seems very ambitious.
Hey Greg, I assume you’re referring to the back panel on the cabinet- To answer your question, no. It isn’t much effort resawing a piece to 10″ x 17″ at all. If you have a well tuned saw that is sharp you should be able to resaw stock without any problem. Veneer in the 1/8″ range can get tricky but there are ways to make that go smoothly as well.
Try it out sometime and thanks for the comments!
Thanks for the speedy response! I’ll give it a try.
In your book, you show dowels joining the interior partitions. But, what attaches the partitions to the carcase? And, what keeps the floating back tight to the partitions, please?
What is the secondary wood for the drawers? The small drawer appears to use Walnut. I’m completely uncertain about the larger drawer’s secondary wood. I am guessing sides, backs and bottoms for such small drawers are an excellent use for primarily wood cuttoffs.
Hi Tom, thanks for the questions and comments. The interior partitions are held using dowels throughout. Both between them and into the carcass interior. The back panel is set in grooves and is floating. The grooves are located close enough that the rear panel sits up tight to the interior so nothing else is needed to keep it tight.
Hope that helps.
Tom,
The small drawer is walnut off cuts and the large one is made of Poplar.
This is exactly the kid of project to use up those small offcuts!
:0)
thanks again.
Can you provide more details about the knife hinges used, please? I’m not entirely familiar with selecting or installing knife hinges. I know they very in size and type (straight or offset – not sure which is appropriate here).
Tom,
thanks for the question- the knife hinges I used are Straight and 5/16″ x 1-3/8″ . You can find them here.
As for installing them- there’s a great article covering knife hinge installation on the Fine Woodworking website. have a look
Hope that helps and thanks again for the question…when you get your cabinet finished I’d love to see some pics!!
good luck with it-; )
PS- Krenov also covers knife hinges in his book- ‘the Impractical Cabinetmaker’.