Well here I sit, Monday morning and I’m feeling really good about phase two of the habinet project. I started the construction yesterday after giving two classes on Saturday- a good weekend indeed.
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.
12 Comments
Tom, look like you are on a great start for this new piece!
Will you pin the tenons?
What is the wood again?
Cheers
David
Thanks for the comments David,
yeah, another new piece…another new ‘big’ piece!
My dining room will become the ‘assembly area’ by next week- ;0
the wood I’m using here is black cherry- the lower, curved apron has been lightly sanded so it may look a little lighter in these pictures.
did I mention I hate sanding?
keep well.
Very cool. Looking forward to posts on the rest of the project.
Nice post, I like all the in-process photos. As far as tenons first, I tend to do that with just about all my M&T joints. It seems a lot easier to layout the mortises that way. I just cut the tenons on the fat side and then trim with a big chisel or shoulder plane.
I love that bottom stretcher, Tom. Thanks for stepping through its creation as I will file that away for future reference. From the photos this looks to be a really wide. Will it be a double-door armoire?
Cheers — Larry
Tom,
I really like this bottom rail! Both the resulting fair lines and the approach you took : cutting tenons when every thing is still true and plum then letting inspiration and the piece guiding you to free flowing curves. Nothing objective here, but I really feel curves add a lot to a piece of furniture. And I beleive this is an area (curves) where hand tools can shine in comparison to their noisier electric cousins.
Thank you for sharing : I really like to follow your projects on the web.
Regards,
Emmanuel
Thanks for the comments Jeff-
Larry, it is wide- 50+ inches…it’ll have two doors plus a bank of drawers running the entire height. The bottom stretcher was fun to make- an obvious Krenov influence. I love making pieces that most people would assume were done with power tools and this stretcher is indeed one of those things.
thanks for the comments…
thanks Emmanuel,
I couldn’t agree more.
cheers!
thanks for the comments Joe-
sometimes tenons first makes perfect sense but my usual method is mortise then tenon- ??
I guess it just depends on what you’re used to doing- kind of the pin or the tail first debate-
As they say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat!
Hey David way back up there in the first comment-
I just re-read your question and it seems I never did answer you-
yes,
I will pin these tenons…. for structural integrity and aesthetics.
sorry I missed that earlier.
Tom-
For sure it is good to be able to do a joint in any manner–pin first, tail first, etc. I just find for my method of working (which tends to not use measurements so much as dividers) that sizing my mortise based on my tenon works best for me. The thing is, most every book or article says “always do do mortises first” which just seems too dogmatic.
Glad to see you offering a different method in case others hadn’t considered that technique.
For example I generally do tails first on DTs, but have been experimenting with pins first and actually am getting better results. Experiment and find your *own* method of working, I think that is the key.
Look forward to seeing more on this project.
Joe-
well said….’experiment and find your ‘own’ method is something I try to live by -
all the best and thanks again for sharing your thoughts.