I've been working on the frame and panel for the back of the cabinet. This frame is composed of the same wood, European beech, as the cabinet. The components of the frame and panel back are two outside stiles, a center stile, and the upper and lower rails which are continuous along their length. The width of the individual components is approximately 2 inches or thereabouts, and I based this on aesthetics along with availability of clear quarter-sawn beech stock on hand. The type of joinery I have selected for this back is the mortise and tenon. The stiles are of equal length, so are the the respective tenons at either end of each stile, which also fit into the grooves in either horizontal rail. In the photo, the frame is temporarily installed in the cabinet back recess for a test fit. I am in the process of creating the panels to fit into each of the frame halves.Some judicious planing is involved in creating a perfect fit of the frame and panel into the back of the cabinet, but I had already allowed for this with a very small fraction of an inch in extra width of the frame. Another factor in the decision for the stile and rail widths is the factoring in of any small wood movement of the rails and stiles in their widths. The wood I have selected is fairly quarter-sawn so movement is substantially reduced and the fairly narrow widths of the components reduces the remaining movement considerably. The panels will be floating with a small gap around each edge to allow for wood movement. Once I have this frame and panel back installed, the cabinet will have developed an entirely new look, that of a cabinet without front doors.
I use dowels to join the panels together, the sides together, the sides to the top and bottom. The main reason for this type of joinery in this particular application is that it allows me to have a slight overhang of the top and bottom panels vis a vis the sides, to accommodate the chamfered edges.. Alternative methods of joinery that allow this are mortise and tenon, sliding dovetails. etc. I use dowels as I feel comfortable with this joinery and it has not let me down so far. A considerable amount of accuracy is necessary in aligning the dowel holes that mate with the top, bottom and side panels. There are also different methods to accomplish this. The simplest method is to use dowel centers, next would be a doweling jig of some sort.Instead, I make a doweling guide which is simply a block of wood with the exact dimensions , thickness and length of each of the side panels. The concept is to use the guide to create mating dowel holes in the ends of the panels. I use standard size fluted dowels and have pre-measured and carefully oriented each of the side panels to its corresponding top and bottom panel. In the photo, I am aligning the doweling guide on one of the side panels. I since removed and bored two other holes in this particular guide for a total of ten dowel holes. Also in the photo, the face of the side panel is displayed, the back of this panel has a rabbet running lengthwise at the left hand side. The first dowel hole from the left is offset to accommodate this.
As I continue with this boring process ( no pun intended) there are eventually a total of 80 holes bored into the ends of each of the panels. A stop is used to bore to the correct depth to accommodate standard size dowels. Afterwards, each of the bored holes is checked with the depth gauge of a caliper and install the dowels, first on the side panels, then these panels to the top and bottom panels. Some test fitting, and the glue up begins...
My next logical step in the progression is to create the rabbets for the frame and panel back. The rabbets in the left and right side panels are fairly straightforward. I selected a 5/8 inch depth and 5/16 inch width for the rabbet. The 5/8 inch thick frame provides sufficient strength for the 5/16 inch back panels. The will be two back panels housed in the frame which is divided by a center stile, or at least this is what the plan is. It is fairly important to have the depth of the rabbet uniform in both side panels and the top and bottom panels, this involves careful measuring and allowance for the chamfer edge profile of the top and bottom panels.
The rabbet in the top and bottom panels is a stopped rabbet, ending just before either end of the back of each of the top and bottom panels. After removing most of the wood to create the rabbet, I squared the ends of the rabbet using chisels and careful marking. To ensure all the panels are squared up and exactly the same size I overlay the top panel onto bottom panel without the side panels and then with the side panels in place.
In the photo, the panels are loosely assembled to confirm all the rabbets are the same depth and uniform around the carcase. I also take this opportunity to mark the outline of each of the side panels onto the top and bottom panels. This paves the way for the next step which is to create the joinery for the panels, in this case dowels. I create a doweling guide which is the same dimension, thickness and width as one of the ends of the side panels.
More about this in the next post..
I left off preparing the four panels which comprise the carcase of the cabinet. Since then, I've spent more time on the four panels and in particular the top and bottom panels. After some final smoothing and scraping of the faces I began preparing the edges. I hand plane the edges at the ends of each of these panels with a block plane set to a light cut. This leaves a nice, smooth edge at the ends as opposed to a slightly fuzzy edge before hand planing. Once I have this edge planing complete, the top and bottom panels are checked to confirm that they are the exact width and length and perfectly square to each other. The profile I have decided on for the edges of the top and bottom panels is an approx. 3/32 inch wide 45 degree chamfer which I accomplish with a block plane as shown in the photo. Beginning with the edges at the end and finishing with the long edges, I create these very small chamfers. Some judicious, careful hand planing is necessary here to maintain the correct chamfer width along the length of the end and long edges of each panel, both top and bottom. It's actually easier than I describe once a rhythm is established. I find the 45 degree angle is easy to visualize and set as opposed to any other angle between 0 and 90 degrees. The profiled edges are important to create at this stage since the next steps involve attaching the side panels to the top and bottom panels. It will be virtually impossible to create the profiles afterwards.
Next, I will complete preparing the side panels, confirm they are square to each other and identical in length and width and begin to mark their orientation to the top and bottom panels. The side panels will be set back approx. 3/4 inch from the front edge of the cabinet to allow for the doors. The doors are veneered panels with a finished thickness of just under 3/4 inches. The side panels are to be attached to the top and bottom panels with a series of dowels and the creation of the doweling template jig specific to this cabinet is also next in the sequence of steps to be performed.
Another of the next steps is to create a rabbet for the back panel. This back panel, a frame and panel and yet to be created, will be housed into both the top, bottom, and side panels.
I left off with four carcase panels which needed to be dimensioned and flattened to exact and uniform thickness. At this point, the panels are roughly at the final thickness and ready to be hand planed for a smooth, uniform finish across the complete panel in both width and length. I use an accurate solid steel straightedge to determine the high spots on the panels, this after a final check with winding sticks to check for any small, remaining twist. The process I use is to slide the steel straightedge across the width of each panel along its length and marking with a pencil any dips or bumps or any cupping. Since each of these panels is approximately 14 inches wide, there is bound to be some irregularity on the surfaces until I hand plane these surfaces. Each side of each panels is flattened similarly with the final thickness of each board constantly in mind. The final thickness, in this case 11/16 inch, needs to be accurately maintained throughout the panels, both across the panel and along the length of the panel. I have made a few passes with a long jointer plane with a long bearing surface to make quick work of any bumps and hollows over the length of the panels. Afterwards, I switch to a smoother plane and smooth the panels further until the high and low spots disappear, all the while I reducing the depth of iron in my smoother plane to take progressively lighter shavings. I'm also using my widest smoother, No. 4.5, for this application, this provides less overlap in the plane strokes and covers more area quickly. A stick of wax is your friend when doing this type of work, this keeps the hand plane gliding smoothly and somewhat effortlessly. When I assembled the panels from boards earlier I made sure to orient the grain of the boards in the same direction, this decision is now obvious as a wise decision since hand planing can be accomplished in the correct direction.
Once I have a rhythm established, flattening these panels is actually an enjoyable task. Tearout is non-existent since I'm planing with the grain and the beech panels are fairly tame, so all I get is nice, fluffy shavings. I had to watch myself to not get carried away. At this time, I have four panels hand planed to thickness (uniform thickness) and perfectly smooth , as determined from some final checking with the solid steel straightedge.
Next I will dimension each of the two side panels and the top and bottom panels to the final width and length which the design calls for.
Sometimes I spend time researching past furniture styles. I often read that much today has already been done before, and after seeing some good examples of period furniture, find some truth in this old adage. My favorite influential maker is George Hepplewhite and the associated furniture of his era. Furniture of the late 18th century has been mostly characterized by Chippendale and the cabriole leg design element. George Hepplewhite, however, is much less written about and known, and was characterized by the slight, tapered legs of his furniture and lightness and delicacy of his pieces. A considerable amount of 20th century furniture has been derived from this late 18th , early 19th century period and in particular the makers Chippendale and Hepplewhite. American Federal style furniture had its origins in the Hepplewhite style. Much of the design elements of this particular period have made their way into furniture of the past century. This can be considered a "revival" of a previous style in time, but I like to think of it as simply embracing design elements which were and continue to be pleasing to the eye..When I flip through examples of furniture representative of previous periods and styles, it is easy to see what worked and what didn't work. The design elements which are pleasing and well-proportioned are carried into later periods, whereas the not so pleasing styles typically die off. Another trend which I notice is how previous styles of furniture are sometimes renounced and discarded only to be replaced with a radically different style of furniture. We see this very same phenomenon today in everything ranging from fashion, automobiles, and continue to see it in furniture styles. A "revival" of a previous period or style of furniture then occurs, much like what occurs in the fashion world today.
The reason I raise this is that this is something to consider for furniture makers today. We all have our favorite style as makers, but it may be important to incorporate proven design elements in our designs, the elements which have demonstrated the most success over the past few centuries. Since what we are designing is often derived from a previous style or work, it makes more sense to derive elements from the successful styles of furniture.
I'm a big fan of clean, simple lines with minimal adornment, although I like to incorporate some inlay into my work. The inlay work sparks my creativity and in a strange way provides me the impetus to complete the furniture so as to add the inlay detail. I can relate the piece of furniture to a large canvas and the inlay is the artwork. Other makers might define themselves through another feature on their work, perhaps some carving or marquetry. George Hepplewhite often distinguished his work with added inlay. A large proportion of Hepplewhite and Federal style furniture is inlaid with the exotic woods which had come into popularity by the late part of the 18th century and early 19th century.
More on this later...
I resume work on the cabinet on stand this week.
In the meantime, I have assembled the panels from the boards I had partially completed in the last post. This process consists of having one face of the boards flat along with one edge. Careful planning along with board layout is involved. The grain orientation of the two boards which comprise each of the panels should run in the same direction. I have marked the individual boards and edges correspondingly and then prepare the edges of the boards which mate together. I accomplish this by hand using a jointer plane along with regularly checking that the edge of each board is perfectly square to the flat face of the board. The edges of the individual boards need to mate perfectly in two planes, across the edge and along the edge.
Once I've accomplished this, I introduce a slight hollow in each long edge just shy of the ends of the boards. The hollow is precisely one very thin shaving thick. This creates a very small spring in the joint which is closed when the boards are clamped together. The spring also serves another purpose, to make certain that the ends do not open up in the future due to wood shrinkage. Introducing spring or hollow in the edge joint can be controversial sometimes, with different opinions shared by different people. I simply do what works for me. After having oriented, assembled, and glued each of the four panels together, my next step was to begin to size the dimensions of each of the panels. At this point the panels are each slightly oversize in both length and width and ready for final preparation. The final preparation stage consists of hand planing each of the two surfaces of each panel with a smoother plane working towards four perfectly flat panels. The value of the earlier step of having the grain orientation of each of the two boards in each panel running in the same direction is greatly appreciated now. Because of this previous consideration, there should be no issues with tearout with hand planing. Afterwards, I will trim the panels to the final dimension.Not sure about the rest of you, but we're experiencing one of the largest snowfalls in the past years in this part of the country. It seems to snow every other day, and folks are complaining that they've run out of space to put it all. I kind of don't mind as it extends the ski season well into spring, which is my favourite time to get out and do downhill skiing.
I left off in my last post with a few boards in the process of acclimatizing to my work area and to relieve any built up stress in the wood. A few days have elapsed and as expected, there is a little tendency of cupping and bowing in some of the individual boards. This is minimal, but nonetheless needs to be addressed. One face of each of the boards needs to be perfectly flat in both width and length. I continued to process each of the boards today to make certain this one face also known as the reference face of the boards, is true and flat. The thickness of the individual boards is slightly greater than I need for a final thickness and this will allow me to plane the opposite face to the exact final thickness I need. In the photo I have a few of the boards after some more preparation along with some of the tools I use to measure any cup or bow in each board. At the left, there is also a solid steel straight edge which I use to check bow along the length of the board. The combination square at right serves to any cupping of the boards along their width. The small steel engineers square is used to measure the long edge of the board to confirm it is square to the reference face.These past few days have also allowed me to temporarily switch my focus to another endeavor. My wife has slowly been ramping her small business up, and over a week ago we decided to take some concrete steps to get it established. The business is now set up, and I have also set up her web site. This past Saturday, Linda had her very first showing at the grand opening of a small tea house and shop in our area. This is a very heady and exciting period for her, it sort of reminds me of myself when I began my original business a few years ago. I'll post her web site if anyone is interested in having a look: http://www.fusionjewelrydesign.com/
I last left off having finalized the design and at the beginning of the wood preparation stage. In the past few days I've created a cut list of components I will need for the carcase of the cabinet. The cabinet case is solid wood, European QS Beech, and I have in my inventory some nice 8/4 planks of this species of wood. I happen to like working with QS Beech. It's extremely fine-grained wood and has a nice ray pattern to it, of course depending on the board. The planks of wood I have in my inventory are primarily quarter-sawn with some rift-sawn cuts mixed in. Each length of the 8/4 beech provides me 2 boards and the leftover , approximately 5/8 in., is to be later selected for use in veneering the door panels. I judiciously measured and re-measured the correct lengths for the cabinet top, cabinet bottom, and sides before dimensioning the large planks. The planks are actually greater than 8/4 in thickness, more so approaching 2.5 inches. Once the lengths are cut to size , my next step is to create a rectangular slab from the large thick piece. These planks came with the optional wane or bark present on the plank... Ok, just kidding here. These planks are so large you can imagine how large the girth of the tree was. The radius of the bark on one edge of the planks allow us to estimate how large the diameter of the tree is and provide us a glimpse into the age of the tree.Following the cross-cutting of the planks into slabs, the next step was to resaw the slabs into appropriate sized boards. I allow a decent percentage of the thickness of the resawn board to accommodate the acclimatization and the release of tension that inevitably results from resawing thick slabs of wood. The idea here is to resaw fairly thick boards, wait to have them acclimate to the studio and to release any built-up tension, and then continue processing the boards. This is done in stages and the end result is a stable, flat board at precisely the dimensions and thickness I am looking for.In the photo from left to right are irregular pieces with wane or bark, an end cut of the original slab, and the resawn boards which comprise the case for the cabinet on stand. There are also thinner leftover boards from the resawing operation that I will further resaw to create veneers for the veneered door panels. The resawn boards are nominally thicker than final dimensions and currently acclimating to my studio. I'm also succumbing to cabin fever, as it is easy to lose track of time when we're focused. I need to go out and get some skiing in. In my area (Ottawa, Ont.) happens to be located the world's longest skating rink, a few miles long to be exact. It has recently opened, or a large part of it. This is another favorite winter pastime of mine, to get out and do some serious skating.
The evolution of the cabinet on stand continues, or should I say the devolution. In consultation with the client, the radical front with exposed drawers was a bit much. After even scaling back to a single drawer it was decided to not have any exposed drawers. I will instead embellish the door panels with some decorative treatment, an inlaid design. I will probably make a piece such as I had preciously drawn at some point in the future for purposes of speculation. In the meantime, I have almost finalized the drawing for this current cabinet on stand. As mentioned previously, the stance of this cabinet will have a lower, wider profile and it is to be purely a showcase type cabinet. With this in mind, I will leave the configuration of any interior drawers until later and focus on the case of the cabinet at the moment. I'm kind of excited about this project in that the form of the cabinet I find very aesthetically pleasing and the uniformity of the woods comprising the cabinet itself is a change from my previous commission. I also have artistic freedom to an extent with this commission with respect to detail work, interior layout, and the stand for the cabinet.The European Quartersawn Beech I intend to use is a very fine wood, tight-grained and very uniform in texture, color , and appearance. This allows me more flexibility with any inlay adornment on the front of the doors later, a little like a having blank canvas to work with. Over the next few days I will begin to rough cut the wood to be used in the cabinet carcase or case. I do this in stages, allowing the wood to both acclimatize to my studio and to provide it enough time to release any internal tensions which have been exposed through cutting and dimensioning of the wood.Next I will finalize the dimensions and exact measurements of the case and begin to prepare a cut list from which I can determine how best to dimension and prepare the wood I will be using. The case will be solid wood, the doors veneered with the same wood, and the back I intend to have a frame and panel.
I need to make a confession. The genuinely creative person in my household is my wife. Okay, I'm kidding, we're both artistically inclined it seems. My wife began making bead type jewelry a year or so ago, and has since progressed into mixed media type jewelry, namely wood inlaid with metal. Her preferred wood is cocobolo with silver inlay. Cocobolo is a fantastic wood for this application since it polishes well, is very tight-grained, and has beautiful colored streaks giving it character. Linda began with small square inlay and has since delved into irregular shapes such as diamonds, curved inlay, and multi-sided inlay. I mentioned to her I would post a photo of her work on this blog since her work does originate from here, not quite from my studio, but nonetheless. Linda also trained for a short while with a leading goldsmith in the area and has developed a excellent background on working with metal and forming metal, of course, the education never ends.
Linda's jewelry making has opened up new experiences for us, we often shop for wood together, visiting local dealers in the quest for the ideal pieces of wood. I've spent some time with her on a couple of the pieces, critiquing her work. This went surprisingly well in spite of what we thought would occur. She is appreciating how important a virtue patience is, and how important it is to spend the extra time to get things just right. The designs are all hers, I just rough cut the pieces of wood and she trims them, creates a recess for the inlay and applies the inlay. The shaping, finishing and polishing are her domain, I usually just see the finished pieces. The jewelry stand was created by Linda's father, another fine craftsman.
Linda is currently experimenting with other woods such as blackwood and is also developing some new designs. She keeps challenging herself with more interesting designs, working her creative side and very much enjoying this. Back to the regularly scheduled programming, I continue to refine the cabinet on stand design and should have a final design with mock-up ready soon.
I've been working on the frame and panel for the back of the cabinet. This frame is composed of the same wood, European beech, as the cabinet. The components of the frame and panel back are two outside stiles, a center stile, and the upper and lower rails which are continuous along their length. The width of the individual components is approximately 2 inches or thereabouts, and I based this on aesthetics along with availability of clear quarter-sawn beech stock on hand. 
