My Wife's chest of drawers - finished pics

[loosetoe]

This piece is more in keeping with the stuff i normally build.
I finished it a month or so ago. The material for the drawer fronts is some curly mahogany i have had for over 10 years. I have moved this piece of wood twice...from texas to virginia to colorado. My wife asked me about 6 months ago if i was ever going to make something out of it. I almost got pissed and started to mouth off...instead, i made something out of it.

This piece is roughly based off of the Chester County Tall Chest from one of Glenn Huey's books.





Gratuitous shot of the hundreds of hand cut dovetails



The book matched crotch panels.


Some construction images:

[RobertM]

Magnificent!!! Truly a piece of art.
Robert

[Joe Connors]

Very nicely done! I really like the drawer layout and the crotch panels. Flawlessly executed!

[Paul Murphy]

SUPERB!!!

[Big Dave]

Beautiful!



I like your shop, too, btw...

[Ambidex]

Very beautiful!! And guessing making that piece of art benefited you better than getting pissed and mouthing off!!

[cputnam]

Simply beautiful! I love the grain matching you did. And it only took you 6 months???? Wow!

[BrokenOlMarine]

nicely done, I love curly woods.

[jteneyck]

Simply beautiful. And all those hand cut dovetails make my hands hurt just thinking about it. Do I see some cracks in the book matched crotch panels? If so, did you fill them? Also, what's the finish? And why did you choose to add locks to lower four drawers? Was it to balance the middle drawer at the top? Makes it overly busy to me. Finally, what are the darker "buttons" on the front legs? Sorry for all the questions, but when I see a great piece I like to learn some of the why behind it whenever possible. Thanks.

John

[loosetoe]

There are indeed a few cracks. Crotches tend to split. These were filled with black epoxy. It looks as inconspicuous as possible, but it is still there.

The finish is general finishes enduro-var in semi gloss. It's ok, but an oil based finish would have made the figure come alive more.

The locks are there because this is a reproduction piece. The original had them. They will never be used.

The buttons are a....mistake. Screws were too long. This is the most elegant fix I could muster. I could BS and say that I attached the bracket feet with dowels, but that would be a lie. By the time I realized the error, the glue had set for 4 hours, all I could do was somehow cover the mistake. I did it 4 times to make it look intentional. I am glad someone called me out on these. They bug me, and I can't get better without criticism.