A cradle for my soon arriving grandson

[Ken Vick]

My step-daughter and her husband are having my wife and my first grandchild in about 2 weeks if he arrives on schedule. Here are some pictures of the cradle I made for the new baby. The design is from Wood magazine, Sept 2007 issue. My wife and I intend for the cradle to also be used by my step-son when he starts having children and hopefully it will be passed down to succeeding generations for their babies. The magazine had an interesting suggestion which we are going to follow. That was to attach a small brass plate with the name and birthday for each succeeding baby that uses the cradle. The parents are not telling us the name of the baby yet but when we get a name from them we will get the brass plate made and attach it as the first one.

The cradle is made of Honduran mahogany. The ends and rockers are quarter sawn and the sides are plane sawn. The bottom is curly Honduran mahogany veneer which is beautiful although it doesn't show up well in these photos. The cradle is held together by ebony pegs and knocks down for storage in a box I am currently building. The mattress is handmade to fit the cradle from organic wool and hemp. We got it from KelleyGreen on ETSY.

[Trusty Rusty]

Very nice Ken. I really like the qs on the ends, makes it stand out.
But more importantly congratulations on your 1st grandbaby.
I got my 1st 3 in the last 2 months, twin girls and a grandson.
I have not found a downside to these grandkids yet!!!!!!!!
Rusty

[jteneyck]

That looks up to your usual level of great choice of woods and fine craftsmanship, Ken. Very well done.

I bet Michelle is getting really excited.

John

[iclark]

Very nicely done. The brass plaque sounds like a nice touch as well. Do not forget to sign and date it. My grandfather signed the cradle (that I was rocked in) under the bottom of the cradle.

How do the 4 sides attach to the base?

[Ken Vick]

How do the 4 sides attach to the base?

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[/blockquote]

Thanks for the nice words. The bottom fits into dados on the ends and groves on the sides. Yes, I do intend to sign the cradle.

[Bill_de]

Nice looking Ken. I hope it gets a lot of use over the years.

[MichaelMouse]

Tusk tenons? Or decoration? If tusk tenons, good move. I made a lot of cradles for GIs when in service, and the type shown becomes a shin-buster unless there's some way to make it collapse for storage out of the way. One of the reasons I pushed hard for the trestle types was because they could easily be made to disassemble, though having the baby up where there's less bending is also a good idea. Pencil signature under the bottom for me as maker, though the Stanley cup approach sounds intriguing.

I always made the grain on the head and footboards vertical, unless the customer wanted dovetails. Personal preference.

[Ken Vick]

MichaelMouse said:

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Tusk tenons? Or decoration? If tusk tenons, good move. I made a lot of cradles for GIs when in service, and the type shown becomes a shin-buster unless there's some way to make it collapse for storage out of the way. One of the reasons I pushed hard for the trestle types was because they could easily be made to disassemble, though having the baby up where there's less bending is also a good idea. Pencil signature under the bottom for me as maker, though the Stanley cup approach sounds intriguing.

I always made the grain on the head and footboards vertical, unless the customer wanted dovetails. Personal preference.

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The cradle comes completely apart and will fit into a 5" tall box. No glue used in any of the joinery. For example, the bottom is just captured in grooves. (I think I said earlier that the bottom was captured in a dado in the end pieces, it is actually in grooves.) I am making the box to store this taller by 4" because we will also store the mattress in the box, as well. I didn't think of running the grain vertically in the end pieces but I think that might be better. Ken

[smithgl12]

Congrats to you, Michelle and family. very nice work as always.

[goaliedad]

congratulations on a very nice project. The cradle is nice too