Tiger Maple Wall Cabinet

[GeeDub]

Tip of the hat to Clark Kellogg in a Fine Woodworking article for the inspiration on this. 

I had a piece of tiger maple that needed to become something.

   

I see this site has picture rotation data problems.  I tried a few things to make it port over correctly but . . . still sideways
.  I tend to use SketchUp for design work.  This is my take after seeing some of his beautiful pieces in this style.

   

I used knife hinges and a bunch-o-dominos for the vertical to horizontal joinery as Clark did.

   

The little walnut drawer units use splines for joinery.  This seemed to work well for items of this scale.  You can see here how some of the dividers and fixture parts are wedge-shaped.  This follows the concave shape of the piece and helps visually.

   

I use little snips of wire or brazing rod (depending on scale) and epoxy to mount the ebony pulls.  The wires acts like little dowels.

   

You can see the frame and panel back follows the form of the drawer unit here.  This was a fun feature (also borrowed from Clark Kellogg) to add interest to the cabinet.

   

Here it is with a little more shellac work.  The ebony pulls and the surrounding area get a bit of varnish to resist wear and ease cleaning. .  I topped it off with paste wax.

   

I'm currently between shops but, wanted to post something so, this is from a year or so ago.  I've done some other stuff since but, not as much fun as this one.

[shoottmx]

Gorgeous! You certainly made excellent use of the TMaple. Love the curved front.

g

[Mike 55]

That is some crazy figured maple. Very nicely done!

I never used shellac. Does it add any color? I made a Afghan Rack many years ago and used dye on it to bring out the tiger maple. I have a bunch of boards looking to become a new bedroom dresser.

[jteneyck]

Gorgeous! You certainly made excellent use of the TMaple. Love the curved front.

g

I'll second that.  Stunning. 


John

[GeeDub]

I never used shellac. Does it add any color? I made a Afghan Rack many years ago and used dye on it to bring out the tiger maple. I have a bunch of boards looking to become a new bedroom dresser.

I use a method I picked up somewhere.  Most everything I do I picked up from someone else
.  I use a 1lb cut and flood the figured material.  This sends the shellac deep into the softer, more open fibers of the figure.  This is a fairly safe method of flooding since the shellac dries so fast.  The following couple of coats are a 2lb cut.  Here's another example of shellac on figured maple.

   

I wanted to keep the maple on the wall cabinet pretty light (sort of amber-ish).  If you really want to make it pop dyes are the way to go.  The late Charles Neil has some You Tube videos that show how to pop figure when using colorants.  I did this a bit on some frames I made for the person who gave me the maple.

   

I dye the material and then sand back.  This leaves the color in the softer material and sands it off the harder material somewhat.  There are variations.  I have dyed the material lemon yellow (like Screaming Yellow Zonker yellow), then dyed with browns and sanded as previously described.  This highlights the harder material even more but, can become garish if you don't watch yourself . . . DAMHIKT.

[fredhargis]

Very, very nice...that wood is gorgeous and your work made it more so.

[brianwelch]

Funny, the scale did not register with my oh so busy cerebellum, cerebrum et al, until seeing it in its final position...
Beautiful piece of craftsmanship...

[GeeDub]

Thanks for the kind words guys.  I'm working on a new shop and hope to post more as I get going again.

[lift mechanic]

Lost for words, just WOW.

[Arlin Eastman]

First Welcome to woodnet.   Thanks for the pictures and look forward to more.  Big leaf figured maple is my favorite.