Walnut and Maple Jewelry Box (2011)

Earlier this year I was commissioned to make a jewelry box made from Walnut and Maple. Because of the dimensions of the box (15"wide x 7"tall x 12" deep) the customer and I decided it would take up too much room on a dresser and that it would be nicer if it had its own stand. Taking inspiration from early 19th century southern celerettes (liquor bottle storage boxes) and sugar chests, I designed the jewelry box on stand. The designs were made using Google's Sketchup program which is the program I use to design all of my furniture. One benefit of using this program is that it allows me to orbit the 3d model and look at it from any angle. As a bonus, I can then take "snapshots" of the model in the program and export them as jpeg (picture) files. the three images below were captured from the sketchup program and show the model of the box on stand from the front, followed by two views of the jewelry box alone.

I wrote an earlier blog post on this model which shows more views of the box and also the stand alone. to view this post, follow this link:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/07/walnut-and-maple-jewelry-box-fall-2011.html

A few minor details were changed from the drawing to the finished product. The first is that the dimensions were changed from 6" tall in the model to 7". The second was that Walnut splines were chosen over Maple. The third was that the brass plate mentioned in the previous post was moved from the top of the box to the inside of the top. This is much more subtle and allows the flow of the top to be undisturbed.

And now from the concept to reality...

This project started out as all other building projects do, with the milling of the lumber. I found an exquisite piece of crotch Walnut to use for the top that came from a larger 1.5" thick board. after re-sawing the board to get the piece I wanted, I used the rest of the board to make the legs for the stand. Below is a photo of the milled wood used for the sides of the box and the stand followed by a photo of the piece chosen for the top. This piece was coated with shellac until I was ready to mill it to its final dimensions to help prevent the board from cupping and twisting, which crotch lumber is prone to do.



The next step in the process was to cit the groves to accept the top and bottom of the box in the sides. Each side and front (or back) was made from one piece of wood which was cut so the grain continued around the corner of the box.
Here are the four sides cut with the top edge of each side molded. I still had a bit of work to do before these sides could be assembled.
This shot shows the top fit into place. Before I glued the box up I had one last step, which was to route a channel in the top to accept a 1/8" band of Maple inlay. The finished channel can be seen in the following photo.

This photo shows me assembling the box. The sides are taped together on the outside using packaging tape and the top and bottom of the box are inserted. Once the sides are closed around the top and bottom, band clamps are used to square up the side and make sure the mitered sides are tight.The following photo shows the assembled box with the band clamps in place.


After the glue had dried, the box was set in a jig and passed over the table saw blade at a diagonal angle to cut the slots for the splines that hold the mitered corners together. The photo below shows that process.
After all of the slots were cut out, Walnut splines were inserted into the slots with glue. Once the glue dried I pared down the excess wood. I also took this opportunity to inlay the Maple banding in the top. Again, this was pared flush after the glue had dried.
While the box was drying, I turned my attention to construction of the stand. The first step in this process was to make apron for the stand. The individual pieces are labeled with chalk on the front sides to make it easier to see.
After the aprons were made, I morticed the legs to fit. In the photo below, the stand is seen roughly assembled. Once the joinery was completed, I tapered the legs and molded the top edge of the apron and legs for a smooth transition from the stand to the jewelry box.
This photo shows the box assembled and inserted in the completed stand.
this photo shows the top with the maple banding pared down.
The next step was to separate the lid from the bottom of the jewelry box. this was done on the table saw. After that, the hinges were put in place. Special hinges that stopped at 95 degrees were used to ensure the lid did not open too much. The next two photos show the hinged lid closed and then open.

These next few photos show the installation of the lock on the box and the inlaying of the Maple escutcheon. Once the lock was installed I located where the escutcheon should be and glued it in place. A similar process was used to inlay the brass plate on the inside of the lid. This can be seen in the third photo down.



One piece I left out of the Sketchup design was the tray. The customer wanted nine compartments with removable sides. The tray was also to have integral handles that allowed it to be removed and the bottom area to be accessed. The tray was also to be made of Maple with a Walnut bottom. The photo below shows the resulting tray fitted into the box.
These next two photos show the sanded box completed and ready for finishing.

The next three photos show the pieces all laid out during the finishing process.


The following photos show the completed jewelry box from different perspectives and with the lid open and the tray removed and inserted. This was a great building project and a great way to finish out 2011.

Hitchcock Style High Chair 2 (1970)

Deja Vu! Back in June I restored a Hitchcock Style high chair made around 1970 for a customer. Soon after I finished the high chair and wrote a post about it I was contacted by someone looking to buy that chair. Unfortunately the chair was not for sale and I directed this customer to similar examples for sale on the internet. Several weeks later my friend Jesse was in an antique store in Brunswick, Maryland, and saw the exact high chair for sale. After an email to the customer, I drove over to the store and purchased the chair. It was in similar condition to the first one I had worked on and needed the same work. The result was that I restored a second Hitchcock high chair. below are several photos of the restoration as well as the finished product. I have also included a link to the first high chair below:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2011/06/hitchcock-style-high-chair-ca1970.html

These first four photos show the high chair after I bought it. The second photo shows a crack in the seat that was repaired. The third photo shows areas where the black paint had chipped off.

 The customer wanted to have the wood parts refinished like the other one that I had worked on. Here is a photo of the seat after the finish was removed followed by another photo of the tray and foot rest with the finish removed.

 These next two photos show the wood parts after they were sanded and stained.

 The next two photos show the chair during the finishing process.

 Here are some photos of the completed chair. All of the black paint was touched up. After these photos were taken the chair was packed and shipped to the customer.

Pressed Back Rocking Chair (ca 1890)

One of the pieces I have recently completed is a pressed back rocking chair made around 1890. The reason I give for this date is that that is when the method of pressing designs (into wood using metal wheels with the design etched in) was first used in a commercial setting. The wheel was forced down on to the wood surface (probably powered by steam) and rolled across the surface of the wood creating the patterns and giving the overall impression of a carved back. The overall design of this chair also seems to be fitting with the turn of the last century.

The chair was very loose and had a severe break in the seat of the chair. One of the lower back posts had pierced through the seat and was lodged with the tenon poking through. This break happened quite sometime ago, because at one point someone tried to address it with nails and then covered over the seat with naugahyde. The seat subsequently cracked in half and was only held together by braces underneath. In addition, the chair was held together with nails in all of the joinery. In short, this rocking chair needed some help!

Below are photos of the chair from start to finish. You can see all of the repairs made and the final product. I will start with a photo of the chair as it arrived in my shop.

 Here is a close up of the seat with the upholstery.

Once the naugahyde was removed, I could see the extent of the damage. In this photo you can see how the wood was raised by the tenon poking through.

The photo below shows the crack that developed in the entire seat.

Once the seat was removed from the rest of the chair I removed the braces that were bracing the seat. I believe that the smaller brace was original to the chair while the bluish green slat was added as a repair.

Another view of the damaged seat.

After the braces were removed, I removed the finish from the seat. The crack in the seat was completely separated as seen in the photo below.

This was a section of the seat that was completely loose. It had been repaired before and had lost some material. Rather than putting it back in, I made a patch that would span the area. This way there was a tighter surface for gluing up.

This photo shows the new patch before it was glued in place. It was later carved flush with the contour of the seat.

Here is a photo of the seat being glued up.The patch is also being glued and can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo.

After the seat was glued, I noticed significant wood loos in the underside of the crack that ran the length of the seat. Glue alone would not hold the seat together! I made three butterfly patches that spanned the crack in three spots. Below is a photo of the patches before they were inserted into the seat. The following photo shows the patches in place and trimmed flush.

While the glue on the patches was drying, I disassembled the rest of the chair and scraped the joints clean. The chair had many nails in it which took a little time to remove, but I eventually got all of the loose joints apart. The following two photos show the chair knocked apart.

I glued the rocker up with the arms held in place by clamps alone so I knew that everything aligned properly. After the glue dried I removed the arms and spindles to make the staining of the seat a little easier. Here is a photo of the chair glued up followed by a photo of the chair with the arms removed and the seat stained.

 After the seat was stained, the last thing to do was to build up the finish on the seat and clean and add finish to the rest of the chair. The results can be seen in the three photos of the completed rocking chair.