Rob’s Lingerie Chest

Here is a perfect example of why we should always keep our eyes and ears open for those lucky bargains. It’s also a good reminder to make sure your family knows you are always on the look out for cheap wood and good bargains on tools. I’ll let Rob tell the story.

My dad called me one day and told me that his friend had a death in the family, an old time woodworker. The family was auctioning off all his tools. I was told that he had 2000+ board feet of walnut and that I could get some cheap since my dad’s friend knew that I liked woodworking also. So I said “Sure, I’d be more than happy to buy some”. I could not make it to the auction, but I told my dad to get me 100 bf of the walnut. About 2 weeks later he shows up with a bunch of wood in his truck. I’m looking, I’m looking…it is all rough cut lumber but it isn’t walnut. So I got a little sander out and I’m trying to figure out what it is. Turns out it was about 150 board feet of mostly cherry, some curly cherry, some walnut, and some mahogany.

My plan was to build a walnut table, but I had to scrap that idea because I didn’t have enough. So I decided to build my wife this Cherry Lingerie Chest instead. It was my first solid wood project taken down from rough lumber. The drawers are made of oak with hand cut dovetails, the bottoms are 1/4″ cedar from home depot labeled closet liner, and the dividers are made from soft maple. The frame of the jewelry chest was made from what I believe is mahogany. The finish is a Minwax wipe-on poly. I also purchased roller bearing underneath drawer slides for the drawers. Overall I was very happy with it and it makes me feel good that the old timer’s wood was not wasted. Oh yeah, my wife was happy too!