This was my first piece of furniture! My wife requested it since our kitchen space is limited. Luckily she was patient because it took over a year to complete. The wood is cherry that grew at my parent’s house. Poplar was used as a secondary wood.
I took aspects from many magazine articles for the design. However, I learned a lot about designing not just for appearance, but also for ease of construction/joint fitting/glue up. The joinery is mainly tenon and mortise. The drawers are hand cut half dovetails.
The Finish process was a little involved. I mixed hand planing, card scraping and sandpaper (220 grit). I wanted to minimize blotching so I started with a shellac wash coat and sanded that with 320 grit, then a thin coat of BLO. However, I wanted the piece to match a mirror I had already made, so I followed up with several coats of garnet Shellac. Mostly this was padded on, but the top I did a french polish for depth. Since this is for the kitchen, I wiped 4 coats of thinned polyurethane.
Overall it was a great project. I was very pleased with the joinery, especially the dovetails. I had never attempted to do them before. Of coarse I practiced on scrap before hand.
Although it took over a year to make, I finished just in time. I completed it a few days before my wife gave birth to our first child.
Beautiful work, and nice touch with the knobs. Your wife must be happy.
Todd, great job, especially on your first piece. Dovetails look good and so much nicer than machine cut.
I can’t help commenting on your concern with eliminating the blotchiness of cherry. I’m just finishing a cherry cabinet for vinyl records so I tried to research finishes to eliminate blotches. Bottom line…the blotches are in the wood…they’re part of cherry and if you don’t like blotches in cherry…you don’t like cherry. What will happen is that they will blend in time as the cherry darkens and takes on a beautiful patina. Also, in my case, I noticed that the quarter sawn cherry had much more blotchy figure than the plain sawn. I think the quarter sawn is superior in appearance (and in stability) so I accept the blotches.
Again, good looking cabinet.
Beautiful Cabinet! I think you did a great job. I too like the finish, The time you spent getting it right was well worth it. I like the dovetail drawers. Makes me want to take the time to do something like that on my next drawers. What’s next? Would love to see that too!
That’s a lot of layers of different types of finish. Can you keep tabs on it and update us on this post every once in a while on how the finish is doing?
As we say down here, mate….that is awesome! Well done Todd, that is what I would love to be able to do one day. You have really inspired me. Thanks for the pics.
Great work Todd! Even if this wasn’t your first piece I would still be saying the same thing! The hand cut dovetails came out fantastic. Have you given any thought to what your next project will be (if you haven’t already started it).
Again, GREAT WORK!
Todd, the piece looks great! The finish is perfect, the symmetry is excellent, and the proportions are just right. I really like the door knobs too, a very nice touch. I am in the process of teaching myself how to cut dovetails by hand – you have done a brilliant job! Keep up the excellent work.
Beautiful piece, Todd! I just wanted to give a shout out from Middlebury — it is quite a treat to see another Wood Whisperer reader from this little corner of the planet.
Beautiful
Great work!! I like the idea that the cherry came from your parent’s place. I know wood is wood, is wood, but I too like to use close to home lumber for my projects! Is there a pic of it with the accompanying mirror? Look forward to future projects and congrats on the new baby!! Happy Father’s day!
Hey Todd, perfect timing and well done project. Those dovetails are looking great. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice job!
Nice project. I wanna take a stab at some hand cut dovetails. Nice job…