The plans and instructions for this chest are available free from Woodworkers Journal at: https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/project-classic-cherry-chest/ with a cut list at: https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/Classic-Cherry-Chest-Drawings-Materials-List.pdf
I made this blanket chest with skip planed 5 quarter black cherry, available extras at the sawmill from an order where the customer wanted to use it finished to 1”. I went with it because I intended to resaw to half inch for parts of the build, and I used 1” finished cherry for the carcass. My resawing method can be seen on my last post: https://craftisian.com/projects/14386-my-method-for-resawing#first-new
I rough dimensioned the stock using an (I'm guessing here) 18th century jointer. It looks like fire wood, but with a highly chambered and sharpened iron set to remove about 3/32” shavings, a new tote and wedge I made, it removed excess wood during edge & face planing like a champ.
After glue-up, I used scrapers to remove glue squeeze out, and blend in the glue line where boards where sometimes a 64th inch or so uneven, due to hand prep.
The first scraping picture shows a scraping blade from big box paint department, with a homemade handle allowing heavy pressure, it works great.
Next, dovetails, cut both front and back boards simultaneously. That went slow, the dovetail saw has 10 or 15 TPI, but going slow helped accuracy.
Next I marked out the panels for 1/4" grooves to mount the carcass bottom and the sliding drawer supports, using an homemade marking gauge.
Cutting the shelf and carcass bottom grooves and dados I used a mortise chisel for the stopped support groove for the sliding drawer, a plow plane for the two grooves for the bottom on front & back, and the mortise chisel approach on the sides for the stopped groove to insert the bottom. I deviated from plans here, opting for mounting the carcass bottom the old traditional way, in grooves & dados.
After resawing to ½” and glueup for the carcass bottom, I used a moving filletster and dado planes to take the edges to 1/4” for the mounting grooves. The dado planes worked better across the end grain with their skewed angle irons.
The base next, again going my way and not per the plans. I laminated two 1” pieces for a sturdy base with cherry color outside and lighter sapwood inside. I opted for this so the carcass rests fully on the inside inch of the base. I had to practice hand cutting the corner miters - I found these miters easier than I thought. I first used a striking knife around the full miter perimeter and chiseled a small trench from the waste side for the saw to follow. Cutting the base profile was done on the band saw, mainly due to not having a coping saw for this 2” material, then followed by rasp & file to finish the shape.
Last bit of woodworking was the sliding drawer and the rails for this box. Forgot to photo the drawer, which was also dovetailed with bottom mounting grooves same as the carcass was made. The drawer rails, also not per plans at ½” square, were ¾” tall by ½” thick, with a rabbet to produce a quarter inch section for the groove. This gave me more stability and a lot more gluing surface.
Now, time for final finish. I used water based Minwax Polycrylic, brush on, dry in 2 hours, light sanding to remove raised grain and another coat. Three coats in all, with semi-gloss.
This project took longer than any others, but with hand tool construction, it was much quieter and no chips or sawdust all over everything.
