I received a request for nightstands from my granddaughter, recently graduated from college & moved into her first apartment. I began work after receiving the plans and specifications, and verbal addendum for a floating middle shelf:
As per my preferences for working wood, I use as many hand tools as possible and the old ways before electricity, to complete my assignment. This entails things like edge treatment on side and bottom panels to reduce to fit the grooves in frames: Cutting the grooves on the frame members: Making the drawer pulls: Cutting the drawer dovetails: (note the small square opening below the bottom dovetail, result of not spacing dovetails correctly to cover the bottoms groove. Could plug it, but forgot.) and, using my edge treatment plane, as I recently figured out it wasn't just a bargain store mismatch of iron and body: Story on this here - https://craftisian.com/entries/2462-i-finally-figured-out-this-molding-plane-s-use
That's about it, except for the fact it has taken me 3 days to list this project due to my limited (none) knowledge of how to find the photos I needed between; Photos, Gallery, Albums, etc. All this new tech is bad for my mental health.
Thanks Splinter, much appreciated. Yep, solid cherry all the way through. It's my favorite wood for the beauty as it ages, has beautiful grain patterns but not so dominant as other woods. I do have some electric tools, a bandsaw which I use for resawing a lot, circular saw, battery hand tools - etc, but using the old wooden plowplanes & molding planes is a nice pleasure for me. Besides, if someone finds imperfections in my work & points it out, I just say " what ya want from 200 year old tools!
beautiful work OT ! i wish i wasn't addicted to power tools and did more hand tool work but with the issues ive had with my hands, dupuytrens contracture and trigger finger on both hands hand tool work is gonna be minimal ! id bet those night stands will be handed down to her child someday !
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
Beautiful work Oldtool! Doing it by hand tools is special IMO. There's a journey there that just isn't the same using power tools. Your granddaughter will always cherish for years to come that her grandpa built it just for her by hand.
Nicely done. I really like these nightstands. I'm sure your grand daughter will too. I admire your hand-tool skills. Thanks for all the pics. Again, good work...