Whisky Cabinet

4037
11

Single malt scotch is the best whisky in the world, scientifically proven to make your beard longer and your tools sharper. Great whisky deserves a fine cabinet; I had been keeping my whisky in a IKEA particle board cabinet and felt like I was keeping a beautiful princess in a castle made of turds. So it was time to make a cabinet worthy of the whisky it held.

I started with claro walnut: if walnut is the king of woods, then claro walnut is the emperor. The cabinet went through many, many design changes; it started off as a Krenov type of cabinet with long legs, then an Asian inspired cabinet with a live edge top. Mainly through trial and error I decided on this design. I did NOT want to do dovetails for this cabinet, the original plan was to do splined mitre corners. However, dealing with 50" long and 13" wide boards seriously limited my ability to cut accurate mitres. Considered various router jig options for dovetails but I hate the uniform look of dovetails from most jigs and I couldn’t spend $700 for a Leigh jig that would allow me to variably space the pins and tails. So, much to my dismay, I hand cut the dovetails.

Had a lot of issues with the build; wood that had been seasoning for months in my shop suddenly decided to twist and cup, made various errors with the dimensions of the shelves and base which required a lot of extra work to fix. Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out, but like most projects, I’m glad it’s done!

Video of the build:
https://youtu.be/NRrPYTL2raM

Rob, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

11 Comments

Wow that is incredible. Design, material, everything. Believe me, whatever minor imperfections there may be, nobody will ever notice them. They’ll be bowled over by the overall thing. Really spectacular in every way.

Just one flaw. Needs to be 3 times bigger. LOL

Losing fingers since 1969

Now that is a project with a mission in mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVI4dzbYXMc&ytbChannel=UV0023

Very nicely done, even with all the hand cut doves. I will have to try some of that walnut.

—Madts.

Tor and Odin are the greatest of gods.

Thanks guys! Everytime I do a big project with a lot of dovetails I swear “never again” and yet, here we are again. I guess that’s why they’ve been used so long historically, it’s just hard to find a stronger joint that still looks good.

Brian: it’s already 3/4 filled so I’ll either have to cut down on my whiskey purchases or get rid of some of the crappy bourbon I have on the bottom shelf.
Madts: nice song! I hope when I die it is literally drowning in a whisky river

Rob, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Outstanding, it does show some James kerno influence .very nice

woodworking classes, custom furniture maker

Thanks Jim!

Rob, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

This is a GORGEOUS piece! Great design. I love the combination of the Walnut and spalted Maple, and the peek-a-boo glass diamond is just wonderful to highlight the live edge. Bravo!

Amor Vincit Omnia

What a beauty! The cabinets really nice too! Great job!

Wow, love the doors and design, great work!

Cool, well thought through with a nice end use as well,

wood wolf