Chagall, Matisse and Sycamore

 I thought the polished copper pulls made the piece look mid to early late Danish Modern.  They needed to be funked up a bit to bring it back to Early Century Modern West Coast Warehouse.

I temporarily attached one of the newly polished pulls to see if I liked it like that.

So to knock it off it's horse a bit, I took a propane torch to heat them up real good then dipped into boiled linseed oil.  Torched them again until the oil started to dry and turn color.

I think the darkness helps to bring the pulls into balance with the Sycamore.

Coat of wax applied to the drawers the night before delivery.

One final look before wheeling it out of the studio.  Keen eye will notice one missing pull.  It was proving to be a malcontent that needed some attention.

And it's now in it's resting place.

I'd take and show some more photos but I won't be around the computer for the next month.

Drawers and Pulls

 Sycamore is non judgemental as to how you approach it.  It seems you can plane in any direction you want and it won't tear out.  Cuts clean, doesn't splinter.  Takes a polish if you want.

Beautiful as can be.

Since it planed so nicely I thought I would work the whole piece only with the Japanese planes.  Ended up sanding it, only because the planed surface wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

Onto the drawers.  Dovetailed them on the WoodRat.  I've been taking on the mantle of exalting the benefits of the WoodRat for decades now and finally realizing it will never catch on with people.  It's just too different for 99.5% of woodworkers out there.  

Did a precut on the table saw to hog out some of the material first so the dovetail bit didn't have to work too hard.  The WoodRat uses much thinner bits than other jigs out there.  They're high speed steel and you can cut much more elegant dovetails with them.  Carbide bits are brutish clods compared to high speed steel.

Right outta the WoodRat.  Perfect.

Stack of ten drawer parts.  The front of the drawer is a half lap blind dovetail.  They take a bit of chisel work.

Drawers glued up and seeing how they look in the carcass.

Back to the WoodRat to cut the slots for the pulls.

I called up my brother for a phone visit, he lives on the east coast.  Architect and a licensed contractor.

I was telling him I needed a ball peen hammer for the copper pulls I was making.  He had taken all of Dad's tools when our parents died, said he would look through the boxes.  Sent a photo the next day that he had found it but it had a split handle.

No problem, send it out.

It arrived, I fixed the handle with one of these wire clamp tools, Clamptite.

Cut a bunch of stock, hammered it with the ball peen on the leather covered piece of steel, drilled and buffed them out.

Right before applying the finish.

Right after applying the finish.  I did a single coat of Rubio Monocoat.

Like I say.  Beautiful as can be.

And how it goes, decided the copper needed some funk put on it.  That will be in the next post.