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This project, although not my design, is all my handiwork. It is a wall cabinet, approximately 31 inches by 12 inches by 7 inches deep, designed by Ernie Conover, and used as the focus project for the "Handtool Joinery: Building a Wall Cupboard" class at Conover Workshops in Parkman, OH.
More information about this workshop can be obtained by visiting the Conover Workshops Web Site, or by reading the Destinations for Woodworkers article I wrote about my experience there.
Built of solid walnut, with tulip or white wood shelves, drawer, and back, this cupboard is an exercise in all of the essential hand tool skills that are being lost to the seductive hum of the newer, lower priced woodworking machinery on the market. It took five days to make and I still had a few details to finish off, apart from the finish itself.
We started by hand dovetailing the carcass pieces. Walnut, a wood I have long wanted to try working with, is quite hard and much different to dovetail than the pine I was practicing on before taking the course. I found it to be one of the most pleasurable woods to work with that I have tried. It does take time to get used to the dark color, which makes layout marks that much more difficult to see.
After gluing up the carcass with hide glue, we moved to the face frame. Made of 3/4 inch thick walnut, we joined it together using hand cut mortise and tenon joints. I have made many face frames in my time but always thought that M&T joinery was too involved for such a purpose. However, biscuits, butt joints, dowels, pocket screws, or any other method I have tried can never measure up to the solidity and fit of this frame.
It is prudent to mention here that proper layout techniques are stressed throughout the class. I have always tried to be accurate in my layout but I never truly appreciated the effect that proper technique can have on your finished product.
We glued the face frame together with hide glue then proceeded onto the door. Hand grooved then hand mortised and tenoned, the door and it's hand raised panel proved to be less difficult that we expected but that was largely due to the amount of hands on practice we were getting over such a short period of time. I am still experimenting with ways to make the raised panel show up better on film, so stay tuned for better pictures.
A divider was dadoed in using a handsaw and a Stanley #71 router plane. This experience was unbelievable. I defy anyone to set up and rout the same joint with a router as fast as we did with a couple of hand tools and a bench hook. A nifty ratcheting shelf system was fabricated and we cut our own molding using a Stanley #78 Duplex Filletster plane, an antique wooden hollow plane, and a Stanley #45 with a beading cutter in it.
By Thursday morning, we were ready to tackle the drawer (here is another shot) and its hand cut through and half blind dovetails. Some book-matched tulip poplar was shiplapped with a #78 for the back and cut to size, and the shelves were constructed from the scraps. The rest of Thursday and Friday were spent getting the refinements complete, though no-one actually completed everything.
After the course I completed the few odds and ends that needed to be done, such as smoothing with a No. 5 Bailey and fitting the hinges to the door. The cabinet was later sanded to 220 grit by hand with a small block of cherry as a sanding block, then finished with Minwax Antique Oil finish that was applied and rubbed in with increasing grit numbers of wet dry paper. The result is everything I hoped for and the entire experience has changed the way I look at wood and woodworking.
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