Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Drawer Front














The drawer front on the sawbuck table has a raised decorative shape. A template from paper was used to trace the outline onto the wood. Then I incised the outline with an exacto knife, used a chisel to define the line, and used gouges, chisel, and shoulder plane to remove the waste.

A little touch up with sandpaper and it's ready for the date to be inscribed.






There are a few dings and mistakes, but that's one of the things I like about PA German furniture: it's okay to see tool marks and imprecision. That's what gives it its warm appeal.

10 comments:

  1. Kari,
    I so enjoy watching your voyage of discovery.

    Bill

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good job Kari!

    I'm with you; a job well done that shows tool marks and human imprecision show that a human being put their heart into it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Kari - nicely done so far, I'll be interested to see how the final drawer (and project) develops. It's true what you say about leaving the 'makers marks' on the wood surface, what intrigues me is where the line is drawn between what is classified as 'handwork' and that done by machines...when is it acceptable to leave that 'ding' or slight imperfection and under what circumstances should it be removed?...I can feel a Blokeblog entry coming on..._Rob

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very Nice Kari! You do beautiful work. And I agree that the tool marks belong on the piece. No snese trying to make a hand made piece look like it was made by a machine. FWIW, you use a similar carving process for creating a tombstone raised panel door. I've got a couple of these in the works now. Vary nice blog by the way! Hope you don't mind if I link to it from mine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. in the second to last picture, did you purposely put the shavings there to make it look like a big smiley face? :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ron, that's funny! I put them there to add interest, but didn't see the smiley face until my partner pointed it out. All I ever notice is wood. haha :o)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maybe it was an unconscious response to the amount fun I was having in the shop at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kari, I was showing Sylvia your beautiful handwork. She said," Wow, that's really nice. Can't you do that with a router, though?" I do so love that woman!!:D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kari,
    How did you layout your depth? Is what looks like a small rabbet really what is left from the grooves and dadoes used for raising the panel? If you didn't have the rabbet, would you gauge a line? Not much room, so maybe you would have to create a rabbet if you didn't already have one?

    It's looking great! I love that cherry! - Dan

    ReplyDelete
  10. Vic, Sylvia's obviously been paying attention when you've been talking about ww!

    Dan, I set the depth with the combination plane, then raised the panel, then chiseled the rabbet around the tombstone shape to match the depth created by the combi plane. I just did that by eye.

    Cherry's my favorite. :)

    ReplyDelete