Pirate Chest Build- part 2

[Mike Allen1010]

As I mentioned in part one, construction/joinery for this chest is unusual; here’s the front panel -the chest stiles are joined to rails by M&T’s. The rails top and bottom are joined to sides of the chest by dovetails. Hopefully that’ll make more sense with subsequent pictures

1 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


Here is sawing out the tennons. For the ripping/cheeks I like a sturdy saw plate – this is a shop built saw with .025”thick plate. For the cheeks, a shop built .015” thick plate crosscut back saw – one of my favorite tools.

3 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr


3.5 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

The bottom rail is proud of the front of the chest. Because I’m using 4/4 stock, stiles are joined with open lap joints that will later be screwed.

3 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

In frame and panel construction getting the show surfaces to fit tightly with M&T joints is key. I like to do most paring freehand with chisels, but for this a job where a finally set shoulder plane really works well.
Here’s the dry assembly before the dovetails are cut in top and bottom rails.

5 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


6 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

7 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


Again because the bottom rails are proud of the vertical plane of the carcass by 3/16”, the panel fits into the bottom rail with an open, stopped rabbit. Stopped rabbit/grooves are a headache for me and I usually try and avoid them in the design. When necessary, like in this case, marking gauge and paring chisels work you better for me than rabbit planes that don’t reach to the end of the groove/rabbit.

8 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

Capturing the panel in the top rail also requires a stopped groove which is done with a 2 blade mortise gauge followed by fenced router plane.

9 (2) by Mike Allen, on Flickr

9 by Mike Allen, on Flickr



Here’s some pics of sawing dovetails for rails. The outside shoulder cuts on dovetails are a place where IMHO paring a “saw grove” adjacent to the layout line is worthwhile to ensure a tight fit.

11 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


10 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Dry assembly of the front carcass frame hopefully shows how all the joinery components for carcass front/sides come together. This construction places a real premium on layout to ensure baselines for rail DTs correspond exactly to the thickness of side components.

13 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

12 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


I added some Line and Berry inlay to the front panel using the Lee Valley string inlay tools. Cutting the grooves is really pretty straightforward. Important to plan the sequence so the curved elements are cut first, this allows pivot point to fall in to the framing grooves which are cut last, so hopefully they’re not visible.

14 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Cutting the stringing to the correct thickness to fit grooves is important and a headache. If you don’t get it right the width of final inlay will be uneven. This is a little jig with a fence with the slicing tool. As you might imagine when seeking stringing that is .040” thick, any unevenness in the fence is a problem. I don’t get great results out of this; my best advice is make a couple passes with the stringing firmly in place and then flip it over to make a couple passes from the other side in hopes you get a uniform strip that doesn’t fracture with the grain.
Actually now I think of it, the best way to do this is sliced the stringing a little wider than needed and then use a scraper to bevel one edge so that it fits into the groove with a wedge action.


15 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Here’s the finished stringing. I didn’t follow my own advice about beveling the edge of the stringing so you can see there’s a couple places where thickness of the finished inlay isn’t uniform.

16 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


The “berries” are 1/8^th inch diameter dowels made in contrasting ebony and cedar using a dowel firmer plate.

17 by Mike Allen, on Flickr



Here are the ebony and cedar berries. Hopefully will show up better once the finish is applied.


18 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


Here is a close-up of the front carcass panel that hopefully shows the 3/16” revealed of the bottom rail that will be joined via DTs.

20 by Mike Allen, on Flickr


With the front panel moving along it’s time to get back to the inlay design for the curved chest lid. This is really over my head; lots of small pieces like the outer braided rope which was covered in earlier post and sharp corners like the ¼” stars. Also because this inlay is going into a curved substrate, all the inlay pieces need to be thick enough to allow for final surfacing. There was no way I could saw the small stars with sharp corners into the background using a fret saw so I cut them out separately with a chisel, hot glued them in place, scribed for the recesses and hope for the best.

23 by Mike Allen, on Flickr





Here is sawing out the central elements of the inlay with the fret saw. As you can see, after adding all the other inlay elements the show surface is a gluey mess. Can’t tell what the results of this work will look like on till it’s finally glued into the chest top and the show surface can be cleaned up.


24 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

Here’s the finished product – you’ll note I’m not showing any close up pics because up close it’s far from perfect. That said, I’m pretty darn proud of myself that the whole thing didn’t turn into firewood!

25 by Mike Allen, on Flickr

[Mike Allen1010]

26 by Mike Allen, on Flickr



Next up will be building the sides and assembling the carcass and then hoping like heck the top actually fits. I’ll try and post more pictures as build progresses.

Thanks for looking, all the best Mike

[Oskar Sedell]

you should be proud of yourself! Amazing how the inlay pops when the top surface is cleared. Thanks for sharing the progress!

[Hasin Haroon]

Mike, as always, amazing. What an inspiration to actually go to the shop and make something.

[Will Boulware]

Nicely done! I think a lot of us are taking notes over here...

[Mike Allen1010]

Thanks much for the feedback.

Initially I planed the inlay flush with the curved chest top, but due to the alternating direction of grain for the various inlay pieces there was some tear out. Ultimately card scrapers yielded the best results. Certainly not perfect, but good enough for me.

Thanks for looking, Mike

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[Malcolm Schweizer]

This gets the pirate seal of approval. Very nicely done. I say again, I do a lot of intricate inlays, and I respect what it took to do the rope and stars. Very well executed.

[steven c newman]

The Pirate.JPG
The Pirate seems to like it, too....