Gene DiNardo
01-10-2010, 5:20 PM
http://http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab291/PopaGeno/Midges%2018th%20Century%20Walnut%20Secretary/I told my wife that I would make her whatever she wanted.
She said, OK. As if prepared for my offer she went to my library and returned with
A large book and said “I want a Secretary like the ones in this book only not as fancy”.
(I assumed she meant the ornate carving typically associated with Chippendale)
This was fine with me since my carving ability is mediocre at best.
The book was the Winterthur collection of American Furniture of the Queen Ann and Chippendale Period.
Well, I did say whatever she wanted. Soo… This is what I presented her with this year for Christmas.
I don’t work from plans, I work from photos, so I took elements from various pieces and incorporated them into my own version of a Period Style piece. You may recognize some of the elements, the gallery is from Lonnie Byrd’s Pa. Secretary, the finials are Orion’s, etc., etc.
(I hope that is not unethical in any way).
I mill most of my own timber with an Alaskan Mill so I have a pretty good stash of
air dried Walnut on hand, which happens to be my favorite domestic wood to work with.
I know many of you also love walnut. The only secondary wood is Spanish Cedar, which
I almost always use for the drawer bottoms.
I use machines to dimension my stock but all joinery is done with hand tools, with the exception of the long sliding dovetails for which I used a router. The moldings and beads are Carved and scraped, the hardware is from Horton Brass, the finish is shellac;Bysaki and Kumsi buttons followed by de-waxed blonde French/Italian Polish.
I like to think I’m a little better at wood butchery than phartogrophy so please excuse the pic quality.
I want to include some close-ups of the gallery details so I will do two posts.
There is also a slideshow in photobucket and I will attempt to include a link.
While this seems like a complicated project it really is just a collection of several small projects and quite doable by most of the people on here. I have documented the build process to some extent and if there is some interest I will do a build post on the projects area.
Thanks for looking,
Gene
(http://http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab291/PopaGeno/Midges%2018th%20Century%20Walnut%20Secretary/)
She said, OK. As if prepared for my offer she went to my library and returned with
A large book and said “I want a Secretary like the ones in this book only not as fancy”.
(I assumed she meant the ornate carving typically associated with Chippendale)
This was fine with me since my carving ability is mediocre at best.
The book was the Winterthur collection of American Furniture of the Queen Ann and Chippendale Period.
Well, I did say whatever she wanted. Soo… This is what I presented her with this year for Christmas.
I don’t work from plans, I work from photos, so I took elements from various pieces and incorporated them into my own version of a Period Style piece. You may recognize some of the elements, the gallery is from Lonnie Byrd’s Pa. Secretary, the finials are Orion’s, etc., etc.
(I hope that is not unethical in any way).
I mill most of my own timber with an Alaskan Mill so I have a pretty good stash of
air dried Walnut on hand, which happens to be my favorite domestic wood to work with.
I know many of you also love walnut. The only secondary wood is Spanish Cedar, which
I almost always use for the drawer bottoms.
I use machines to dimension my stock but all joinery is done with hand tools, with the exception of the long sliding dovetails for which I used a router. The moldings and beads are Carved and scraped, the hardware is from Horton Brass, the finish is shellac;Bysaki and Kumsi buttons followed by de-waxed blonde French/Italian Polish.
I like to think I’m a little better at wood butchery than phartogrophy so please excuse the pic quality.
I want to include some close-ups of the gallery details so I will do two posts.
There is also a slideshow in photobucket and I will attempt to include a link.
While this seems like a complicated project it really is just a collection of several small projects and quite doable by most of the people on here. I have documented the build process to some extent and if there is some interest I will do a build post on the projects area.
Thanks for looking,
Gene
(http://http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab291/PopaGeno/Midges%2018th%20Century%20Walnut%20Secretary/)