Walnut Bookcase

[Adam Johan Bergren]

This is my first project that I built for someone else, and I have to say it will be hard to let it go! I had designed a built a version in maple (with fir back boards) a while ago, and they wanted a similar version in walnut with different dimensions. Seeing them side-by-side, I can say I've come a long way since the first one (about 2 years ago). It's tough to see all the mistakes in the original, but encouraging to see that I am getting better (except for the photography http://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/images/smilies/redface.gif).

Shelves are held into place with sliding dovetails. Back is shiplapped, held by tenon/grooves on the ends (grooves in the backsplash) and square-cut brads on the middle two shelves. The back splash is glued along the shelf (with a rabbet joint) and nailed on the ends.

There is a lot of book matching (should be obvious) and the sides were cut from a single board, while two single boards were used to make two shelves each (overall, 3 boards were used for the sides and shelves, carefully selected to match). The sides were re-sawed from 8/4 stock and the back 4/4 stock.

Milling (re-sawing, jointing, thickness planing) was done using power, while all of the profiling, surface preparation, and curves were done by hand (planes/spokeshave/rasps/coping saw/etc.). I wish I could say the sliding dovetails were cut by hand, but I did not want to take the time to learn on this project, so maybe for the next one. At least I can say that no surface you see was touched with sandpaper!

Walnut sure is nice to work by hand; I kind of feel like I bonded with the wood! http://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Thanks for looking, and comments are always welcome!

[Adam Johan Bergren]

Here is a picture of the two cases side by side:

[gary Zimmel]

Taking the time to bookmatch everything sure payed off Adam.
And that walnut sure has a nice glow to it.
Bonus points for not using sandpaper...
Using the hand tools makes for a nice quiet shop.
Quick question. Where do you get your wood in Edmonton?

[Adam Johan Bergren]

I used to get it from PJ White, but this was the first time I purchased from Gary at W G Chanin Hardwoods Ltd. If you haven't been there, it is certainly worth a trip!

[John Keeton]

Nice work, Adam! Beautiful wood, and you did a great job on this one. You are improving dramatically - keep up the excellent progress.

[John Thompson]

Very nice job Adam... the joinery is strong. I was having some fun mentally playing with the book-matching you achieved. What if you moved those two book-matched on the left to center and then split the book match on the right facing picture so one was on each side of that strong pattern now in center?

I am not much of a computer guy but just for fun I wish I had one of those Auto-cad thingy's just to see what that would look like? Oh well.. maybe another life-time for me with the new technology stuff. :)

Again.. nice.. honest work!

[Adam Johan Bergren]

Very nice job Adam... the joinery is strong. I was having some fun mentally playing with the book-matching you achieved. What if you moved those two book-matched on the left to center and then split the book match on the right facing picture so one was on each side of that strong pattern now in center?

I am not much of a computer guy but just for fun I wish I had one of those Auto-cad thingy's just to see what that would look like? Oh well.. maybe another life-time for me with the new technology stuff. :)

Again.. nice.. honest work!

You know, I thought about that for a while, but decided against it because I had an odd number of pieces (7), and no matter what I would end up with an off-centre pattern. However, after seeing it constructed, I would also think this might have been better. There was also some limitations on orientation due to some defects in the boards (light streaks), and these would have shown up more prominently if these boards were flipped end-to-end.

Thanks for the input- it is always great to look for ways to imrpove. The computer program idea is a good one. Perhaps if I took pictures before hand and tried the pattern you suggest, I would have found the off-centre would have been fine.