Mission mirror

[Keith Christopher]

This ie my own design, I talked the customer into taking a couple of photos of it. It is made from QS wt oak with Wenge accents. It is a perfect fit in his house as all his chairs (other than the sofa are mission or morris.

[Chris Padilla]

Very nice, Keith! Are those half-laps in the 4 corners or some other joinery technique? Are the wenge buttons raised or flush...can't tell but I want to reach out and touch them! :D

[Keith Christopher]

Chris, thanks for the compliment.
I should have been more descript.
The rails and stiles are 4.5" wide and 3/4" thick, they are through tenons. Yep 1/4" through(thru) tenons.
The wenge accents are ~1/2" thick and 2"/2" square with a 1/16" reveal for a nice shadow line.
The cross hatching is 3/8" wt oak leaving a 1/16" reveal to the edge. (another nice shadow line.)

[Bruce Page]

Beautiful piece Keith! How did you cut the 1/4" mortice all the way through the stile?

[Marshall Harrison]

Beutiful work Keith. I stick tomore traditional Missions pieces as I haven't got the talent or the confidence to design my own stuff. Looks like you do have the talent.

[Jim Fancher]

The more I look at the mirror, the more I like it. Excellent job!

[Keith Christopher]

Beautiful piece Keith! How did you cut the 1/4" mortice all the way through the stile?Drill press to drill 1/2 way through, then hand chisel with 1/4" mortising chisel.
flip and repeat.


Oh and I might Add it's 60" long and 33" high. :)

[Ted Shrader]

Keith -

Very well done. Good proportions/lines/etc. Glad the client let you get a picture. :)

Regards,
Ted

[Gary Max]

Outstanding design---I like orginals.
Plus the thought of ---one-of-a-kind ---is hard to beat.
Great job all the way around--even the finish is great.

[Louis Bois]

Keith,

Your design works extremely well. Most mission pieces have a heavy, masculine look (which is the whole point)...and your design incorporates this aspect without going overboard. The lines and rails give it a lightness and the wenge just ties it all together beautifully. Nicely done.

[John Miliunas]

Keith, that's a gorgeous piece of craftsmanship! :D LOML and I are both partial to Mission and AC styles of furniture. Your design certainly fits the bill for the former and the detail is super! Got yourself some nice looking QS there, as well. :) Very well done! :cool:

[Kent Cori]

Terrific Keith! I wish I had 10% of your design talent. That is a beutiful design made even better by great execution.

[Roger Barga]

Very very nice - I really like the design and craftmanship. The more I look at it the more I find interesting details and lines. Kudos, roger

[Brian Hale]

Looks GREAT keith!

Brian :)

[larry merlau]

those mutins or dividers are real nice as well, looks great and the qtr swn oak is impressive very nice job. the wenge accents made it pop right out at you :D that style is definatly in my opinion one of the best. and the old look is good too maybe casue i am old as welll :D thanks for sharing your work

[Shelley Bolster]

Keith, your mirror is a real pleasure to look at - your combination of the heavy (the frame) and the light (the mutins) makes for a perfect balance. Your craftsmanship looks flawless! I'm wondering if you made it so the mutins can "snap in and out" (although I'm guessing that they are mortised in) for cleaning the mirror?
Shelley

[Lou Morrissette]

Great piece, Keith. Beautiful lines and finish. Thanks for sharing.

[Keith Christopher]

Everyone , thanks for the compliments. They are appreciated.


Shelly, The mutins are mortised in from the back and are non-removable. I thought about it, but worried about them getting sloppy or broken several years down the road.

If anyone wishes to build this mirror I would be honored and more that happy to share in detail how it was built. Although I'm sure all of you here could figure it out.

Keith

[Chris Padilla]

Keith,

Shelley has a good point about cleaning (or future breakage). I assume the mirror is more or less easily removable from the frame? I showed this to my wife and now I have yet another project on the Honey-Do list...sigh.... :) However, she wants hers out of maple! :) Is there anything special about the mirror? I don't imagine it is beveled or anything. Just curious.

[Ron Schweitzer]

Keith,
Beautiful work and design.
Could you have made the mirror removable to allow cleaning?
Just a thought.:)
Ron

[Glenn Clabo]

Simply wonderful!

[Shelley Bolster]

Bulls eye Chris! Make the mirror "easily removeable". By putting this on her Honey-Do list, your wife has definately shown her good taste. (In mirrors that is, her men, well - guess she likes them with funny noses!)
Shelley

[Keith Christopher]

Yes the mirror is held in from the back by metal brackets with cork lining on them A simple turn 90deg on each and the mirror is free to come out.

I am working on some construction drawings I will post here later tonight.


Keith

[John Gregory]

Excellent work Keith

[Keith Christopher]

Ok I think this is clear as mud. let me know if you have any questions. As a note I cut the "mortises for the mutins before making the rabbet for the mirror.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Very sharp Keith!!

[Bob Marino]

Keith,

As others have said, beautiful work. What is your finish?

Bob

[Keith Christopher]

Keith,

As others have said, beautiful work. What is your finish?

Bob
Bob,

The finish is hand rubbed tung oil with a final wet sanding to 2000grit.


Keith

[Bob Marino]

Bob,

The finish is hand rubbed tung oil with a final wet sanding to 2000grit.


Keith

Keith,

No dye or stain?

Bob

[Keith Christopher]

No dy or stain. I let the cut pieces oxodize in the sun a little before applying the finish to it, but no dye or stains.

[David Hayes]

The QSWO looks great. Like others, the wenge accents are awesome. They do a good job of making the frame look smaller as they draw your eye to the crosspieces and the corner joinery.

Nice job and very nice design.

Dave

[Keith Christopher]

Keith,

Shelley has a good point about cleaning (or future breakage). I assume the mirror is more or less easily removable from the frame? I showed this to my wife and now I have yet another project on the Honey-Do list...sigh.... :) However, she wants hers out of maple! :) Is there anything special about the mirror? I don't imagine it is beveled or anything. Just curious.
Chris,

I'm sorry I missed your question embedded in here. The glass is plain 1/8" flat mirror. Beveled mirror just didn't fit in the design or frame. Interesting to note in the original design I was going for a simple design without the mutins and a 1" bevel. When I rendered it in Lightwave(tm) (excellent SW by NewTek Inc from San antonio Tx) I did not like how it looked at all. So I played around with some ideas and some pictures of mission furniture tacked to my wall as inspiration.

Keith

[Louis Bois]

Keith,

Glad you had the inspiration to add those muntins...adds tremendously to the overall balance of the piece. Everytime I come back to this post to read comments, I get that much closer to planing that QS oak I've got sitting in the basement...that's "hand-planing" BTW :eek::D

[Keith Christopher]

Keith,

Glad you had the inspiration to add those muntins...adds tremendously to the overall balance of the piece. Everytime I come back to this post to read comments, I get that much closer to planing that QS oak I've got sitting in the basement...that's "hand-planing" BTW :eek::DHand planing ?! :eek: I love my trusty surface planer. I would have no back to speak of planing all that stock down. If you do decide to make this mirror be sure and post a picture of it ! I would be esp honored if a neander made this. :)

FWIW all the detail work was neandered in, the mortises for the mutins, the Wenge accents and 90% of the thru tenons. I'v atached the photo of the original plans as I scribbled them. If you look close you'll notice some of the dimensions changed when I moved it from idea to "plan".

Oh yeah and one more detail I forgot to put in the plan. (But I figure you all could figure this out) the mutins are half lapped where they cross. It helps amazingly in strenghtening them due to the span of this piece.

[Keith Christopher]

Keith,

Glad you had the inspiration to add those muntins...adds tremendously to the overall balance of the piece. Everytime I come back to this post to read comments, I get that much closer to planing that QS oak I've got sitting in the basement...that's "hand-planing" BTW :eek::D

Louis,

Have any pics of your work ? I'd love to see it. sounds like you're totally neander always intrigued by hand tool work.


Keith