A Neander desk for my wife

[Federico Mena Quintero]

It's pine! It's imprecise! The tool marks are awesome! It's... the first desk I build, with a lot of firsts. First match-planed top, first drawer, first "real" attempt at finishing, and the corresponding string of first-timer mistakes. But it's flat and solid, the legs don't rock, and my wife is happy :)

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In short:

- Haunched, drawbored, mortise and tenon for the legs.

- Single-dovetail drawer because I was just practicing. I hate pine now.

- Finish is BLO, then alcohol-based dye, then dark "rustic wax". I need to learn a lot about finishing.

I'm thinking of using all the leftover pine I have for trinkets / shelves / such stuff, and just using harder woods in the future. Cedar is abundant here, and works much more nicely. I'm making a spice rack out of red cedar, and the joints are sooooo much nicer to cut.

[Mark Baldwin III]

It's pretty, I like it. I built a table in my kitchen about this time last year. It was a pretty big confidence booster to complete a project like that (the first one is always the hardest, isn't it?). I really like the single dovetail drawer you made, it has some real character to it.

[Casey Gooding]

Not a bad job at all!!
Finishing is a world of it's own. My advise on that is I would have done the dye first, then BLO, then a clear topcoat like shellac and then the wax.

[Harlan Barnhart]

I like it. Furniture that looks like it was made by a human gives me a warm feeling. It makes me want to touch it. I don't get the same feeling from "machine" made stuff.

[Pat Barry]

Very nice job on this desk. I like the color and proportions and the dovetail looks very well done

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work.

Do you have any in progress pictures to share?

jtk

[Dan Andrews]

Very nice indeed Federico. There is nothing about it that looks beginner to me. Don't hate pine. It has its place. In fact I think the pine looks very good on your desk.

[Chuck Tringo]

If it makes you feel better, the only pieces that I have built that are near this size....and coincidentally also pine...are finished with paint :) Looks good, I like the rich color actually, reminds me of mahogany almost.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Looks lovely, great job. I would caution you about those huge dovetails in pine, you may find that the outer edges will try to split off given the grain, or lack thereof.

Pam

[george wilson]

I agree about the huge dovetails. However,a huge dovetail was used on very early furniture,though it wasn't yet a highly evolved process.

[john brenton]

Modern. Unique. Great color. I really like the pic of the drawbored tenon. I love the look of the exposed pins.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

It's pretty, I like it. I built a table in my kitchen about this time last year. It was a pretty big confidence booster to complete a project like that (the first one is always the hardest, isn't it?). I really like the single dovetail drawer you made, it has some real character to it.

Thanks! This was also a big booster for me. The only joined furniture I've made is a table for my daughter (http://people.gnome.org/~federico/news-2009-09.html#02), but this one was a lot more substantial.

I'm glad you like the drawer. I wanted a very shallow drawer, just for papers and pencils, that would not let you stack things on top of each other. I find that deep desk drawers automatically get messy and you can never find anything. The other desks around the house attest to that :)


Finishing is a world of it's own. My advise on that is I would have done the dye first, then BLO, then a clear topcoat like shellac and then the wax.

Hmmm, I tried the dye first on a scrap piece of pine, and it was *very* pink and uneven, even somewhat blotchy. More coats just made it darker pink, but never really red. I thought that a yellowish first coat from the BLO would make it red and seal the pores, and that indeed worked better. The wax was just to darken the red and protect it.

I've been meaning to try shellac!


Very nice job on this desk. I like the color and proportions and the dovetail looks very well done

Thanks :) There are some big gaps around the shoulder in one of the dovetails, but at least it's done now :)


Do you have any in progress pictures to share?

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures - and now I'm kicking myself for that :(

My original idea was to make two identical desks, one for my wife and one for my mother. I cut and squared the stock for both desks, but then just started on the joinery for the first one. I thought that I might learn first, and then make the second desk with fewer mistakes. But now I realize that I should have done both in parallel, to avoid re-thinking and resetting the tools over again. I'll take pictures for the second desk :)

Right now I'm making a small spice holder; I'll take pics to post them.


Very nice indeed Federico. There is nothing about it that looks beginner to me. Don't hate pine. It has its place. In fact I think the pine looks very good on your desk.

Thank you!

I'm thinking that pine works well for large pieces with large joints... a year ago I made a swing for my daughter, and the frame to hang the swing had to "sprout" from the wall. The diagonal supports needed some big joints, and the pine (basically 4" construction lumber) worked very nicely. But for small pieces/joints like the desk's, pine was annoying.


Looks lovely, great job. I would caution you about those huge dovetails in pine, you may find that the outer edges will try to split off given the grain, or lack thereof.

Thanks, that's good advice!

During assembly, I dropped one of the drawer's sides to the floor and one of the dovetail's points split off. I glued it back - they are indeed pretty fragile. Hopefully the drawer will hold long enough; it won't hold heavy contents and I do intend to keep the runners waxed.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I agree about the huge dovetails. However,a huge dovetail was used on very early furniture,though it wasn't yet a highly evolved process.

Interesting. I was commenting on the high angles in pine; but I'd suspect there were much better secondary woods back in the day, probably not as much of an issue.

Pam

[Prashun Patel]

i'll be honest. The color is a little much for me, and even with a single DT, the pins look a little thin for pine.

However, the machine marks totally reveal the effort and quality you put into this. I really think it's wonderful for that reason.