Bruno Frontera dela Cruz
01-09-2012, 10:43 PM
Over the summer I took a class at the Woodwright's School with Roy Underhill to learn how to do hand-cut joinery. Since then I decided to practice my new skills but hated the idea of practicing on scrap so I set out to build the dovetailed bookcases that was in the June issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine with a few modifications.
I had never worked with white oak before and I figured that this would be a good project to try it out. I am fortunate to live in a good area for oak lumber thanks to Scott Smith and his mill / kiln facility. For those who have never been to his farm it is a real treat; logs 6' in diameter, 3-phase power generation and climate controlled lumber storage! Since this bookcase was to be "functional practice" and I wasn't expecting perfection I wasn't too picky about matching lumber, sap wood, etc. I just wanted rift sawn boards so that the grain would appear the same on all faces but I was fortunate to get a few with some nice figure. Why I didn't pick a wood species that was easier to dovetail by hand, I don't know but it was surprisingly easy to work with although there is almost no compression of the wood so clearances between tails and pins must be spot-on.
I modified the design a bit from the one published in Popular Woodworking to cut down on the amount of lumber that was stacked directly on itself and to lighten the case up a bit. I still kept the box concept (now they are taller but decrease in width as you go up) and added sliding dovetails to the middle and lower box to create an appropriate amount of shelves. To round out the major changes, I went with a very simple shaker type plinth and a roman ogee moulding. The back is ship-lapped poplar and the case is finished with Waterlox Original rubbed out using the brown bag technique that I read about on this forum.
219197219198219199
I had never worked with white oak before and I figured that this would be a good project to try it out. I am fortunate to live in a good area for oak lumber thanks to Scott Smith and his mill / kiln facility. For those who have never been to his farm it is a real treat; logs 6' in diameter, 3-phase power generation and climate controlled lumber storage! Since this bookcase was to be "functional practice" and I wasn't expecting perfection I wasn't too picky about matching lumber, sap wood, etc. I just wanted rift sawn boards so that the grain would appear the same on all faces but I was fortunate to get a few with some nice figure. Why I didn't pick a wood species that was easier to dovetail by hand, I don't know but it was surprisingly easy to work with although there is almost no compression of the wood so clearances between tails and pins must be spot-on.
I modified the design a bit from the one published in Popular Woodworking to cut down on the amount of lumber that was stacked directly on itself and to lighten the case up a bit. I still kept the box concept (now they are taller but decrease in width as you go up) and added sliding dovetails to the middle and lower box to create an appropriate amount of shelves. To round out the major changes, I went with a very simple shaker type plinth and a roman ogee moulding. The back is ship-lapped poplar and the case is finished with Waterlox Original rubbed out using the brown bag technique that I read about on this forum.
219197219198219199