Finished Corner Cupboard

[Calvin Hobbs]

Thought you all might be interested in the latest project out of my shop...

This is a reproduction of an 18th century corner cupboard from Northeastern North Carolina (Perquimans County, it is in the Bivins book if anyone is interested).

Materials: Black walnut with Cypress secondary wood. Hardware from Londerry brasses(hinges) and Ball and Ball(locks). Antique glass from Weston Millwork in Weston, MO.

Finish: Aniline dye and Orange Shellac.

Dimensions: 92" H X 48" W approx.

This was my most ambitious project yet. I owe big thanks to my Dad (Ben Hobbs) as he had the idea to have me and my brothers come back home to make 4 of these (one for each of us). We built the carcases and put together the doors during a week in January, since then I have been getting it together at my shop in Missouri.

This project has more history to it as my Dad harvested the wood from a location very close to the location the original has been housed since the early 1800's. It is great to have a piece in my home that shares my early Quaker settler roots from Perquimans County, NC.

My wife has had no problems finding things to put in it... Mostly items that have been stored away since our wedding.

It has been a very satisfying project, and I'm pleased the way it turned out.

Would appreciate any comments, criticisms, or questions.

Thanks, Cal

[Allen Bookout]

Great story Calvin! What a beatiful piece of furniture!!!! Does not get any more professional than that.

No criticism from here, that is for sure.

Allen

[Byron Trantham]

Criticism! Are you kidding? Very nice piece of work.

[Chris Barton]

Absolutely stunning!!!! The only criticism is that it's not in my house.:D

[Brett Baldwin]

That is a handsome piece Calvin. I do have a small criticism though. There aren't enough pictures. One just isn't enough.;)

[Bob Childress]

Calvin, darn it, LOML just walked through while I was admiring your handiwork and you guessed it . . . I told her in my dreams could I ever build anything that lovely.

A stunning piece of woodcraft. Hats off to you.

[John Timberlake]

Love it! No criticism here. Great to have a history to a piece. And the best part is getting the family together to do something that everyone will remember and cherish for generations to come.

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice work and an interesting background to boot...

[Vaughn McMillan]

Great work, Calvin. I agree that the only shortcoming is the fact that you only posted one picture. Feel free to add some more so we can see more of that beautiful piece.

- Vaughn

[Bruce Page]

Beautiful wood, great story, and beautiful work!

Have your brothers finished theirs yet?

[Philip Duffy]

Beautiful! Congratulations on a wonderful family heirloom. Phil

[Larry Cooke]

Wow! That's a great piece of furniture Calvin, very well done.

Someday I hope to make something like that too.

Larry

[Dan Oliphant]

Calvin, from what can be seen in the photo, you have created a very fine piece of furniture, well done.

[Cody Colston]

That is a stunning piece. From what I can see, it's "Fine Woodworking" material for their reader's gallery. How about some more pictures?

BTW, I love your name. Calvin & Hobbes is my all time favorite comic strip. :)

[Ernie Hobbs]

Hey Calvin, I looks great. One day, I'll post pics of mine but, I have quite a lot of work to do yet. Attached are a few pictures of you during construction. The first one is a scan out of the Bivens book where the original was found.

Ernie

[Ernie Hobbs]

a few more pictures.

[Calvin Hobbs]

Thanks Ernie, you need to get off your you know what and finish yours. For everyone's info, Dad is almost done with his, but Matt's is still a bunch of parts. His wife had the nerve to have a baby during our week in January (just kidding Martha!).

Thank for everyone who has commented, I appreciate it.

Here are some detail pics.

[Rick de Roque]

Wonderful work. Great story also. Thanks for sharing.

Rick

[John Olson]

Calvin I see you copy the rich peoples furniture while I copy the poor country boys furnitue. LOL Or the lower skilled wood workers. Some day and enough people throwing wood away and I will build furniture like you. But you do inspire us less skilled.

[glenn bradley]

VERY NICE. Love the classic lines.

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow, that is spectacular!! Awesome job!

Corey

[Mike Canaris]

IT really came out beautiful..nice hues you achieved there with the dyes...

[tod evans]

nice work calvin!

[lou sansone]

real nice looking piece. it is interesting to see the regional differences between the furniture makers of the 18th century. The southern pieces are always a little different than the northern pieces. The lower raised panels in the upper cabinet are very unusual and I have never seen one like that. Could you take a few more photos for all of us?

great work
lou

[Charles Bruno]

Nice work Calvin! I grew up with one corner cup board in our dinning room, late 1800 early 1900. Its would be great to have a replicia of it in my home. Yours has some history behind it! Looks good!:)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I don't know how I missed this when it was orginally posted! Excellent...excellent craftsmanship Calvin! Well done!

[Shelley Bolster]

Wow - a real impressive piece Calvin. You should be extremely proud of your skills! Very cool idea that your Dad suggested you all build one. Not only will you have a wonderful piece of furniture to pass down through the generations, but a great "family" story to go with it.

[Bill White]

Looks from the pisture to be out of square about 1/64th" on the lower left side-HAHAHAHAHA.
Excellent work! Keep it up.
Bill

[Bill White]

Looks to be about 1/64" out of square on the lower left side (back). HAHAHAHA.
Excellent work. Keep it up, as we will be looking for more outa ya.
Bill

[Bill White]

Sorry about the double post. Didn't think that the first one went thru.
Bill

[larry merlau]

excellent peice and great story, we all should be lucky enough to have a father to do these things with. looks very nice. would like to know how you made the mulliens for the doors and lower raised panels as well. once agin very nice work.

[John Gregory]

The work you did is awesome.

[Calvin Hobbs]

Lou,

The raised panels in the lower part of the door were commonly called "dirty dish" panels, as you can see the lower shelf is fully enclosed so non display type items can be stored. Essentially this is in place of a taller lower unit that is probably more commonly seen.

The use of these panels was to my knowledge restricted to the North Carolina schools of cabinetmaking, such as the Sharrocks and the W.H. Cabinetmaker. I think I have seen english prototypes that these were modeled after.

By looking at this piece, I think it shows the level of sophistication that rivals some of the urban centers, while most period furniture experts have the perception that NC was only rural or country furniture.

Thanks for your comments. I will try to get to some more photos, anything you would like to see in particular?

Cal

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Nice work indeed.

[Calvin Hobbs]

Larry,

I agree I am blessed to have the Dad that I have, in many ways beyond building furniture. I just wish I was a little closer to home. Driving 18hrs makes it a little difficult to get together.

Dad offers classes throughout the year, so anyone interested should look up www.hobbsfurniture.com (http://www.hobbsfurniture.com) . I promise you would come out of the class a better woodworker, regardless of skill level. After building furniture for a living for 25+ years, Dad has found many ways to get things done quickly and expertly, and is great at helping students with hand skills that are so important to building furniture. I always feel a certain push to get faster after witnessing the Ben Hobbs "attack mode" level of speed growing up.

The raised panels were all cut on the shaper. I have previously cut them on the router table but this was by far more superior. The door parts were mortised and tenoned and cut on the shaper, and coped at the intersections of the 1/4 rounds.

All parts were handplaned or scraped to remove all machine marks.

Thanks for your comments. Cal

[Ben Hobbs]

Calvin,
You did a nice job. I'll finish mine as soon as my hinges arrive. I'm still waiting for them from Ball and Ball. Looks like I should have bought mine from Londonderry also. It is such a great joy to see one's son (sons) embrace what I love to do. All 3 of you have brought me so much satisfaction and pride. Thank you all for coming home for the week in Jan. I'm looking forward to the 07 project. It was
and will truely be my pleasure.

Ben Hobbs

[Todd Hoyle]

That piece is absolutly GORGEOUS!! (splendidly or showily brilliance or magnificence) You SHOULD be very proud of it. The story with it makes it even better. If I were you, I would type up the story and put it in an envelope glued to the bottom, so the story lives on with the piece for years to come.

[Alan Turner]

The dirty dishes panels were new to me also. I sort of expected to see a couple of drawers behind them. Thanks for the open doors shot.

[Steve Clardy]

Very nice Calvin!!
I have missed this post somehow.
Great story.
Springfield

I'm about an hour and a half north of you.

[Rodney ORourke]

Beautiful workmanship - family heirloom - classic antique with a touch of North Carolina traditioin.

The soul of the fine wood in your piece was fortunate to fall into the hands of a caring craftman. I know your family will get great pleasure from this piece for generations to come. Congratulations !!!! :)

[Mark Pruitt]

Calvin, darn it, LOML just walked through while I was admiring your handiwork and you guessed it . . . I told her in my dreams could I ever build anything that lovely.

A stunning piece of woodcraft. Hats off to you.

That's why I have two computers in the house....so I can be at the OTHER one...:D

BTW, beautiful piece, Calvin! And please pardon me for asking, but do you ever get ribbed about your name, even though it's Hobbs and not Hobbes?

[Calvin Hobbs]

Mark,

How about that? I never knew about the comic strip.......Just kidding. I am a Jr. and we had the name first. At least it was a good comic...

Steve,

I'll have to make my way up there sometime, I go back and forth to KC every so often, I could bend over that direction. Anytime you are in Springfield, my wife is a great cook!

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

[Steve Clardy]

Sounds good. I'm off 65 down 7 a ways then out in the toolies a ways.

I usually hit grizzly's tent sale down there, june this year? Can't remember. Friend comes down from Sweet Springs then we travel on down and waste some time there, eat dinner, etc.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Sorry Calvin, no criticisms. It's an excellant piece. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with your Dad at the January SAPFM meeting in Williamsburg. Hi to you too Ben. Any of you going to be at the SAPFM Mid-year Conference at Mt Wachusett in MA??? If so, look me up.

Again, congratulations on a great piece of furniture.

[Larry Rose]

How did a Perquimans Co. Homeboy get so far from Bethel. Great work by the way.

[lou sansone]

dirty dish pannels .... I would have never guessed .. great work and thanks for all the photos

lou

[Jason Tuinstra]

Calvin, a great looking piece of furniture. You can be very proud of this piece. The fit and finish are perfect. Thanks for showing it off.

[Jim Becker]

Excellent piece, Calvin!

[Ernie Hobbs]

Calvin,

I'm ready to do mine now. Can you email or PM me the info on the hardware you chose? I think I need to go ahead and get it because I'll be to that stage pretty soon.

Thanks.

[Mike Alagna]

Beautiful work. The history adds that much more to the piece as well. Great job

[Sean Schwendinger]

I am finally a member of the creek so I can say how WONDERFUL this piece looks and I still want to come over and see it!!! Great job Calvin.

Sean

[Eddie Watkins]

Calvin, What a great piece. I 'm glad you shared it. Why does Ernie Hobbs in Alabama have pictures of you? Do you know each other?:D

Great story and fun to watch you and your brother and Dad interface. Your Dad is a great teacher.

Eddie

[Carl Eyman]

Fine piece Calvin! Having done multi paned glass doors a few years ago and sweat bullets over them, I'd be glad to hear how you made yours. (Just in case I'm ever foolish enough to build some more.)

[Carl Eyman]

Fine piece of work, Cal. I made a cabinet with multi paned glass door a few years ago and sweat bullets before I got it done. I'd be happy to hear the details on how you made yours. (the doors I mean)