Tombstone Door by Hand

[Robert Rozaieski]

A few weeks ago, I posted a thread on how I designed a cabinet door for my current project, a built-in cabinet for my living room. See http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=94316&highlight=door for the original post. Over the last few days, I've been working on the prototype of the door. Since I've never done tombstone doors before, I decided to do a prototype in pine first.

To begin, I build the door frame as I would a square framed door, including plowing the groove and sticking and coping the molding on the top rail, before I cut the arch in it. To see how I do this, read parts 17, 18 and 19 on building the door in http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=80840&page=4&highlight=door from a prior cabinet build. This is the starting point for building the tombstone door.
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With a square framed door done, we need to lay out the arc on the top rail. I started by cutting a piece of scrap to fit between the stiles because the center of the arch is below the bottom of the top rail. The center of the radius is actually the center point of the arch of the field on the inset panel, which isn't made yet so I need to use a scrap piece. On this scrap, I used my divider to step off the width of the exposed portion of the panel bevel (1/2 module) and the width of the shoulder of the field in the final panel (also 1/2 module) on both sides of the scrap block (two outer most points on each side of the center. I then used the divider to locate and mark the center point. This is the center of all arcs that will be scribed later.
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Then, using my divider again, I scribed the arc of the field on the block (inner arc). Since the width of the exposed portion of the beveled section of the panel is 1/2 module, I increase the radius by 1/2 module to scribe the radius of the top rail on the block.
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Finally, since the width of the exposed portion of the bevel is 1/2 module, this allows me to find the center for scribing the arc onto the rail. The center point lies on a line 1/2 module below the bottom of the top rail (red line). This is because the center point lies on a line even with the shoulder lines of the field of the panel, which is 1/2 module below the bottom of the top rail since the exposed portion of the bevel is 1/2 module. Clear as mud?
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I could have done all of the scribing from a line 1/2 module below the bottom of the rail right from the start rather than scribing the arcs on the scrap first. However, I wanted to scribe the arcs on the scrap first to make sure I got it right. And it's a good thing I did too because the first time around, I forgot to step in a second 1/2 module for the shoulder of the field and ended up with much too large of an arc. Doing it on the scrap allowed me to start over without ruining my top rail.

Finally, with the arc scribed on the top rail, I could make the cut. No turning back now. Here's the frame dry fit back together after cutting out the arc in the top rail and fairing the curve. I cut the arc with a turning saw and used a 1/2" #4 gouge to clean up the saw cut, paring to my scribe line. I could have used a rasp and/or file to clean up the cut as well but a sharp gouge is much faster and leaves a much cleaner surface than a file or rasp, especially in this pine.
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[Robert Rozaieski]

With the arch cut, I need to establish the groove for the panel in the arched section and stick the molding. Doing so in the straight rail before cutting the arch leaves a reference to do this. Without doing it in the square rail first, it would be more difficult to do it now.

I start by using a mortise gauge to scribe the location of the groove. Having the groove already done on the shoulders makes this a breeze. Then I use a 1/4" chisel to pare out the waste between the scribed lines. Making the scribes deep makes this easier. Once the groove is started, the chisel will follow the established groove when making it deeper. You need to pare in from both sides to account for grain direction changes. I suppose this could be done with a cooper's croze type tool or a custom scratch stock but a chisel is fast and easy.
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Next I need to stick the molding. Again I could use a scratch stock, but scraping and pine don't go together well. Plus, carving is just easier and cleaner so that is how I chose to go. To mark the fillet of the profile, I just used a pencil and my finger as a fence as pictured above. You could make a marking gauge with a curved fence as well, but you really don't need to.

Then I used the 1/2" #4 to outline the fillet shoulder.
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A chisel was used bevel down to define the fillet.
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The profile was then rounded using the chisel bevel down, again, working from both directions depending on grain direction.
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A little 220 sandpaper finished the profile.
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Next up, the panel.

[Phillip Pattee]

Robert,

That looks great. You must have a steady hand. That is better than I could have done with my tailed router. You mentioned a custom scratch, but that is the sort of job I'm looking for a beading tool like the Stanley 66, or the new LV tool to tackle. So.... needless to say, there won't be any tombstone doors build here with just a chisel.:o

[Robert Rozaieski]

Robert,

That looks great. You must have a steady hand. That is better than I could have done with my tailed router. You mentioned a custom scratch, but that is the sort of job I'm looking for a beading tool like the Stanley 66, or the new LV tool to tackle. So.... needless to say, there won't be any tombstone doors build here with just a chisel.:o

Beader or scratch stock would work fine in a harder wood like walnut or cherry but for poplar and especially in this pine, I've not had much luck with them. They are fine when working along the grain but as soon as you need to work cross grain, they are useless on these soft woods. The arch of this door is almost all cross grain work (or at least not with the grain) except for the top of the arch in the center. No other way to do this cleanly that I know of except to use a very sharp cutting tool like a chisel or gouge. Scraping will just leave a mess of torn fibers.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Nice work, Robert!

Take care, Mike

[Robert Rozaieski]

The panel starts by cutting a piece to rough width and height and planing it to thickness. In my cabinet for the shoppe I used a full 3/4" thick panel and planed a rabbet on the inside of the panel to keep the field even with the front of the door frame. In this one, I planed the panel thinner so I wouldn't need to plane a rabbet in the back. After the panel was thicknessed I cut it to shape by putting the frame on the panel, tracing around the inside of the door frame and then adding the depth of the groove to the panel outline. Finally, I drew in the width of the bevels which defined the field.
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I scribed the depth of the bevel all around the edge of the panel.
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Then planed a rabbet along the straight sides to define the depth of the field. This is just like making a square raised panel.
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To define the shoulders of the field I scribed them with a marking knife and square. To define the arched portion of the field, I outlined it with the 1/2" #4 gouge.
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Then I used a 1-1/4" wide chisel bevel down to pare away the waste at the shoulders and arch to make a flat rabbet the same depth as the rabbet on the sides.
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[Robert Rozaieski]

With the rabbet done all the way around the panel, all that is left is to bevel the rabbet to the depth scribed on the edges until it fits into the frame members. I used a rabbet plane to bevel the straight parts and the 1-1/4" chisel to bevel the shoulders and arched portion.
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The junction of the arched section and the shoulders was a little tricky to access with a straight chisel so on this practice panel this area is a little rough. A double bevel skew chisel or a pair of left and right single bevel skews are really what is needed to clean this area out. I'm going to get one before I do the final door panels in poplar for the cabinet.
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The panel could use a little more cleanup on the bevels and field but since this is just a prototype I decided to stop here. All that's left to do is glue it up, cut off the horns and do the final clean up planing.
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[Dave Anderson NH]

Very nice tutorial Bob. As in your previous ones, it offers great instructions for members on how to accomplish tasks effectively and with a minimum number of tools. We sometimes forget that back in the days when all woodworkers were Neanderthals the average shop might only have 4 saws, 4 bench planes, a couple of joinery planes, maybe some molding planes, a dozen chisels, a cutting and marking gage, and a glue pot. Look at some of the old probate inventories of of cabinetmaker's shops and you'll see what I mean.

[David Keller NC]

Robert - As I'm sure you discovered, it's fairly straight-forward to cut the groove on the inside curve of the top stile with a mortise gauge and a sharp chisel. However, there's a specific tool for doing this cleanly and much more quickly than a chisel or a scratch-stock - it's sometimes called a carriagemaker's or "jigging" router, and it looks like a spokeshave, except that the sole is radiused and the cutter is a "j" hook that extends below the sole and is perpendicular to the wood grain of the tool.

These tools aren't terribly common since they were specific to the carriagemaker's and door-maker's trades, but they do show up at MWTCA meets and on antique tool dealer's websites. Here's a link to a picture of an American example (American ones are generally double-ended; british examples are generally two separate tools for working each direction of the grain on a tombstone door):

http://www.thebestthings.com/oldtools/graphics/mi70542.jpg

[Chuck Tringo]

Great work :) I think the Lee Valley beading tool with a custom cutter could fill this bill easily as well. Im thinking about springing for one as they are rather reasonably priced and I find my self edging more and more neanderly every day.

[David Keller NC]

Chuck - Didn't think about it when I posted about the coachmaker's jigging router, but the L-N copy of the Stanley #66 comes with two router blades. I'm thinking L-N intended these to work as a "quirk router" - that is, cutting a curved groove on the face of a curved stile as a place for inlay, but the tool's sole is short enough that it might work as a jigging router as well, so you might not need to make a blade for the Lee Valley version (unless you just want this version).