1870 Cherry and Burl Elm Georgian Cabinet with brake-face secretary repair
Work closed due to Covid-19 so have the time.
Fixing this cabinet for week now it was cut into 5 sections very rough work they used a jig saw and pry bars to take off the two step back sides, removed lower top and cut it in-half after prying off a couple key pieces, with rough blades some parts cut off to make it shorter as well. The missing cut off area at top is not obvious at top with the outer molding screwed on just looks like they skipped the burl panel on top of center section, the two to three inches cut off the bottom will be hidden under some custom cherry trim, and details at top center of each section that are removed look fine missing; it is now 8' 1 1/2" now and that is good as we do not have much space at the wall. They gouged out the inlaid brass escutcheons, tried to add modern handles to the lower outer doors removing two locks to do so and many poor to shocking repairs; some real damage but it is coming together now and will make a fine piece of furniture for our master bedroom. We are using the bookshelf top as a china cabinet and the side drawers, and lower cabinet parts for storing water colour painting supplies, the center secretary brake front drawer will be used as a water colour painting easel.
What I need to do is replicate the piece of cherry wood that goes onto the face of the door that is not pin locked and overlaps on top. My Stanley 55 has a cutter that is an exact match but not sure if it is even possible with the plane as cherry seams to be hard to cut with a plane. The wood is very hard to drill or chisel.
Was going to clamp a light coloured piece of cherry in my work mate and use a 3/16 round bit with smaller bearing in, do each side of the board edge to try to replicate the piece of wood and then cut the piece off board edge with the table saw then belt sand the cut area for a good fit.
Would I need to clamp a piece of wood each side of board to cut ends to prevent splintering with cherry to router ends before routing the length or do I have to rough out the shape on the end before routing the end. Also sounds like only a kiln dried piece of would will work or is it best to get a reclaimed piece of very old wood? can get some if it would be better. Piece is 3/4" wide, 1/2 thick, 3/16" rounds on each side with 1/16" steps.
