Hey guys, I’ve been pretty busy lately and haven’t had a chance to post anything so I figured I would throw a few pictures of this piece I just finished up. It is based on a Philadelphia design Chippendale chest with a few modifications (the feet being the biggest change). Although it isn’t apparent in the photos this thing is a beast. It is 43” wide and 39” tall. I have it setting beside a Newport slant front desk and a Newport block front chest I am waiting to deliver and it just makes both of them look small.
The primary wood for this piece is Honduran mahogany with Honduran crotch mahogany for the drawer fronts. I used white pine for the secondary wood. I would have normally used poplar as the secondary wood for a Philadelphia piece but the pine was a customer request. All the drawer fronts for the chest came out of a single 5” thick mahogany crotch. The top is also a book matched piece of figured mahogany. I really love working with mahogany but don’t get a whole lot of requests for it but as they say when it rains it pours. I have built three mahogany pieces in the last 6 weeks and had a chance to fall in love with it all over again. It is just such a joy to work with hand tools.
For this piece the finish is natural with the exception of a little blending of some lighter areas. The mahogany I was using was very old and dark so the natural finish turned out great. I was really afraid if I went dark with it the figure on the drawers would just have been lost. The finish is a tung oil and varnish blend followed by shellac and buffed out with 0000 steel wool.
Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures of some of the other pieces I have finished up in the last few months in the next few days.
Bookmatched figured top
lots of hand cut dovetails
Reply With Quote
And another thing, you take that picture at night, you know without all of that glaring sun to pick up the "perceived" beauty of the wood grain, and it wouldn't look near as good. Just sayin' . . . you had help from God that day.
