I really enjoy building Spice Chests. A lot of work in a small box. For me the challenge of doing something different or new is what inspires me. When I build these I try to do something different with each one. The first one had an arched top, the second had a double tombstone door. The last one was a Bonnet Top Chest. At the time I thought that was my hardest build to date, but No I had to build something different. A friend at work sent me a picture of a curved front vanity and said "Why don't you build this?" So why not do a curved front Spice Chest? Can't be that hard to build. Boy was I wrong. I think I spent more time making jigs and fences, for what seemed like every piece, than I actually did woodworking. I gained a healthy respect for anyone that does curved work. For me, this was a challenge. One that was well worth it in the end. Most of the Cherry in this piece was from stock that I already had. The door panel was a crotch slab that I got from Bob Kloes. I resawed it into 1/16" veneers and bent in on a form in the vacuum press. I was going to make the Birdseye Maple drawer fronts from solid stock, but chose to veneer them. I couldn't justify wasting that much beautiful material to make the fronts. The curved drawer joinery wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. On the full size drawers I was able to cut the joinery on my dovetail jig while the stock was still square. The half drawers I had to handcut the dovetails on the long side of the drawers. I cheated though. I cut the sides on my jig and hand cut the pins on the drawer fronts. This was my first real attempt at a hand cut halfblind dovetail. All said and done this was a very educational build for me, and I am pleased with the outcome.
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