Sapele blanket chest

[Christian Hawkshaw]

Just finished up on this shaker-ish sapele blanket chest. I say shaker-ish as you usually don’t associate shaker furniture with sapele. The styling of the base and lid I took inspiration from this Thos. Moser blanket box: https://www.thosmoser.com/product/blanket-box/. For the lid, I just chamfered the top, whereas the Thos. Moser appears to have molding.

I found taking accurate photographs of this project difficult. My camera seems to pick up too much orange coloration.


lid_up.jpg

right_front.jpg

right_front2.jpg

top_finished2.jpg

[Christian Hawkshaw]

With a little bit different lighing..

lid_up2.jpg

[glenn bradley]

A real beauty Christian. An instant heirloom.

[John TenEyck]

Gorgeous. Beautiful wood and a straightforward, classic design with nice, clean workmanship. Well done.

John

[Andrew Hughes]

Stunning looking piece. I think the blanket chest was a good choice for displaying the long wavy figure.
Almost looks like texture

[Mark Rainey]

Very nice Christian - the dovetails star.

[Rob Luter]

Very nice. The fuming was very effective.

[Phil Mueller]

Beautiful work, Christian!

[Lee Schierer]

Excellent work!

[Christopher Charles]

Beautiful work and the sapele is impressive. I haven't worked with it, but your chest is motivation to try!

Best,
Chris

[Christian Hawkshaw]

Thanks all for the kind words.

Very nice Christian - the dovetails star.

Speaking of dovetails, I meant to do a mini review of a couple of new toys I got to build this project. The first is the Keller Model 3600 Pro Series dovetail jig. This dovetail jig worked exceptionally well and was very easy to set up. My only other jig experience for through dovetails is the Porter Cable dovetail jig, which is much more difficult doing through dovetails. The only minor issue was that on the tail jig the scribe line was not parallel to the front of the jig. This line is only supposed to be a starting point for installing the spoil board, however it should be parallel.

The other toy was the Dowelmax 45 Degree Miter System. I used this jig to create dowl joints on the base miters. This jig did exactly what it was supposed to do, and alignment was pretty good. The first test joint I did was not that good, but I discovered I did not have the jig clamped down enough. This allowed the jig to move slightly when the first hole that was drilled. When adequate clamping pressure was used, the alignment was very pretty good.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Wow! What gorgeous wood and a beautifully executed project! Well done, Sir! Well done, indeed!

[Mike Allen1010]

Beautiful- your choice of lumber really shines! What did you use for finish? Looks like you added some color?

[Christian Hawkshaw]

Wow! What gorgeous wood and a beautifully executed project! Well done, Sir! Well done, indeed!

Beautiful- your choice of lumber really shines! What did you use for finish? Looks like you added some color?

Thanks all.

For the color, I fumed with ammonia. Here is a thread on that: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....30#post3282230 .
Then I finished with 2 coats gloss ZAR oil vanish follwed by one coat of matte ZAR oil vanish.

[Mike O'Keefe]

Beautiful chest!! Very well done. Mike O'Keefe