A couple of photos of a reproduction 17th Century-type English Carved Chest that I built as a wedding present for my son and new daughter-in-law.

100% Neander project. Traditional joinery: frame and panel carcase, ship-lapped floor boards, and draw-bored mortise and tenon joints. Solid walnut throughout, including a few boards that were locally-harvested, some 20 years ago, here in New Mexico. Gimmel hinges. Boiled linseed oil finish. From rough-sawn lumber to final coat of BLO and installation of the gimmel hinges, there are about 450 hours construction/carving time and about 50 hours finishing time in this piece (not including drying time for glue and BLO). The carving was the most time-consuming part of the project -- probably somewhere around 300 hours.

This chest is based on an early 17th Century English linen chest. The pattern is in V. J. Taylor's book, Period Furniture Projects. This is a piece that I have wanted to build for several years, but was hesitant to do so, because of the carving. The carving patterns on this chest are not the patterns on the original, but are ones that I chose, based on patterns that I learned how to carve via the DVDs mentioned below.

Inspiration and "technical assistance" for doing the carving came from the two DVDs on 17th Century New England Carving by Peter Follansbee, and from his blog, Joiner's Notes. On the DVDs, the explanations of the layout procedures were extremely detailed and clear, and the step-by-step demonstrations of the carving techniques took the mystery out of what had seemed (to me) to be a very complicated art form. The historical notes, commentary, diagrams, and photos on his blog filled in many of the details that I had questions about from the DVDs. Many, many thanks to Peter Follansbee for researching and making all of this great information available to the public!!

First project with solid-wood frame and panel construction, and the first time I've ever tried anything even close to this extensive or sophisticated in the way of carving. Regardless of the numerous flaws/mistakes, it has been a really fun project, with many new things learned.

Best of all, my son and his new bride really like their new chest, and in the end, that's all that really matters....



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