Blanket Chest
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@mattmcgrane asked what was on my bench in the “Show your workbench” discussion. It was the base to a Queen Anne blanket chest, which I’ve just finished. I can write more later, but it was from a class I took with Charles Neil and used a mixture of hand and machine tools.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.12 December 2016 at 11:12 pm #143277That looks awesome, Ed. Also that’s some really nice figured maple.
13 December 2016 at 3:30 am #143288That is one nice looking piece of furniture! I give it four “yowzahs”!! Would love to know more details, if you ever care to share. For instance, how is the base constructed and is the cabinet sitting in a rabbet in the top edge of the base? Any separated compartments inside?
@mattmcgrane the major components are 1) A base with legs and apron 2) A base moulding 3) The chest including drawers and 4) a lid. The base is made like a table- The apron and legs join with mortise and tenon. It’s fancy just because the legs are cabriole and the apron is shaped. The base moulding is a stout frame with a profiled edge that rests on top of the base. In the attached photos you can see it up on screws in the midst of being finished (the screws are just to keep it up in the air while finishing). The photo of the unfinished base and base moulding gives you an idea of the size of the base moulding. The chest sits on top of the base moulding. In this case, the base moulding edge is just profiled, but it could have been cut with a rabbet that the chest would rest inside of. That would have been better, but we didn’t do it. The chest is really very, very much like the tool chest Paul showed us. It’s just a dovetailed box, albeit with some stuff for the drawers. If you compare the unfinished and finished chest, you’ll see there is belt moulding around the chest just above the drawers. It is purely decorative. Finally, there is the lid. The lid is ornamented with three pieces of moulding, two on the two sides, and one on the front lip. The lid moulding overhangs the lid so that it comes over the chest by about 3/16. This hides any gap that might arise from twisting of the lid, if it isn’t too big.
That’s the basic structure.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.A few words about the finish: I think there’s as much to learn about finishing as there is for joinery. The color is via water based dye. The figure in tiger maple is just blotching, but blotching we like. This is a case where you try to enhance the blotching, but in a controlled way. A moderately dark dye was applied. I chose to use one of the dark colors in the color mix. The whole piece was then sanded, which removes the hard grain and makes it light again, but the dye has gone more deeply into the soft grain (the stripes) and those stay darker. This photo shows the chest after the dye was applied and then sanded back off. You can see the enhanced figure. Next, the real color was applied. For both the grain popping dark coat and for the color coat, I wet the wood with water before applying the dye. The water soaked into the grain and kept the dye from absorbing as much. This gave me more control and kept things from going too dark and from bleeding. I practiced on some test boards to get a feeling for what was needed. This is the artsy part.
So, the dye is applied and the whole thing feels like a porcupine with grain sticking up everywhere. Heaven help you if you try to fix that. Just ignore it. If you touch it, you’ll sand through your color. The next step was to pad on two coats of oil, in this case Arm-R-Seal. I let it absorb as much as it would take, but then wiped it back. I was not trying to build a film. Oils react with the wood and darken it, so this is another step to enhance the figure. Also, the oil locks in the water based dye. This is where I was afraid I’d messed up. The oil became tacky rapidly and a fair bit of lint pulled off the rags. One of the biggest lessons I learned from Charles is that you build a finish. Adjust it in steps. It looks ugly and uglier before it looks better. I walked away and let it dry. But, with some finish on, I could give it a careful, light scuff with 600 grit. One wipe. That’s it. Maybe two wipes after the second coat.
That’s the base. From there, I put on two coats of water borne gloss (General Finishes High Performance) and two coats of satin, scuffing with 600 grit between each. The coats built. The fuzz came off and was buried. The net result glassy smooth. Phew. You have to learn to ignore the ugly stage, but it’s hard. You want to fix it, but if you touch it, you’ll ruin it. At least, that’s how it is for me.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.13 December 2016 at 8:58 pm #143331Wow, thanks for all the additional info Ed. Really appreciate that. And again, nice job on the piece.
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