# Stickley Drawers



## lucky9cat (10 Dec 2006)

Hi Folks

Finally got around to some notes and a few photos I’ve been taking of my current project.

A couple of years ago I built a chest of drawers to Gustav Stickley’s diagram No.913 from early last century. Here’s the piece. It’s built from Croation Oak and was certainly a challenge. 







Then, in the September 2005 issue of American Woodworker there was an article by someone on his approach to building one. He did a few things differently. His had a removable back to make the fitting of the drawers easier, drawer guides running along the centre bottoms of the drawers to aid free running, a neat way of attaching the top, veneers on the front and back sides of the legs to get the quartersawn ray fleck on all four faces, and dust panels between the drawers as opposed to open frames. I also wanted to use Cedar of Lebanon for the secondary wood on the drawers, and bookmark the side panels using solid wood rather than veneered MDF as I had done before. So, this was going to be how I wished I had done the first one. Have you ever wondered why Norm always does two of each piece?

I choose the wood very carefully to try to get the best quatersawn boards. I can spend hours sifting through the wood at the local wood yard. It’s a two man job and on the last time we were there my wife flipped and said she was not going to shift another piece! I heard one of the blokes call me Mr.Picky. I hope this shows up in the photo of the side panels.






It’s standard mortice and tenon construction. The tenon shoulders are cut using the sliding table of my table saw with the remaining bulk of waste routed out on the router table using a milling cutter. The motices are made with a bench morticer. In the picture you can just notice the biscuit slots in the left and right edges; this is how the legs attach. The biscuit slots on the sides are how the backs of the drawer frames attach. The bookmarking of the centre panels shows up quite well.
















The legs are rebated for the back panel, morticed for the drawer frames and then slotted for biscuits to glue them to the side panels.











The whole thing is glued up after making the drawer frames which are held together with stub tenons. The drawer frames fit to the front legs with tenons to and the rear of the sides with biscuits. The vertical drawer divider uses cross halvings and a housing joint to fit to the drawer frames. All the drawer frames have their fronts edged to display quartersawn rays.






The back is standard frame constuction.






I decided to hand cut the dovetails as an extra challenge. For the groove to take the base I did a through cut on the tablesaw. I increased the size of the front pins to allow for this and then plugged the “hole” with a ¼ inch square stick of oak, end grain showing. Next time, I would do a much finer pin. The groove would then emerge behind the tail and the joint would also look less chunky. The sides of the top drawers are lowered to clear the slats that will join the top to the sides.

More on this once I’m at that stage. I’ll keep you posted.










More to follow once I’ve finished the drawers and top. Don’t hold your breath!


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## RogerM (10 Dec 2006)

luverly work lucky9cat. Please keep the WIP piccies coming. I reckon they are worth more than umpteen pages of stage-managed instructions from a book - and it's "real world" stuff.


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## Paul Chapman (11 Dec 2006)

That chest of drawers is a real cracker =D> And the second one's looking real good - great WIP pics :wink: 

Cheers,

Paul


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## Alf (11 Dec 2006)

Nice - good WIP pics too. Keep 'em coming; furniture-making-by-proxy is the only sort I'm doing at the moment. :lol: 

Cheers, Alf


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## woodbloke (11 Dec 2006)

Excellent project, has a flavour of the Arts and Craft, turn of the century sort of design, keep the WIP pics coming. No harm in being picky with the timber at the yard, you have to pay enough for it so you might as well get the best that you can - Rob


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## Good Surname or what ? (11 Dec 2006)

Lovely. My favourite sort of furniture. Keep up the WIPs


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## syntec4 (11 Dec 2006)

Very Nice,
Thanks for the great pictures! 

Lee.


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## Shultzy (11 Dec 2006)

A really lovely piece. Just a small point, why did you make the second drawer up the deepest. I thought for aesthetic reasons the drawers should start with the deepest at the bottom.


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## lucky9cat (11 Dec 2006)

Thanks for your comments, folks. Did a bit more today. Reckon it'll be ready for finishing in the next few weeks.

Rob, you're spot on with Arts and Crafts, turn of the century. Stickley was doing the same kind of thing in the States that was going on in Europe.

Shultzy, now that's a very good question. I just followed the original design, but I wonder why Stickley and his chief designer Ellis do it that way. You're right, for aesthetics, normally the largest drawer is at the bottom. Anyone out there got any clues on this? Never really thought about it before but now I'm intrigued.

9cat


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## woodbloke (11 Dec 2006)

If you look closely at the first pic, there is a flare or 'bulge' (too crude a term) at the point where the deepest drawer is located, below that and the design starts to narrow. Placing the widest drawer at this 'flare' point seems to make sense. Below the largest drawer the design starts to taper and the lowest drawer is significantly narrower. What is interesting is that the lower section of the design has more visual 'weight' (in much the same way that the card mount on a picture frame should be deeper at the bottom than the top) so the overall design 'works'. Just my view on this but others may see it differently - Rob


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## lucky9cat (11 Dec 2006)

Take your point on that. Actually the widest point on the legs is intersection where the dual drawers meet the single drawers. But the "bulge" definitely changes the dynamic.

9cat


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## Paul Chapman (11 Dec 2006)

Also, the lowest drawer and the curved rail below it appear almost to be one. Given that these together are slightly deeper than the deepest drawer helps the overall visual effect to look right. Had the curved rail looked significantly different in tone or grain pattern, I think it might not have worked so well.

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## Anonymous (17 Dec 2006)

That's a lovely design, and beautifully executed construction. I'd never heard of this Stickley guy but I'll be googling him as soon as I've finished here!

I get asked to make 'Shaker' style furniture all the time and I'm getting a little bored with it - this style fits the same bill but with a bit of a twist. For commercial purposes I'd probably stick with a veneered MDF carcass unless the client was going to pay the extra £300-£400 I'd want for the panelled sides. And how likely is that? ](*,) 

Nice work

Brad

Incidentley, with regard to the much discussed bottom 2 drawers, there doesn't appear to be a dividing rail between them as there is between all the other drawers. If there was, I can't help feeling that having the deepest drawer 2nd one up would look a little odd. As it is, it's fine.


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## lucky9cat (17 Dec 2006)

Actually, there is a dividing rail between the bottom two drawers but it pretty hard to see in the picture.

Brad, if you make one for sale, make sure you ask a good price. Take a look at this website which has one for sale for $5800 (plus tax?)

link

Ok, so he's gone for the hand hammered drawer furniture. That would cost $420 instead of $80 (plus tax and shipping) to make. I went for the cheapo stuff!! LOL

Banged my head earlier whilst working in the shop. Hit in forehead against one of the legs. Ouch. Had a lump like a marble in under a minute  Had to come in early   

Ted


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## lucky9cat (17 Dec 2006)

Brad

This book contains some of Stickleys plans and is very good. It has all the drawings and dimensions for this project. Variations were made to minor aspects of the construction at different times and I read somewhere that this chest of drawers also appeared with flat sides. So, if you made one like that it could still classed as "authentic".

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Drawings-Cra ... 1892836122

Cheers

Ted


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## Shivers (29 Dec 2006)

A very nice looking chest of drawers,this is what its all about,clean lines,well proportioned,timeless design,well done. 

as a side note don't pay to much attention to what norm says, he doesn't make any of this stuff,theres a whole cadre of other woodworker doing the graft(it's just not possible for him to do film shoots on location at that,& then make the sample products), The this old house & new yankee workshop series are driven to sell power tools & machinery,how many companies do you think gave norm their wares to have them on tele. 

It's a good series for learning woodworkers,but pro's know you don't need every machine available. 

regards --shivers


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## lucky9cat (21 Jan 2007)

Finally finished and Installed! Here are my latest pics.






After gluing and sanding the top together I fastened four stips of oak to the underside to help keep it flat. The outside ones also screw it to the carcass. All but the front screw holes are elongated (from front to back) to allow for the boards to expand across the grain. The screws are washer head ones used for pocket joints.











I had a bit of help on finishing from the finishing forum and here's the results.
















I'm pretty pleased but doing it again I would definitely have used a hardwood for the drawer sides and back, and reserved the CoL for the base. Also, I was very dissappointed to notice that the drawers had shrunk across the grain by a fair bit after they had been bought into the house. On the largest drawer this amounts to a 2mm gap at the top. When it left the garage the gap was a papers width.  Anyone know how this can be avoided? The garage will be more humid (damper!) than the house and I wouldn't fancy bringing the drawers inside every time I finished for the night.

Well, that's it. Hmmm, what shall I do now.

Ted


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## Philly (21 Jan 2007)

Ted
Bravo! Looks fantastic!!
Congrats on a classy looking piece.
Philly


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## PowerTool (21 Jan 2007)

I second what Philly said  
Handles really suit it as well.

Andrew


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## Paul Chapman (21 Jan 2007)

Excellent, Ted - I like that a lot =D> =D> 

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## woodbloke (22 Jan 2007)

Lovely looking piece of work - well done, anticipating some shrinkage of sorts with drawer fronts on my elm chest when I bring into the house though in humid conditions drawers will swell as well. The drawer fronts are only 85mm high on my piece so consequently there won't be so much movement, hopefully - Rob


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## CYC (22 Jan 2007)

Very nice. Well done.


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## nickson71 (22 Jan 2007)

Nice set of drawers 


In terms of wood movement ....... on the few things I've made I tend to store them in the house in the location or representitive area whilst making whatever I'm doing. It's not ideal as I'm constantly carting timber back and forth but it stops most of the movement and I've got a tiny workshop so storing timber in it is not easy


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## Evergreen (22 Jan 2007)

Really impressive. Looks beautiful.

Regards.


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## Anonymous (22 Jan 2007)

Lovely looking piece so far

An accountant be extra careful when spending money :shock: What is the world coming too :wink: :lol:


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## syntec4 (22 Jan 2007)

Cor, thats very impressive. Some very skilled workmanship gone into that. :tongue9: Well done indeed. 

I hope you realize that I will use your work as an excuse to buy more quality tools. " Of course I could do that dear... If only I had one of these Insert Tool of Choice here. Without one of them it would be impossible. 

Thanks for Sharing.


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## syntec4 (22 Jan 2007)

Ted, I just noticed something....

You must have your workshop in a Holiday Inn, or you are just posh and have a Trouser press at home.


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## wrightclan (27 Jan 2007)

Very nice indeed. =D> 

Brad


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