Bread -n- Butter Job

[Corneel]

It's not my style, so it wouldn't fit anywhere in my home, but I can easilly see that it has pleasing lines and is well crafted. The wood looks indeed very nice. I agree on both the somewhat thicker top, looks good, and the tenon showing on the breadboards, doesn't look so hot.

Well done!

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Having read through the initial post again, and due to a response by another member, it dawned on me the build time is indeed impressive. Particularly so as the build was completed with hand tools alone and produced from sawn timber. I suspect it would have taken me half of that time just to decide how I was going to match up the boards, never mind layout, dimensioning, truing, joinery and assembly. I doubt you had many coffee breaks?

Are you are pro furniture maker or just a man well rehearsed in this particular type of build. With hand tools alone, I suspect your tools were literally smouldering by the end of it.

Good work.

David

 

[Trafalgar]

Hi David, I do build professionally though lately more carpentry than furniture. Being back on a jobsite has helped my speed in all that I do, plus I've shed the inevitable few pounds of a guy in his mid-50s. To quote a local very colorful politician -- It feels good to feel good.

I barely had enough stock to complete the project so composition wasn't too difficult. I did spend a little time working out the board to use for the front apron and drawer fronts. Everything else fell into place pretty quickly. I used a Record No. 6 for about 90% of ALL of the planing - from dimensioning to smoothing. The stock was 4/4 rough (but on the plus side) and the top finished out at 7/8ths so there wasn't a lot of stock to remove there, no room for jack, jointer, smoother so I went straight for the longer plane. The legs required the most labor in that they started as 8/4 rough stock. As mentioned, I used hot hide glue and didn't let moss grow under the subassemblies. I pushed things a bit but all seemed OK by the end. Based on the aforementioned Philadelphia price book from the 1700s I can't imagine that the old hands didn't do the same thing.

It was a busy two and a half days but walnut is a dream to work.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Charles

Posting the photos directly would make it easier for all to appreciate.

Anyway, nice work. You could do this for a living

I think that the top thickness works well. Would you do the breadboard again? I have done tables like this, with and without, and the breadboard seems to work better when the overhand is a little longer. Here, I think that it makes the overhang look shorter than it is (as the proportions are physically very nice) and lose this aesthetic. The other aspect I question are the drawer pulls - would you do these again, or use something more Shaker-ish? Just critique - I like this piece.

Nice to see you posting pictures of your work - it is a first!

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Trafalgar]

Thanks Derek. The client actually chose the Sheraton pulls (they have another piece with identical pulls) but I think a slightly contrasting wooden knob in cherry would have been stupendous. I think the photos may have foreshortened the ends a bit but yes I would do them again at the same or similar measurements, only fully blind as I mentioned earlier in the thread. No end grain/joinery showing probably would have been more consistent with the dressier pulls.

I have to tell you that there is a spot or two where the walnut resented being planed (and scraped) and I've left that little bit of tearout. It's in an area of dark, turbulent grain and looks almost appropriate! It did fill in a bit with the slurry from sanding in the oil. There's also the shiny remnant of some sort of nail, bullet, B-B or something that is barely showing through, very small and near a knot, and I've left it as well. I like it the most, though one swipe with a black wax fill-in stick would cover it. I'll leave that up to the customer.

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Hi Charles, thanks for the update and additional information, and thanks too Derek for adding the photographs of the finished table. I had problems (not known why) viewing them properly. I can now too see the pulls mentioned by several, this detail was not evident to me on my initial viewings. I suppose there will always be a preference by the builder of the piece to add detail which he or she considers most appropriate. However, the customer is always right, at least if they are coughing up the dough for the end article. My personal taste would also have been for a contrasting wood,,still an item which could be retrospectively altered easily enough should the customer wish to

I was hesitant to mention the issue of physical body appearance and condition due to he exertions of hand planing a pile of timber, not really a question one would want to ask a stranger " Er, how fat are you?"
As a man only a couple of years your junior and relatively new to hand tool work the obvious physical change in me is quite evident from my enthusiasm for wielding a hand plane. I have even caught SWMBO casting an appreciative glance at me while brushing my teeth of an evening before bed lol

I doubt there would have been many fat lads back in the day, if someone is clever enough to market hand tool work as a cool way of exerting and toning up they would make a fortune, it certainly gets the heart pumping and blood flowing.

Cheers

David

 

[Trafalgar]

I wanted to do the pulls on this piece in walnut to match the pegs we used on the breadboard tenons. They would have looked great but the customer said no. The pulls have gotten a lot darker, as has the rest of the piece and it all looks really mellow now.

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

I don't know Paddy. There was a study of the Philadelphia Price Book of 1772 and my little table would probably have been a ten to fifteen hour job. I did use hot hide glue and I didn't wait around for it to get rock hard which the old guys could not possibly have done either given their speed.

Appreciate your comments and others' as well.

I've been musing this the last couple of days. 24 hours seems fast to me particularly working from sawn wood with no machines, quick but doable, It would take me longer but I could imagine 24 hours, but ten hours, it just seems impossible, I could not imagine being able to work that fast.
Paddy

 

[Trafalgar]

No wasted motion by our 18th century brethren.

 

[Zeddedhed]

No wasted motion by our 18th century brethren.

I think there are two things to consider here:

1. Most of us these days are not as 'motivated' as they were in times of old. We live relatively comfortable lives and are not in fear of our jobs as much as they used to be. If we do lose our job we have got a safety net. We expect to have to work but not to go flat out without pause 8 or 10 hours a day for six days a week.

2. If you were only making this particular piece, one after the other then you would soon become extremely efficient and quick at it. I started selling the odd piece online a while back, and a particular cabinet that i had for sale would take me around 16 hours to do. I then got an order for twenty of them for a German Hotel and by the time I finished the order was making two cabinets a day. I was also bored stupid with the damned things!!

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Charlie,

Do you ever have issues with running the drawer bottoms back to front? Did you use drawer slips (couldn't tell from the photo)?

For me, as a leisurely hobbyist, that table would have taken me a month or so.

T.Z.

 

[Trafalgar]

Hi Tony, I did use slips and the grain of the bottom runs side to side. The bottoms are slot-screwed to the drawer back with round head brass screws and brass washers.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Hi Tony, I did use slips and the grain of the bottom runs side to side. The bottoms are slot-screwed to the drawer back with round head brass screws and brass washers.

Thanks, for some odd reason, I've always had a fascination with drawer construction!