From the beginning of this project the emphasis on craftsmanship and honesty in its construction through exposed joints and use of grain direction was at the forefront of the design of this walnut sideboard.
With tapering legs and through wedged tenons giving weight and solidity, countered by the use of grain direction on it drawers and under arching chamfer on its top. All accentuate the Japanese Temple feel to the piece.
The centre drawer laid out for silverware with sycamore and dark navy baize placements.
The scooped division between the drawers allows a passing glimpse of the through dovetails, which leads down to the sculpted tapering handles.
Every surface, panel, door and leg was sanded through the grits to 180g during the making of the sideboard. Now I sanded again starting at 180g working up to 320g.
Everything was given one coat of Osmo polyx oil 3032 and left for 10 minutes, so the oil penetrates into the walnut, then any surplus oil was wiped off.
Twenty four hours later, I rubbed down every surface again; this time with 400g paper and applied a second coat of Osmo oil.
This process was repeated using 0000 fine steel wool, in between the coats of Osmo, until four coats of oil was applied to all surfaces and five to the top.
After the oiling was complete, it was left for five days in the finishing room.
The final job was to polish every screw head on the back panel before taking the sideboard to the photographer and then wrapping it for delivery.
The walnut top, which was jointed and left to settle for more than a month, was sanded and cut to size.
The curves which gives the top its 'lift' were marked on and the excess material was removed with a number of spokeshaves and a hand plane. A small pencil round detail was added, with a small block plane, to take the sharpness of the corners.
Yours truly fitting the doors and discussing the handle details with a friend I trained with.
Here I added a little angle cut detail to the door handles. Small details like this really add to the piece.
Fully assembled!
During the glue up process the drawers are checked for square. Then the clamps are removed and the drawers laid on a flat surface for the glue to set.
The following day I started fitting the drawers, by planing of the excess material on the sides, starting at the back and working forwards.
...until the ends fit like below. Then it was a matter moving forward along the drawer sides removing more excess material.
And repeating the process on all the drawers until the were all fitting snugly.
After that I prepped the quarter sawn Oak for the drawer bottoms, which had been glued up a few weeks earlier and left to settle.
Fitting the drawer bottoms with a sycamore centre drawer muntin.
I then planed and cleaned up the front of the drawers to get a complete view of the through dovetails. All the drawers were then disassembled and sanded. Finally all the internal surfaces were waxed, polished and the drawers reassembled.
Before marking and cutting the through dovetails I prepped the inside surfaces of my drawer fronts, sides and backs. I then marked and numbered them clearly and laid out all the marking and cutting tools needed for the job.
Due to the layout of the tails and the fine gap between them, it was necessary to shape a chisel on the grinder, so as to pare between them.
After cutting the tails and shoulders with a dovetail saw, I drilled clearance holes to help with removing the waste.
I ran a groove in the fronts and sides of the drawers for the bottoms to be fitted later.
After a little clean up, all the dovetails are complete and laid out ready for gluing up.
Due to the unique design of the door handles, it was necessary to make two pairs of brass pivot hinges for the centre doors as they could not be bought of the shelf at the Ironmongers.
I worked out the pivot points and clearances needed by drawing the hinges in CAD before starting to make them.
I cut the hinges from 4mm brass sheet stock and 5mm brass bar.
I then drilled out the hinges for the 5mm pivot points.
After putting the parts together I rough shaped them on the disc sander.
Final fine shaping on the diamond pad.
I then drilled out the screw holes and countersunk them.
The completed pivot hinges ready for fitting.
