Eh, swings either way
James Watriss
>Dom, I don't think it's something to heartbreak over. But then again, I've written that post before. :)
The other guys make good points that these are character marks, and they'll be there to remind you of your mistakes. As I recall, you had some similar issues with dadoes that you cut in the wrong place, and had to patch. And you'll have those there to remind you, too. And then there will be the day when you accidentally slam a plane into the front edge of one of those gorgeous dividers... and then there will be the day when the cabinet is representative of your early work, but you'll have made enough since then that you won't really be worried about it.
So I think it goes either way, and I'd honestly not worry about it just yet.
The part that really stands out about this is that it's a detail that's a little more noticeable than the patched dados... I didn't look for the patch, but I'd have noticed it, if it stood out, so clearly it was a job well done.
I am going to offer a design critique though, and you're obviously welcome to call me out for doing so. I feel like offering a critique when someone has just noticed a mistake is kinda like adding insult to injury, and I feel really bad about that. But if the drawers are going to be a learning exercise anyway, I wanted to point this out. But I'm really, really sorry if this comes out wrong, I'm not trying to be a jerk.
First and foremost, I don't think this is really a "wrong" way to make drawers, so I don't think you let your fly down in any technical sense. But the train of thought didn't really stop at that station for me. If a finger joint will work for this application, then dovetails oriented that way will work, too. No harm, no foul. And I think you'll find that most of the tool cabinet drawers that have exposed joinery like that are finger jointed... it's the easiest way to cut drawers that I know of, but it does leave the joinery exposed in front. It's understandable in the context of a finger joint, since it's a quick and easy, no frills, and straight to business way to cut drawers. (I think that no frills and dovetails don't always go hand in hand, but I'm a very weird man sometimes.)
My first real project, ever, was a dresser, composed of 2 stacking chests of drawers. And I joined the drawers with through dovetails, leaving them exposed. I do still use the dresser. It's still useful, and it's solidly built. It was also a serious lesson in why proportions are important, but that's another talk for another day. I haven't cut drawers like that in a while though, because I prefer the half-blind look, where the joinery doesn't show in the front. I'll explain why.
The ambrosia maple is a really nice design element. I used tap-hole maple to similar effect on my very first tool chest. But there's a competition for attention that's going on between the beauty of the wood, and the quality of your joinery.
I'll offer another example by way of demonstration. With heartfelt and respectful apologies to their editor, I have real issues with the Curly Maple blanket chest on the cover of the latest Woodworking magazine. The wood is gorgeous, but the contrast between end grain and face grain on the finger jointed corners really stands out like a sore thumb. The organic undulations of the wood's natural figure is abruptly punctuated by the rigid geometry of the joinery. And when I look at this beautifully figured, and (presumably) meticulously surfaced chest, I see the finger joints before anything else. They're cleanly cut, and they stand out as being well made, but the beauty of the figured wood almost gets lost. My attention ends up bouncing back and forth between the wood and the joinery. I don't even see the rest of the chest. The joinery is distracting enough that I think it takes away from a piece that would otherwise be a symphony of clean lines and beautiful wood. Chris did a great job in simplifying an otherwise involved project, to make it more approachable, but I think he might have taken it a step further, and made a painted chest. It's a traditional Shaker finish for worthy Shaker design.
Everyone likes to be able to demonstrate their skill as a builder and woodworker, and dovetails and joinery have become a very prominent design element as a result. But if you look at the really masterful stuff from back in the day, the joinery was solid... but it only played a supporting role. And supporting elements work best when they become invisible. Any skilled woodworker will look for the joinery... they'll open drawers, and look at how everything was put together... but they'll have to LOOK. The lines of the piece should be clean, unbroken and simple, and hopefully be able to sing clearly on their own. (All art, after all, aspires to be music.)
So what to do with those drawers?
They're good, functional drawers, Dom. And I see nothing wrong with them. They'll work very well, and they'll hold everything they were supposed to. Realistically speaking, they're a very small part of a much bigger picture, and that cabinet is going to be stunning. If you're happy with the drawers (and you should be) then I'd continue to use them. Learn all you can from this project, and apply it in the future, but KEEP MOVING FORWARD.
On the other hand, if they're still bugging you in a year or so, and you have time to kill, I'd look around the shop, find another nice looking piece of wood, and cut some new drawers. Every woodworker who's been at it for a while has a small stash squirreled away of short pieces that are just too gorgeous to throw away... and little details like new drawer fronts are a great place to use those pieces.
