Building oak dressers

Re: Building oak dressers

johannaj

Incidentally, the two dressers are mirror images. In other words the position of the wide and narrow drawers are reversed.

Re: Building oak dressers

Garthinsandiego

Don't see the pdf link. Just me???

You needed some Unicorning...

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

.......to strengthen those chisel edges.

Re: You needed some Unicorning...

Winston

Bill is referring to a method of sharpening using a buffing wheel that has been a subject of active discussion on the hand tools forum. The short version is that it's very quick and easy, and results in a sharper blade which has a much more durable edge than "normal" sharpening.

For those who haven't been following along and want a condensed version, here's a video I made about it. The video shows how to do it, and demonstrates that the edge does indeed last much longer when chopping.

https://vimeo.com/444232624

Re: Building oak dressers

Johanna Johanson

It's a tiny icon beneath the photo of the headboard. Sorry, I could not get the drawing to post any other way.

Re: You needed some Unicorning...

Johanna Johanson

I wish I had seen it sooner! All those mortises (32 of them) are done now!

Re: Building oak dressers

Jim Matthews

My elbow aches just looking at this.

Kudos

Re: You needed some Unicorning...

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

We would like to see what your success is with this technique. If you don't have a buffing wheel you can add the convex profile on your last sharpening stone. Pull the chisel across the stone while rocking it up 5-10 degrees. Picture in your mine the convex profile and roll the chisel to get this shape. 5-10 pulls will do it. After 5 see if you have the bright line at the very tip. Done when you can see it. If you strop you can follow with 5-10 rocking strops.

Then test it out and let us know what you find.

question

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I presume you chop from both sides.?. How do you scribe both sides so the "tunnels" meet exactly in the middle? I never knew how they bored tunnels from each side of a mountain and met in the middle either.

For all your angst over matching up the grain it sure looks good to my eye.

Thank you, Winston

Yonak

...for that instructional video. Very well done and informative. Very helpful.

Wait till you try it

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Very helpful.

Even if you don't need the astonishing improvement in edge durability it is likely the 5 seconds you spend buffing will result in an edge sharper than you have ever experienced. Works on knives too.

Re: question

Johanna Johanson

I made a template from hardboard to use with a router. I clamped it to the piece and marked the edges of the piece using my 4 inch square to indicate exactly where the top and bottom of the template were. Then I flipped the piece over and clamped the template to the other side carefully aligning the top and bottom to the marks. Worked perfectly. There were a very few mortises that had a tiny (less than 1/32") ridge, but a chisel fixed that easily.

Thanks, Bill, for the compliment on grain matching. I still have one bottom divider to glue up, but I am not picky about grain on bottom dividers since they will never be seen. I picked the best boards for the sides and tops, and since most were at least 8 feet long and 8 inches wide, it was not too hard to get matches.

I have to buy one more batch of wood for all the drawer fronts. The deepest drawers are 9 inches, so I'm going to try to find a couple of boards that are at least 9 3/4 inches wide. I'll also take a plane along to the lumber yard so I can get rift-sawn (or maybe even quarter sawn) boards.

Re: question

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It would be unusual to find any rift in a pile of oak. If you do it will be narrow. However, rift glues together easily to make attractive patterns.

To get an entirely rift cut board 9 3/4 wide would require a tree on the order of 2' in diameter if it was to sawed to yield rift. Nobody purposely saws to get rift so a tree that size would yield very wide boards with vees in the middle and rift on the edges.

A mill sawing cants and then resawing the cants on a gang saw will produce some rift and quartered lumber, but it will be narrow.

You won't need a plane to see the grain in oak.

Re: Building oak dressers

Garthinsandiego

Got it! I like the drawer front pattern. I've used red oak for linen fold panels on a vanity, ignoring advice that one should not learn to carve using a hard wood like oak. As you too discovered, working oak with hand tools can be challenging! But, we endure in order to get the results that we want. Looking forward to seeing the finished project.