Took me one year to want to build a wall cabinet.

Re: Took me one year to want to build a wall cabin

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Your year in CA really shows. Quality work.

Pam

Re: Took me one year to want to build a wall cabin

Jay Hanks

>Ed That is excellant work, I am still checking out the toolbox book for inspiration.

Re: Took me one year to want to build a wall cabin

Steve Kubien

>I really like it, Ed. Nice proportions, simple elegant lines and I love the way the dovetails pop out at you when the drawers are open. Honey locust, eh? I may have to look into some of that. Beautiful wood and a Beautiful piece.

Thanks,

Steve Kubien

Re: Took me one year to want to build a wall cabin

MikeG

>Ed - That is a really nice design. I have a hand tool cabinet on my short list. I might steal some of your design elements if you don't mind. :)

Also, the dovetails look great. Having them a little large kind of shows a hand cut trait rather than machine cut.

Mike

Re: Took me one year to want to build a wall cabin

Jeff Schmidt (KY)

>Ed- nice work as usual. The end grain on the honey locust looks a lot like southern yellow pine.

"Put the carcass together with big mortise and tenons"

What? No dowels? How very un-CR of you! :-)

Re: Took me one year to want to build a wall cabin

Ed Snow

>I know, the more I thought about big mortise and tenons the more I was confused as to why we were never told about them out there. So I asked them, no real issue if they fit tight and you have enough wood to support them. The probelm is normally you don't have enough wood to support them. The top and bottom are 1 1/8" thick so a 5/8" tenon is plenty meaty.

The doweled joint is stronger in tension than the mortise and tenon when joining wood in this manner. With the dowels you get face grain to face grain bonds on two sort of sides every time you put a dowel in where in the mortise you only get two. In hindsight, I will never repeat this joint again.

That joint and the dovetails both suffered from a lack of fore thought and care, at the time they were fast but I know better.

Honey Locust Question

David Wheeler

>Hi Ed,

Nice work on the cabinet.

I've got 1000 bd ft of 8/4 honey locust in my kiln. It is dried to 16% so it will still be a while before I can work it.

Did you dry/season your own stock? If so was there much loss?

How was it surface with your smoother? Did the grain try to come up?

Interesting end grain on the pins. Did you notice any problem with the grain wanting to separate? I had that problem with some hackberry.

The shellac finish looks excellent; I would guess a blo mix would really deepen the tone of the HL.

Thanks,

David

Nice cabinet...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Well done, even the DT's look good a little large.

How did you attach the dowel that supports the shelf?

Very nice work.

Very cool...

Jonathan Kaplan (OR)

>I really like the look -- very cool, very fine.

And as usual, great work.

(I thought about the wall-cabinet contest, but the cabinet-on-stand I've been working on for two years is getting closer to being done, and I don't want to take a break from it now... Also, given that the cabinet-on-stand has taken me two years so far, I doubt I could finish in a month... And of course, it looks like the competetion will be mighty stiff!!!)

Best,

jk

on the subject of Honey Locust ...

Victor Parisian

>I was under the impression that Honey Locust and Mesquete where one and the same until looking at your picture. The mesquete I've worked with is a lot redder than this with a more twisted grain. Also noted a lot of grit in the mesquete. Question, what is the difference? Anyone know off the top of your head? Thanks,

Victor who has to get back to work.

Re: on the subject of Honey Locust ...

Ed Snow

>Mesquite and honey locust are very different in nature. Mesquite is a giant pea, in fact more shrub than tree. Both flower and they have a simular connifer like leave. Both have silicas in them which rapidly dull your tools.

Locust is not impossible to work with but it is a bit challenging. Nice sharp tools and lots of sharpening got me to this point. It scrapes very well. Being that it is so brittle tear out when it happens is severe.

The locust is colored up a bit with kusmi shellace so it is a bit redder than it normally is.

fox wedged mortise and tenons.

Ed Snow

>

Thanks...

Victor Parisian

>As always I am overwhelmed by the depth of knowledge displayed here. Will try to locate Picture of huge conference room table made from one Mesquete log for those who might be interested.

Victor wanting to get back to the shop.

Sweet! Thanks

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>

Re: Honey Locust vs. Mesquite *LINKS*

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Both are legumes, which means they are in the pea family, but then, so are the rosewoods, purpleheart, acaceas, redbuds, Kentucky Coffeetree, and black locust. It is a very large family, about 500 genera and 13,000 species.

Mesquite, Prosopis juliflora, grows in the southwest and in Mexico. Honeylocust, Gleditsia triacanthos, grows in the southeast and midwest, in moist, fertile soils. Since the honeylocust grows larger, and straighter, you can get a lot more good lumber out of a typical tree. There is a lot of difference in the working properties as well:

Mesquite

Honeylocust

There is some overlap of ranges of these species in eastern Texas and Arkansas.