For Dana

JOY!! A comment on a post from last year landed in my in box this week.

Someone had seen my final term project design on the May 2012 post Cabinet-making and was interested in seeing how the big adventure had turned out.

I'm afraid I haven't taken any proper portfolio photos of  "The Dandy" yet because it is so tall and I haven't figured out how to get it all on a decent backdrop etc. So these are phone pics and a bit noisy; but you get the idea.

Here is "The Dandy" in the corner of our office:

And some detail shots:

So... There you have it. And thank you Dana for asking, I'm really chuffed at your interest.

Caroline

Felt lining

I've been making a presentation box for a canteen of cutlery out of English Cherry. The joints are through dovetails and the lid is veneered with a yew burr. Lovely.

All the woodworking stuff went very smoothly and enjoyably... It looks great with the pair of Brusso quadrant hinges that I've fitted to allow the lid (which will be lined with the knives) to rest open at 95 degrees.

Then I got on to the cutlery rests/slots.

Lining the tiny slots that I had created with a soft felt material was like Extreme Blue Peter - with blades.

I finished the fiddly felt bit at home today in a sawdust free environment.

The base of the presentation box

Bring on the finishing and polishing.

And here's a wood-y tune:

Precision

After a week of skinning various pieces of wood to reveal their inner beauty, i put down my plane.

In response to my bleatings about RSI, John (Cabinet-maker-in-chief) showed mercy and introduced me to the art of the dovetail joint.

A seasoned dovetailer of his calibre can make the whole exercise in precision look like a simple process of light sawing and delicate wood love with a chisel. I found it slightly less simple.

His show-and-tell session lasted no more than half an hour and resulted in an immaculate no-gaps-joint.

Around six hours later I produced a joint that looked a bit like a set of badly looked after teeth.

He examined my offering while endeavouring to find some small redeeming feature to use as means of encouragement.

He couldn't.

"It's all about precision, you see." he reiterated.

My head swam with examples of my innate lack of precision both practical and intellectual.

Kenny drools over my dovetails

I ignored them and set about a new set of dovetails, my tongue poking out in concentration - like a 6 year old learning to write.

I will learn precision, I will!

Days passed.

I sawed and chiseled away at four further dovetail sets, each one improving minutely in quality on the one before.

The fifth was no triumph but would serve its purpose.

John, probably running out of ways of turning negatives into positives, has redirected me to my cast-aside Clifton jack plane.