Spalted Maple and Walnut Tool Cabinet

rollo1, member

94 users recommend

A. Ziegler

A. Ziegler

A. Ziegler

A. Ziegler

Photo: A. Ziegler

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I built this tool cabinet for my hand tools, so it seemed appropriate to maximize my use of hand tools. The drawer and frame dovetails are all cut with saw and chisel, and all surfaces are finished with handplanes. The doors and drawer fronts are all bookmatched spalted maple, and the frame and drawer bodies are walnut. It hangs on the wall using a french cleat. The finish is hand rubbed polyurethane.

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Comments (6)

Trav_Wilson writes: Somebody should give you an award for this ... or at least this should get the back cover of FWW. Words fail me. Lovely, useful, the mark of a true craftsman.
Posted: 2:49 pm on March 23rd

davidc writes: This is really beautiful. I am especially interested in the hinges that you are using here... They seem to be mortised into the body of the cabinet and doors but are long and the actual pins connect them quite a bit beyond the cabinet such that when you open the doors there is quite a large space between the cabinet and doors... What are these hinges?

thanks,
david
Posted: 8:32 am on July 30th

3pinner writes: This is a really cool tool chest! The only thing that could make it more interesting would be to have your wood tool handles all gnarly looking too. Kind of impractical, but it would be fun eh?
Posted: 8:57 pm on July 9th

rollo1 writes: Thanks for the comments! Glad you like it. Crazywood: flattening the door fronts was kind of a pain. That wood was a bit funky, and after resawing the doors I used a drum sander to flatten them. I was able to finish plane only the "solid" parts of the doors, and used a scraper on the funkier sections. The drawer fronts were much more solid and I was able to plane those using a smoother with a 55 deg bed angle taking very thin shavings, and scraping on sections that didn't cooperate. In order to add stability to the doors, the chisel racks are actually a strengthening device, with some additional "decorative" ribs for added structure. That spalted maple really sucks up the poly as well.
Posted: 1:00 pm on June 9th

crazywood writes: I am into natural edge woodworking and this is a great example of using an unusual small slab to make a useful and beautiful project. Did you have any difficulty flattening the door fronts? From my experience spalted maple is notoriously hard to plane.

Thanks for sharing Gary
Posted: 11:59 am on June 9th

PlaneandSimple writes: This is absolutely incredible! While the wood is spectacular all on its own, your use of it by leaving the door edges natural really sets it off. You've done a great job.
Posted: 10:41 am on June 9th

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