Fine Woodworking Show Us Your Drawers Contest

Silverware Chest of Drawers

comments (2) December 29th, 2010 in Reader's Gallery

stevenr stevenr, member
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Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman;} Full view - showing the overall form of the chest of drawers and the tapered and shaped legs. The case is floating between the legs,  mounted at approx 30deg to the case. The legs taper and flair resulting in the overall larger footprint and balanced proportions of the piece. The legs are hand shaped.
Close up of the chest front view, showing the mitered dovetail joints on the case corners, hand shaped draw pulls, and leg mounts.
Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4   Close up with the drawers open, showing the handcut dovetails on the drawers and case sides, and stopped dadoes for the wooden case mounted drawer slides. The decision to leave streaks of sapwood was deliberate, further highlighting the overall natural elements of the wood.
Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 A view from above showing the details of the handcut case mitered dovetails and leg joinery.
The custom fitted and lined drawer interiors.
Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman;} Full view - showing the overall form of the chest of drawers and the tapered and shaped legs. The case is floating between the legs,  mounted at approx 30deg to the case. The legs taper and flair resulting in the overall larger footprint and balanced proportions of the piece. The legs are hand shaped. - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Full view - showing the overall form of the chest of drawers and the tapered and shaped legs.

The case is floating between the legs,  mounted at approx 30deg to the case. The legs taper and flair resulting in the overall larger footprint and balanced proportions of the piece. The legs are hand shaped.
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This original design, chest of graded height drawers was designed around a 6 piece, 12 place setting cutlery set, with each of the drawers being custom fitted and felt lined.

I evolved the design from the inside out, optimizing the draw size to accommodate the cutlery then designing the case, legs, pulls, and leg mounts around that. Keeping with the theme of exposed hand cut joinery, and hand shaped & tapered leg forms, and finished to compel the piece to be touched/felt. As hobbyist & novice fine woodworker, this piece was also designed to challenge and grow my techniques and abilities.

This piece was completed in 2010.

Dimensions:

  • Overall dimensions including the legs are approx 20"W x 38"H x 14"D.
  • Dimensions of the case are approx 14"W x 12"H x 13"D (excluding the legs)

Woods used:

  • Draw fronts - Figured Cherry
  • Case - Cherry
  • Legs - Avodire
  • Draw pulls/leg mounts - Katalox
  • Drawer sides / backs - Maple.
  • Draw inserts poplar

Finish:

  • French polished ultra-blond shellac, hand rubbed to a silky feel allowing the natural wood tones and grain to show, with a wax polish overtop the shellac.

Design or Plan used: My Own Design - Steven Ruskin
posted in: Reader's Gallery, cherry, maple, chest of drawers, shellac, banak, katalox, avodire, cutlery, cutlass
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Comments (2)

stevenr stevenr writes: To attach the legs to the case, I installed brass insert nuts into the legs at 30deg to the leg face, with a large flat head bolt installed from the interior of the case through the katalox spacers into the insert. I built a jig to correctly position the legs for drilling and installing the nuts in the correct plane of alignment. I did consider other approaches but decided on this given it's simplicity and ability to remove the legs for future transportation, etc. With the mass of the cutlery and case, I did not want to risk a cross grain tenon only type of connection. Let me know if you have further questions. Thx.
Posted: 10:03 am on January 3rd

hima hima writes: beautiful design, very well executed I like it a lot.
My question to you is: How did you connect the legs to the casing?
Posted: 6:54 pm on December 29th

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