Hi all,
A colleague at work mentioned that she would like to purchase an early (or earlyish) chest of drawers for a spare room.
I offered her a couple of options that I had available.
5.jpg
The smaller chest is a circa 1880 red cedar chest. Fairly typical in construction and style.
The taller chest is quite interesting. When I purchased it, I thought from the photos that it was probably Cedar. When I picked it up, I had my doubts. The drawer fronts were a lot heavier and harder than Cedar. After some consultation with some restorer friends, and after discussing the possibility of it being Oak, we came to the conclusion that it may well be Yellow Wood (Long Jack -Flindersia Xanthoxyla).
I believe it's Australian circa 1900.
She decided the she wanted the Yellow Wood chest. Mostly because of the amazing grain and contrast in the drawer fronts.
6.jpg7.jpg
Problem areas ...
8.jpg9.jpg
Quite a bit of old borer. Only on the cross piece under the bottom drawer, and the back 2" or so of the sides.
I've decided to leave the cross piece in situ, and fill the borer holes. This piece is still very sound. The side sections will need to be cut out and replaced. They have turned to dust. I'll tackle this later.
About 2" of the bottom drawer front has been cut off by the previous owner. I expect that the borer had attacked that as well.
I have no wild-grained Yellow Wood, so I glued on a strip of sapwood Cedar with a similar colour. I also had to cut out the dovetail socket and plow the drawer bottom groove. I blended the grain pattern with some artistic use of a brush and some brown ochre. I didn't want it to draw the eye too much.
10.jpg11.jpg
I've now put the bottom drawer together. I built up the drawer runners, and had to apply some strips to the drawer bottoms because of shrinkage. The muntin was a bit smashed so I repaired that as well.
12.jpg13.jpg
The two middle drawers sit quite well, and will not need any drawer runner work. The top drawers are OK, but are sitting a bit low. I'll knock them apart and build up the drawer runners.
Most of the work on this chest will be cleaning and re-polishing.
I'll post some more WIP pics when I get some more shed time (unless you tell me to stop :-).
Cheers,
Stu
A colleague at work mentioned that she would like to purchase an early (or earlyish) chest of drawers for a spare room.
I offered her a couple of options that I had available.
5.jpg
The smaller chest is a circa 1880 red cedar chest. Fairly typical in construction and style.
The taller chest is quite interesting. When I purchased it, I thought from the photos that it was probably Cedar. When I picked it up, I had my doubts. The drawer fronts were a lot heavier and harder than Cedar. After some consultation with some restorer friends, and after discussing the possibility of it being Oak, we came to the conclusion that it may well be Yellow Wood (Long Jack -Flindersia Xanthoxyla).
I believe it's Australian circa 1900.
She decided the she wanted the Yellow Wood chest. Mostly because of the amazing grain and contrast in the drawer fronts.
6.jpg7.jpg
Problem areas ...
8.jpg9.jpg
Quite a bit of old borer. Only on the cross piece under the bottom drawer, and the back 2" or so of the sides.
I've decided to leave the cross piece in situ, and fill the borer holes. This piece is still very sound. The side sections will need to be cut out and replaced. They have turned to dust. I'll tackle this later.
About 2" of the bottom drawer front has been cut off by the previous owner. I expect that the borer had attacked that as well.
I have no wild-grained Yellow Wood, so I glued on a strip of sapwood Cedar with a similar colour. I also had to cut out the dovetail socket and plow the drawer bottom groove. I blended the grain pattern with some artistic use of a brush and some brown ochre. I didn't want it to draw the eye too much.
10.jpg11.jpg
I've now put the bottom drawer together. I built up the drawer runners, and had to apply some strips to the drawer bottoms because of shrinkage. The muntin was a bit smashed so I repaired that as well.
12.jpg13.jpg
The two middle drawers sit quite well, and will not need any drawer runner work. The top drawers are OK, but are sitting a bit low. I'll knock them apart and build up the drawer runners.
Most of the work on this chest will be cleaning and re-polishing.
I'll post some more WIP pics when I get some more shed time (unless you tell me to stop :-).
Cheers,
Stu
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