Eric Johnson's Furniture Weblog

Solid Cherry Trestle Table

 
Hello again,

Here is a picture of a trestle table that I recently completed.  I really enjoyed this project because it allowed me an opportunity to do some things I don't do very often such as through wedge tenons.  This project was also a bit different because I didn't have to supply the wood.  The customers had some cherry that was cut from their property and had milled up a few years ago.  They had been storing the wood up in the loft of the workshop and it was plenty dry for this a table.

 

 

This next picture shows the wedge mortise and tenon joint that I used for the trestle-to-post joint.  The key to this type of joinery is that you have to angle the mortise at the top and bottom from the outside to the inside.  (If I get anybody posting a comment who doesn't understand what I am saying here, I will post a drawing of what I mean.)  On the through tenon I needed to cut a kerf on the band saw before I put the joint together.  Once the joint is glued and slipped into place I tap in some wedges with glue until the joint is locked into place.  A word of caution here.  You need to have this joint just the way you want it and really be ready to have this part glued together because once this joint is done there is no way you are taking it apart.  That's the beauty of this joint--once done, it won't ever give out or fall apart.  It is completely locked in.

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Below shows the breadboard end.  This is a pretty important part of the table in that the breadboard will help to keep the table end flat.  Being that the overhang is about 12 inches, the top may have a tendency to cup.  The joinery that I use is a pegged mortise and tenon joint.  You can see the pegs that I used in the picture.  When you do this joint, there is one very important step you have to keep in mind because if you don't, your table top will develop a couple of huge cracks down the length of the top.  You have to let the top expand and contract with the different seasons.  The way you do this is not glue the mortise and tenon together.  How will it hold together you say?  Well that is what the pegs are for.  Your mortises have to be oversize and the peg holes through the tenon have to be elongated so the table will move within the joinery.  One additional step I use is a draw-bore peg.  This is an off-center hole in the tenon that, when I drive in the peg, it actually draws the breadboard tighter to the table.  This ensures that the joint won't open up at some point in the future. 

 

 

 Here is a picture of the legs.  You will notice that it is laminated together.  This isn't because I didn't have thick wood to use.  I did this because it is stronger.  If you look at the grain in the legs, you will notice that with this design there is an awful lot of short grain that could snap fairly easily if some one was to jump on the table.  By laminating, the grain from one board actually strengthens the other one.  I would bet that two people could tap dance over the legs and it would hold just fine.  

 

 

Here is a picture of the underside.  You can see the design of the stretcher that is attached to the top, as well as the pegged mortise and tenon joints where the post attaches to the feet.

 

 

It was a great project and I appreciated the opportunity to do it!  This table is a great example of custom furniture fulfilling the needs of a customer better than something from a traditional furniture store.  Not only is the table full of hand work and traditional joinery that will insure that the table can last generation, the customers got to have a table made using their own wood--wood that came from their property.  When the day comes that their kids inherit the table, it will be just that much more special.

Again, if you have any suggestions for a blog topic or have any questions regarding this blog, please feel free to post it in the comment section.  Also, please email me if you have a special project in mind that you would like to work together on.

Until next time

Eric

Eric Johnson's Furniture

www.ericjohnsonsfurniture.com

(603)726-4980

Email:  info@ericjohnsonsfurniture.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

7-Drawer Chest--Part 2

Hello again,

It’s time for the second post about the 7-drawer chest. 

After I cut and fit the dovetails in each corner of the case, I glued the case together.  If you remember in my last blog about the chest, I mentioned cutting dados across the case sides where the drawers will be.  This is where I fit the dividers.  I cut the dividers to length, then on the table saw I cut out the dovetails.

 

 This picture shows me scribing the dovetail to the case sides. 

Once I have the tail laid out on the case side, I transfer the line down the side to the depth I want--in this case about an inch.  Now all I have to do is cut close to the line.  I don’t need to be right on because I will pare it to fit with a chisel.

 

 

Once I cut down to the depth I want, it’s nothing to pop the piece out

 

 

Now comes the part where you need a sharp chisel and some patience.  The key is to not take too big of a bite but to slowly and carefully pare to your line.

  
 

Once you get close, mark some pencil lead onto the leading edge of the dovetail and try to fit it.  If it’s too tight simply remove the board and shave off where the pencil lead is showing.

 

 
 
Once you get a good fit, you are done. And you can move onto the other ones.

  
This post was fairly difficult to write because I wanted to give a brief overview of making and installing the dovetail stretchers but found it was difficult to leave things out.  If any of you would like a more in-depth discussion on how I did this, let me know and I will write a more involved article.

The next blog will be about the finishing process.  At some point I will be describing how I dovetail and build the drawers, but I think it will be a completely separate blog, so stay tuned.

 Thank you again for stopping by.  If you have any questions or comments, or have a suggestion of what you would be interested in me writing about, just let me know.

 Until next time,

 Eric

www.ericjohnsonsfurniture.com

(603)726-4980

Campton, NH

 

 

Furniture wood supplier

Hello, and thank you for stopping by Eric Johnson’s Furniture’s web log.

When people stop by my showroom and take a look around they are always impressed with the wood I use for my furniture.  The first thing they say is “where do you get your wood”.  I think most of the time people are not familiar with tiger maple and just assume that it must come from a foreign market.  Other people are surprised that I can get so much of It, they want to know where I get it and are also surprised that it is a local wood.

So here is my answer.  Tiger maple is just a maple tree that grows with a “defect”.  Thankfully this “defect” makes for beautiful furniture.  You can find tiger maple anywhere maple grows.  I cut down a little maple tree in my back yard and found it to be loaded with stripes.  Unfortunately it had some really bad defects in the wood so much so, I couldn’t use it.

I get 95% of my wood from a local lumber dealer in Ashland New Hampshire.  Steve Sharps owns the business and works it with his son Jamie.  Two nicer guys you won’t find anywhere.  Steve keeps an abundant supply of highly figured tiger maple in stock.  He also deals heavily in wide pine boards.  It is not uncommon to find clear pine 16 feel long and 18 – 24 inches wide and virtually clear of any defects.  My father recently laid a wide pine floor in his house he is building using Steve’s wood and it came out beautifully.  Steve also keeps in stock Cherry, Flame Cherry, Poplar, Rock Maple, Birdseye Maple and Butternut.

 

Now this is where the rubber meets the road.  I have found his prices are very reasonable.  This is proved out in the fact that he has customers that come all the way from Rhode Island to look through his supply.

I highly recommend Steve if you need wood for your next project.  You can contact him through his web site.  www.sharpslumber.com

Thank you again for stopping by.  Until next time.

Eric

Tiger Maple Chest of Drawers

Hello again and welcome to Eric Johnson's Furniture's web log.   Makers of high quality tiger maple and cherry antique reproduction furniture.

Here are the latest items from the shop.  Two virtually identical small chest of drawers.  I really enjoyed this project because I rarely get to build two of the same thing at the same time.  I found one aspect to be kind of difficult, remembering to double the parts in the plan.  When I design and make a cut list, I do it for one.  I have to then remember to double the parts at each step or take the time to write it down.  I have, in the past, forgotten and only made half the pieces that I needed and after I was all done with that operation I would realize what I'd done.  I would have to start that operation at the beginning again.  Kind of a frustration because that step now took twice as long as it should have.

I once heard a very famous cabinet/furniture maker, Frank Klaus (I probably didn't spell his name right) once say that cabinet makers are really "boxoligists."  I think he is mostly right. With the exception of corner cabinets, we do make boxes.  The above photo is a good example.  When you break the piece down, it is just a bunch of boxes and half boxes (I will explain the half box a little later in the article) with molding attached to it.  The big box (case) is hand dovetailed together.  You can see the top dovetails in the picture below.  The bottom looks just like it, except it is made using poplar instead of tiger maple.

In order to put more boxes in the big box, I had to divide it into sections.  I did this by making stretchers that run from side to side attached with dovetails in the front and the back with runners then going from front to back.

Here you can see how the runners are attached to the case and the stretchers.  This picture is taken from the back.  The runners have tenons that get glued into a mortise in the front.  I then attach the runner to the side using a screw.  This screw is in an elongated hole that will allow the case side to expand and contract with the seasons.  (If confused about this please see the earlier article on wood movement).  Please note that I did not use glue to attach the runner to the side.  This wouldn't allow the side to move and so the side will end up cracking.  I use this screw because it adds some resistance to the side ever wanting to cup in the middle.  The rear stretchers are glued in place but the runner tenon is not glued into its mortise. 

With these dividers in, I can now make more boxes (drawers).  I did an article on how I make drawers so please check that out. 

Now for the half boxes.  I imagine that I confused some of you with that half box statement.  What I mean with the half box are the feet.  I dovetailed the feet together but there is only two sides, so that is where I get the half box.

Another aspect of these chest of drawers I liked is the awesome figure of the tiger maple.  As you can see the figure is very good.  My customers for these two pieces wanted an antique feel to the pieces.  Of course that doesn't mean take a chain and beat on it for a while to give it that antique look, they just wanted to have that feel in color.  With my finishing technique I believe I achieve that goal.  I am sitting here trying to figure out a way of explaining what I am talking about but I can't, I'm not that good with words.  However I feel it has a glow that is missing with most new furniture.  I am in the process of putting a finish on another piece right now.  I am taking pictures so that I can write an article about how I finish my pieces.  Look for that article in the next week or so.

Again, I do appreciate your comments and suggestions.  So drop me an email ejfurniture@adelphia.net 

Until next time.

Eric Johnson

Half blind dovetailing

Hello, thank you again for stopping by my web log.

I have been doing quite a bit of dovetailing lately and I thought I would make a post out of it.  I took a bunch of pictures and wrote a description of what I was doing next to it.  If you are interested, go to the photo albums and click on the construction photos.  You will notice that photos 6 and 7 have been switched around.  I am new to this thing and haven't figured out how to fix it yet, so please bear with me.

I would bet, if you got ten woodworkers together to discuss dovetailing you would get 10 different ways of doing it.  The way I describe is just my way, not the right way or wrong way, just my way.  I never took a class or was taught.  I read some articles in Fine Woodworking and went for it and ended up developing what works for me.  If you should endeavor to give dovetailing a try,  experiment with different approaches and see what works for you.

Good luck.

Eric

Wood Movement

Hello, Thank you for taking some time to stop by and visit my web log.

Since this is my first post (other then my about me page), I thought I would start at the beginning of how furniture is made.  First we need to understand a bit about how wood reacts with its surroundings.  Throughout the life of a piece of wood it will always react to moisture in the air.  There is no finish that completely seals it off.  We can only slow the rate of moisture absorption and elimination.  This little article is meant to give you just enough of information so you can understand why your solid wood furniture moves from season to season. For you scientific and inquiring minds who would like more information, there is an excellent book on the subject called Understanding Wood, by Bruce Hoadley. 

When a log is cut down it is then cut into lumber.  Most of the time the wood is put into a wood kiln that dries the wood to about 6% moisture content.  This is the stage when I get it, nice and dry.  When a piece of wood is this dry there is almost no water in the cells.  As the air around the board becomes humid, the wood will absorb some of that water and store it in its cells.  This will cause the cells to expand and consequently it will also increase the width of the board.  The board will change across the width not the length.  I have made dining tables that are 36” wide that have grown from 36” in the winter when the moisture in the air is at its lowest to 36 3/8” in the summer when the moisture is at its highest.  This would be reversed if the table were made in the summer.  This 3/8” of an inch is enough to completely destroy the table if it isn’t properly constructed.  If it grew 3/8 of an inch, it would more then likely break the apron-to-leg joints.  If it shrank the 3/8 of an inch it would definitely crack the top.  Take a look at the sketches for some examples of a good and bad joint. 

Now in order to build furniture you have to use cross grain joinery many times.  If dry wood is used and kept less than 8” wide, you probably don’t need to worry that there will be a problem.  If it’s wider such as this table with the breadboard ends, then you have a challenge.  I am sure that as I go along with this web log, I will come across these times and will write a short article on the solution to this common woodworking problem.

The most important piece of advice I can give you if you decide to try your hand at building a piece of furniture.  Always keep the grain direction and how the wood will react with the changes of the seasons in mind and build accordingly.  Always, always, always remember that wood must be allowed to move.

I hope this has been informative.  If you have any questions or an idea of a topic you would like to see discussed, please let me know.

Eric   

ejfurniture@adelphia.net   

Here are a couple of examples of a good and bad joint.  This is assuming that the joint has been made without taking the grain direction into consideration.

Good because the grain in both pieces will expand and contract together.

Bad because the grain is running opposite to one another.  The vertical grain will keep the horizontal grain from being able to move.