the cover of the journal, which features a woodworking article written by mike

Earlier this spring I wrote an article about how I shaped the curved legs for my Walnut Cabinet. The article was published in The Journal of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers and is available to view by clicking on the image at right.

In the article, I describe the entire process of making the curved legs, from design to final shaping.

Why did I design this piece with curved legs? Because the curves lend a nice bit of elegance and refinement. And it's another way to add a level of individuality and personality to my work. Breaking out of the rectilinear and into more curvaceous forms is important to me as a furniture maker. I hope the article provides insight into the process.

Happy reading!

Clamping the half-blind dovetails that join the side to the bottom. The vertical divider has already been assembled to the bottom with a tapered sliding dovetail.

Here are those half-blind dovetails, viewed from the bottom.

Dovetails, again. You can also see the rabbet on the front of the side which will accept a vertical stile.

Assembling the horizontal dividers to the sides/vertical divider. The horizontal divider is half-lapped at the vertical divider and has a dovetail tenon on each end that fits into dovetail mortises in the case sides.

A little tough to make out, but you can kind of see the dovetail tenon on the end of the cherry horizontal divider (which has been inserted in the dovetail mortise on the case side). There you have it, a sliding dovetail.

I'm using clamps to pull one of the rear horizontal dividers into position. Again, sliding dovetails and half laps.

One of the rear horizontal dividers awaiting it's turn with the clamps. You can see the tenon on the end of the runner, which fits into a corresponding mortise in the divider.

The chest of drawers is starting to take shape as I begin to take the individual parts and assemble them to create the case. Up until now each part represented a lot of work – milling, sizing to dimension, joinery, more joinery, smoothing, fitting – but hadn’t yet been assembled into something recognizable.

I always design and build case pieces with wood-to-wood joinery, and this piece is no exception. The sides join to the bottom with hand cut, half-blind dovetails. The off-center vertical divider joins to the bottom with a tapered sliding dovetail. Horizontal dividers join to the case sides with sliding dovetails and to the vertical divider with half-laps. The benefit of all of this tight-fitting joinery is a case that will be more than adequate to resist the loads it will see over the span of its life – no bowed sides or sagging dividers. And that’s extremely important because a case that is not rigid will lead to drawers that don’t slide in and out sweetly. And what’s the point in a chest of drawers you can’t use?