I finished this tall chest in late May. The primary wood is American Black Cherry, about 90% of it from one tree. Cherry plywood was used for drawer bottoms and the back panels, while quarter-sawn white oak was used for the drawer sides and backs. The entire chest, inside and out, has three coats of hand-rubbed Watco Danish Oil (Natural). The solid brass drawer pulls (called “bridge” pulls) and knobs for the cabinet doors came from Crown City Hardware in Pasadena, CA. The hand-cast, solid brass hinges are from Horton Brasses in Cromwell, CT. From concept drawings to completion, this took me about 160 hours. (Click on any photo to enlarge.)
The chest is 72 inches tall, 34 inches wide, and 22 inches front to back.
Each panel in the cabinet doors is made up of a book-matched pair of boards which were beveled first on the table saw, and then finished with a hand plane. The door frames are quarter-sawn cherry with the rails tenoned into the stiles. The transition molding and the crown molding were cut on the table saw as coves and then split into the quarter round profile. The outer edge of the crown molding was extended with solid stock.
The drawer fronts are graduated from bottom to top (9.5″, 9″, 8.5″, 7.5″) and each drawer front is one solid piece of American Black Cherry.
Quarter-sawn, Eastern white oak was chosen for its stability in the drawer sides and backs. The half-blind dovetails were all hand cut with a 14 ppi saw and chisel.
Shelves and center divider are solid cherry.
The upper section of the chest is a separate unit and can be removed for transport. Back panels for the upper and lower sections are 3/8″ cherry plywood (cherry both sides).
The “Makers Mark.”
