18th century curly maple secretary

[Thomas Snyder]

Stunning, did you use a specific set of plans? I'd like to know and believe I could tackle a project like this sometime as my capabilities improve.

[Roy Wall]

Lou --

Beautiful - a master craftsman you are....
The wood is spectacular and you make it speak out - wonderful!!

Please do tell us your source of wood and the finish........

[george wilson]

That is a beautiful piece!! There is nothing prettier than curly maple on a piece like that!! Great work.

[Dan Gill]

Somebody come get my tools. I can't compete with this.

[Jerry Olexa]

Lou, OUTSTANDING work!!! Good choice of materials, great attention to detail, lots of patience and a HEIRLOOM quality result!!! Be proud,,,Great work!!!

[mreza Salav]

What can I add that others have not said!
Beautiful masterpiece! well done in all aspects.

[Mike Henderson]

That is really impressive. Congratulations!

Mike

[Richard McComas]

That certainly is a beauty. Superior work. It so well done I don't know what more to say.

[Calvin Hobbs]

Lou,

Great secretary, always great to see your work. Stunning use of tiger maple. What's up next? Cal

[Scot Ferraro]

Wow -- that is simply amazing work!! Congrats!! How many hours did this piece take to complete? The wood and finish is amazing!!

Scot

[John A. Callaway]

I think the little 1x ?? whatever " with the single knobs in them are slide out support rails for the desktop ....

Great work sir. great work.

[lou sansone]

Stunning! I can see countless hours in all the gallery details.

Paul and others

this is the hard part of the piece- the rest is just plug and chug- lots of hand cut dovetails on the cases ( upper and lower). all the drawers are hand cut DT's

the drawer runners are also sliding dovetails and they are fussy. The feet are so so hard - do a few and they are not that bad. cut the curves on the table saw - you know the drill


thanks

lou

[lou sansone]

Good gosh, Lou!!!! That is phenomenal!

I recall that you used Moser dye (Honey Maple Amber??) on a CM piece one time - is this the same?

I agree that this is heirloom quality, and as good as anything I have seen in FWW.

my recipe for tiger is this

1. dye with 50/50 mixture of honey maple and amber maple dye
2. sand back everything once with 220 grit
3. dye it again with the same 50/50 mixture
4. oil with BLO and some turps - I like turps better and Mineral spirits - add some japan dryer
5. 2 coats of orange shellac
6. sand back smooth
7. several coats of nitro-cellulose
8. sand between coats
9. 0000 steel wool and wax

enjoy
lou

[lou sansone]

Very nice Lou, I see you are still doing the finest of work. Did you cut and dry the wood?

take care
Ben

hi Ben

this batch came from a nice farm in bimmington (sp) ny. (Do you mean Binghamton, NY Lou?) they did the cutting and I did the drying. still have tons of it left - just waiting for some more projects

best wishes

lou

[lou sansone]

Stunning, did you use a specific set of plans? I'd like to know and believe I could tackle a project like this sometime as my capabilities improve.

hi tom
I usually do all of my own plans for pieces from photos from books. but this time I used some plans in FWW- what a mess! there were several mistakes in those plans ( no need to bash the guy who made the plans - we all make mistakes, but some of these were real doozies ) which caused me a real pain! never again will i use someone else's plans.

you are better off doing your own full size plans for complicate pieces like this.

can you make a piece like this? no problem. just take your time and you will get there. do some smaller pieces first to gain confidence and you should be fine.

the one advantage I have is my wide belt sander that makes processing highly figured wood and especially real thin stuff like in the gallery, with much ease. sure you can try other methods, but tear-out on big panels really gets costly and makes one quite upset.

best wishes
lou