Oh boy, a Highboy!

[Brett Robson]

Hi guys, here's a few picts of my highboy I finished up the other day. This was a challenging but very gratifying project. Since I've never made a piece such as this, I learned a lot from the experience.

The design is pretty much my own although I did refer to the Highboy plans in Glen Huey's book when creating the basic dimensions. I scaled mine down about 15% from the piece in his book to fit better in the space I have available. Even with the downsizing, I still ended up with a piece of furniture about the size of your average refrigerator!

All the drawers are dovetailed front and back which even using the table saw / band saw method took me quite a while to complete.

Here's the kicker: The entire thing is made from poplar. I had originally thought to use cherry but had an eleventh hour change of heart when I considered I've never built such a piece before and around here, cherry's anything but cheap. In the end I think it was a good call as the first gooseneck molding I made I cut too short. Using 8/4 stock for the molding, it would have been a costly mistake if cherry!

I stained it first with Varathane American Walnut to get a base color. Next a coat of Seal Coat followed by two glaze coats of Zar's Antique Mahogany stain and three sprayed coats of satin Enduro-Var.

A word about that Zar stain - despite their advertising that it excels on soft woods like poplar, I was unimpressed with it on the bare wood - blotchy and gross like every other stain. As a glaze though it blew me away! No lap marks, it doesn't get sticky like a gel stain and is easy to work out to an even color even on large surfaces. I think it's my new favorite stain to use for glazing!

All the hardware is from Horton.

Thanks for looking and suggestions or critiques are always welcome!

[John Fabre]

Nice work.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I wouldn't care if it was made from lumber from recycled pallets! That is beautiful! Did you seal it with shellac before putting the stain on the final project? Very, very nice Brett!

BTW....I found cherry to be extremely expensive here too!

[Brett Robson]

...Did you seal it with shellac before putting the stain on the final project?...

The Varathane stain went down on the bare wood prior to the shellac. The Zar glaze then went over the sealed surface.

Thanks for the comments!

[glenn bradley]

Beautiful piece and thanks for the finish schedule info. It came out just wonderfully.

[David Keller NC]

I wouldn't care if it was made from lumber from recycled pallets! That is beautiful! Did you seal it with shellac before putting the stain on the final project? Very, very nice Brett!

BTW....I found cherry to be extremely expensive here too!

Uh - yeah, guys, please don't do this (make a highboy from recycled pallet wood). I'm rather constantly amazed at guys that put 200+ hours into an 18th century desk but make the fall-board from 3 mismatched boards because "that's what I had in the shop, and wide lumber was expensive". To me, that's the equivalent of building a blanket chest with dovetails and a bracket base, and using zinc-plated gate hinges bought from the Borg because they were inexpensive.....

That's not a knock on Brett's project, though. While not the usual case for a highboy, much of 18th century furniture, especially "ordinary" furniture like tavern tables, blanket chests, pembroke tables and the like was made from "secondary wood". The exception to primary woods like walnut, mahogany and curly maple on "high-style" furniture, particularly highboys, was "japanned" furniture, where all of them were made from less-desirable eastern white pine and plain maple/poplar.

Brett - a suggestion. Gooseneck moldings are pretty easy to carve by hand. Much, much easier than a shell, for example. And just about every machine process I've ever seen used to create these moldings carries a high degree of risk to one's hands and fingers, or requires some pretty fussy jigs to avoid risk to one's hands or fingers. I would strongly recommend that you give carving them a try - I suspect you'll find that they go extremely quickly.

And - that's an impressive finishing job. Getting a blotch-free look when one needs to heavily color the wood isn't easy at all.

[Gordon Eyre]

A real beauty and the finish is amazing on the poplar. Well done.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Uh - yeah, guys, please don't do this (make a highboy from recycled pallet wood). I'm rather constantly amazed at guys that put 200+ hours into an 18th century desk but make the fall-board from 3 mismatched boards because "that's what I had in the shop, and wide lumber was expensive". .

David,

1st...I wasn't suggesting using pallet wood for fine furniture. I was simply saying regardless of the type or origin of the wood used it a nicely crafted piece of furniture.

2nd.....I've seen some furniture created from pallet wood that was pretty spectacular. All pallets aren't created equal. I have received some rather large electronics equipment on pallets and in crates made of oak and other hardwoods.

3rd....If you lived in a place like I do where you can pay $8-$11 a board foot for some hardwoods, you might be tempted to make furniture from cheaper woods.

[David Keller NC]

David,

1st...I wasn't suggesting using pallet wood for fine furniture. I was simply saying regardless of the type or origin of the wood used it a nicely crafted piece of furniture.

Yeah, I get it, I'm just saying....

My point was that time isn't free, even if you're working uncompensated as a hobbyist.

[Von Bickley]

Beautiful piece of furniture......

[Paul McGaha]

Beautiful Brett

[gary Zimmel]

One more thumbs up Brett. Real nice piece of furniture.

[Cody Colston]

That's a wonderful piece of furniture. I like everything about it, the bonnet top, the finials, the shell carvings, the cabriole legs, the scrolled apron...everything. The finish is extraordinary, too, considering it's Poplar. I would never have guessed if you hadn't told us. Well done.

[Jim Becker]

Beautiful work, Brett!

[Paul Murphy]

Outstanding craftsmanship! I am also impressed that you managed to stain the poplar so well without even a hint of blotching.

Next project you should splurge on the cherry, your skills deserve a reward.