Cherry Writing Desk Completed

[Pat Barry]

Very nice Prashun. The top looks perfect and the drawer grain matching is really nice touch. It will be a family treasure

[Prashun Patel]

That bowl is zebrawood. It definitely smelled like a zebra when i turned it.

[Jim Matthews]

I am not completely happy with the thickness of the dividers and upper and lower rails. They feel a little chunky at 3/4". Is it acceptable to make them thinner, say 5/8" on something this long (64")?

I would experiment with insulation foam template cut to full size.
Overlayed on your drawer front material, you could get a good idea of proportions.

FWIW - At this thickness, you get an shiny nod to the Shakers.

[Scott T Smith]

Very nice Prashun! I echo Jim's comments; I always enjoy your work.

[Christopher Charles]

Hello Prashun,

Thanks for sharing and I too love the top (i'm sucker for cherry). I don't find the rails too thick when looking at the piece at a distance. Approaches to consider are to make the drawers slight taller (reducing the apparent thickness of the upper and lower rails), or make the upper rail thicker as it will hidden by the overhang of the top (if structural issues are a concern). Narrow dividers could be fine and agree that mock-ups are always a great help.

BTW, I also like that the set-back on the stretcher and all of the lines. Well done! If you haven't, i'd be interested to see the approach you used for jointing the stretcher and for shaping. (apologies if i missed it).

Cheers,
C

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks, Christopher. Not quite sure what you mean by jointing the stretcher. The joinery to the lower rails is straight forward: it's a double slip-tenon. It makes the math easy. The rails and stretcher started from 3" wide s4s stock. I trace the curves first and cut the joinery when everything's still square blocks. Then I bandsaw to the curve, leaving the joints proud. I do a lot of the shaping with the parts dis-assembled. But I leave extra meat at the joints. After glue up, I plane the joints flush and then use a rasp to fare everything, and finally a ROS with a soft backing pad.

For aggressive faring, I sometimes use an angle grinder. However, I've gotten better (read, braver) at getting closer to the line with the bandsaw such that a rasp is usually enough cowbell.

Faring long sweeping curves on legs and stretchers is my favorite part of any project. Planes and spokeshaves just find the true north of the curve so well. I always fare all faces first. Only after that's done do I manipulate the corners for rounding over. There's an art to that. Sam Maloof was a genius at finding the 'soft lines'. It took me a while to understand that concept, but it's basically getting edges to sweep and move around corners gracefully instead of being strictly abrupt and linear. My tendency in shaping is to round things over too much. It's easy to fall into that trap. But figuring out how to make, say one of the edges of the leg sweep down into the center of the lower rails instead of following the top edge strictly creates a shadow line and sense of continuity that is just so lovely. It's easy for even hobbyists like me to appreciate, tricky to copy in a replication, and very difficult to visualize and do on an original piece. I didn't quite get the line right on the lower rail. However, there's also a danger in over-working it. Sometimes less is more. When shaping I do notice the temptation to overdo it, so I tried to practice a little restraint on this.

[Sean Hughto]

Great piece! Definition of an heirloom. First rate all around.

[Steve Friedman]

Prashun,

That's just stunning. I love the joints and the top is amazing. Love the way the joints and the stretcher break up the straight lines.

Steve

[David Weaver]

That's a super nice top, Prashun! Striking to say the very least.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Prashun, you answered my question. I couldn't agree more that getting the lines right (as you have) is the definition of grace. If done well, very easy on the eye. If not...

Congrats again on a beautiful piece.

Cheers,
C

[Mike Allen1010]

Well-done Prashun both design and execution– you should be very proud! Thanks for taking the time to share your work/pictures.

Cheers, Mike

[Jim Becker]

For aggressive faring, I sometimes use an angle grinder. However, I've gotten better (read, braver) at getting closer to the line with the bandsaw such that a rasp is usually enough cowbell.

This is absolutely the "quote of the day", if not the year! LOL

[Prashun Patel]

Mike, I did more than a little conditioning of the aprons and drawer fronts with a very lovely ECE Primus jack plane I recently received

[Gary Muto]

That is a great piece of furniture. Your selection and bookmatching of the top is outstanding. The leg/stretcher joinery looks great too. So many things to catch the eye.

[joe valsi]

Very nice indeed. Great proportions and great choice of woods ! Good job!