This is part 3 of a mostly neander Chippendale lowboy I’m building in cherry from Franklin Gottschall’s book “Masterpiece Furniture”.
I started carving on the apron that is the bottom front of the chest. Here’s some pics of “setting out” the outline of some of the carved elements. The background was taken down with electric router, but I should’ve been more careful because I left some burn marks that will mean extra work to remove.
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Here’s my current sharpening set up: Waterstone’s from Stu and shop made strops – leather glued onto dowels. I’m getting better at sharpening the carving tools (never-ending task!), but I miss my Mikita electric horizontal Waterstone sharpener. After 30 years the motor finally gave out and I’m searching for replacement. I use shop made Lexan plates that fit over the top of the Waterstone’s themselves with abrasive paper glued on. Much easier for me to maintain a constant sharpening bevel angle when the sharpening abrasive rotates and I just need to hold the tool steady.
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Here is one edge of the carving cleaned up. Once I complete outlining the carving for the bottom edge of the apron, I will saw close to the line and finish the lower profile with files, rasps etc.
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Once the outline is done, the next step for me is to carve some of the upper surfaces – here’s a start:
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