Cock beaded drawer

[Dominique Meuris]

I have to make a project with cock beaded drawers for a customer.
In Total it requires 65 drawers.

Usually i make a bead by drawer And then Apply it with glue And nails.

But is it possible to machine the Bead out of the drawer front itself?
And how does this look?

Or What is the fastest way to make cock beaded drawerfronts?

[Peter Quinn]

Really fast and cock bead don't seem to go hand in hand. First question, applied fronts or integral fronts? If they are applied fronts, I'd make the bead first, have all the openings made, then use some bead plus shim stock like plastic laminate to carefully gap the doors, make the drawer faces under sized to accommodate the thickness of the bead plus gap, then just wrap them . Probably more stable if its done with plywood or other man made substrate in that case. If integral fronts such as traditional furniture drawers, its two different rabbits, two bead widths, real careful set ups, and the drawers have to be sized pretty much perfect going into it. There are a few good articles in the FWW archives. I had to do a kitchen some time back with a sort of jumbo cock bead/small panel molding on all the drawers, applied fronts, we veneered the faces with walnut, sized the fronts once face frames were glued on, just had to do every thing fairly precise, no room for adjustment later.

[Larry Edgerton]

I plane out a strip that is the thickness of two bead and two revels. I go ahead and make up my fronts just a tad bigger than the will end up, say 1/16", then shove them in the openings and us the aforementioned strips to mark how much they need to be trimmed, trim and apply beads. Believe me I have tried to come up with a fast way that looks the part, have yet to find it.

Hans Schoelbreck

[Brian Tymchak]

Assuming the drawer fronts are solid hardwood, I would think that beads cut on the endgrain edges of the fronts would be very weak and easily prone to chipping. Better, IMO, to go with beading cut from long grain material.

[Frank Drew]

Dominique,

For a hybrid look, you could very carefully rout a small beading on the fitted drawer fronts, or even on the case edges around the drawer openings, finishing the corners by hand. Or apply beaded strips to the openings, mitered at the corners.

As Peter says, traditional cock beading is by nature a rather slow process. I hope you allowed for the time in your proposal.

[Mike Ontko]

Assuming the drawer fronts are solid hardwood, I would think that beads cut on the endgrain edges of the fronts would be very weak and easily prone to chipping. Better, IMO, to go with beading cut from long grain material.

Plus you'd have the option of being able to use a contrasting wood for the bead.

[Peter Quinn]

Assuming the drawer fronts are solid hardwood, I would think that beads cut on the endgrain edges of the fronts would be very weak and easily prone to chipping. Better, IMO, to go with beading cut from long grain material.

The Beads are not cut into the end grain on cock bead, they may be routed or scratched into the top and bottom edges if a very rigorous approach is taken, but the ends are always applied. It's my understanding that before dovetails were all the rage, they were considered unsightly, and cock beading was a way to cover those dovetails in the drawer sides. Cheaper work might have had a slight bead scratched into all four edges and corners chiseled square, cock beading was the upgrade. If you look at traditional furniture from that era all dovetails were pretty much covered up with some sort of molding to hide the joinery. Today people want to see the dovetails to ensure some "inferior" method has not been employed...which adds just one more complexity to cock beading, and leads to a little unsightly piece of end grain from the back of the side pieces to the back of the tops and bottoms because the side cock beading stops just at the dovetails while the tops and bottoms must be the full thickness of the drawer front to avoid a seam. Fussy stuff.

[John T Barker]

I have to make a project with cock beaded drawers for a customer.
In Total it requires 65 drawers.

Usually i make a bead by drawer And then Apply it with glue And nails.

But is it possible to machine the Bead out of the drawer front itself?
And how does this look?

Or What is the fastest way to make cock beaded drawerfronts?

By definition cock beaded drawers are an applied beaded strip. The alternative you mention is scratch beading The shop I worked in did a lot of scratch beading and had a custom router bit made up to do it. It was done with a trim router with a "handle" made up to allow two hand use. A lot of sanding was required of the end grain, as well as some hand carving/planing.
Cock beading was done (I'm sitting at a desk with it now so it is easy to remember) by making the drawer and then routing out a rabbet about 1/8" x 3/4". The shop I was in had multiple tools to make the cock bead strips, possibly wide belt sander or strips double side taped to a board going through the planer to mill stock down to proper thinness. Molding the lead edge is easy, I used cutters from the Stanley scratch beader (#66) hand held. Despite the fact that the strips are glued to end grain/cross face grain on the sides of the drawers I have never had any problems with them coming off. They have a few dents because the are proud of the drawer front approx. 1/8", but that gives them a nice antique look.

[Mel Fulks]

John,well said. In old work the applied was a significant step up. Anyone who works on old furniture comes across some rough looking scratch bead.