Beautiful work!
Beautiful work!
You did a beautiful job with the maple! I have been working on remodeling our kitchen over the last year and have used a lot of hard maple for accents and really love the light and open feel of it. Countertops, trim, shelves, etc are some of the details where I've used the maple. I've also mixed some cherry in as a contrast and find that it works well with the maple.
I really love the pics you shared of the grain orientation on the door and drawer fronts. Very tasteful and elegant, and not over the top. One of the recent issues of Fine Woodworking feature a design article with hard, curly maple cabinets in a modern kitchen that was very clean; your pics remind me a bit of that kitchen.
Inspiring work!
Thank you, Phillip.
Any photos to share?
Kind regards
Derek
Now,all nice and ready to turn Chris loose in!!!!
Can he cook? George, all I have ever seen Chris make is mess
Regards from Perth
Derek
I don't suppose Lynndy would let you visit Cincinnati for a couple of weeks? The kitchen is my next project (after I finish and recover from the bathrooms). Yours looks great!
Megan, there's a great magazine article in that! You'll have to send me a plane ticket, however. Just imagine ... a get together of woodies who have rebuild kitchens, sitting around swapping tales of finishes, joinery with a Domino vs Haunched Tenon vs Biscuits, and the best shape for a comfortable handle. And working on your kitchen! Building planes is so passe.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Beautiful work as always Derek – thanks for sharing!
I admire your initiative and courage in taking on a such a significant project with a timeline must have been top of mind with the Boss! Good on you for stepping up to the challenge – very inspiring! On the plus side, you and Lynndy will get to enjoy the fruits of your labor on a daily basis – very cool!
In the interest of full disclosure I have to confess I'm petitioning my local representative to the " Husbands Union" to issue a formal reprimand for sharing your beautiful work publicly when it so obviously illustrates our comparative shortcomings. Like several Creekers have already mentioned , I obviously won't be sharing your post with my wife!
I love the elegance of your frame fit, shaker doors and admire the consistent reveal you achieved, which in my experience sounds a lot easier to execute, than it actually is in practice. I also like the color of Maple - seems to reflect light in a "bright, sunny" way that makes your kitchen warm and inviting.
As much as I enjoy the look of Maple, for me it's a sweaty challenge to work with – really hard, requiring very sharp tools. I wonder if that's relative. Maybe for someone with your experience with Australian hardwoods, North American Maple is isn't as challenging to work with as it is for someone like me?
I have never attempted a project on this scale and I'm interested in what you saw as your biggest challenge with a large project of this scope? I'm not very good with power tools and I'm wondering if that would be a big barrier if I were to consider something similar. I do want to impose, but very much appreciate your insight and expertise.
Derek, thanks again for sharing your work!
Best regards, Mike
Mike, thank you for your very kind words. You are altogether too modest about the scale of your work. I look forward to your builds - they are a lesson for me.As much as I enjoy the look of Maple, for me it's a sweaty challenge to work with – really hard, requiring very sharp tools. I wonder if that's relative. Maybe for someone with your experience with Australian hardwoods, North American Maple is isn't as challenging to work with as it is for someone like me?
I have never attempted a project on this scale and I'm interested in what you saw as your biggest challenge with a large project of this scope? I'm not very good with power tools and I'm wondering if that would be a big barrier if I were to consider something similar. I do want to impose, but very much appreciate your insight and expertise.
Hard Maple vs Jarrah. The Jarrah is more abrasive and harder on edges. It is heavier. Maple is tight grained and takes a finish better. It takes detail more easily. It is less effort to plane and chisel - just a bit softer. However, interestingly for me, Maple was less inclined to tear out, but when it did, the result was more catastrophic. That is, deeper tear out, and that this was always a risk when the grain direction changed. Perhaps I am just more attentive with Jarrah.
Would I do anything different, if building this again? It was not a hard build at all, just one that required sustained attention as the tasks involved became repetitive. I am very pleased I had a Domino machine to use, but I am not so keen to keep using it for furniture. The door frames were narrow enough to be done with a single Domino/loose tenon, but I could feel that they did not have the twist-free rigidity of a haunched mortice-and-tenon joint. They will last a lot longer than 20 years, nevertheless.
If I was building a kitchen professionally - or if I had to start from scratch - I would ensure that the cabinets needed only a couple of sizes. In mine, there were a number of different cabinet dimensions, which meant that I could not "mass produce" doors. Building with machines makes more sense when one replicates parts.
Otherwise I am happy. It turned out as well as I could have wished - not keen to do it again, however
Regards from Perth
Derek
Nice work Derek! I can also appreciate the diffetence between cabinet making for kitchens and that for furniture. I'm building out a small addition to a kitchen currently and doing so with hand tool method...modified to speed up the work a bit. Shorter tenons and wide spaced dovetails, for instance.
Kitchens have a relatively short life with few exceptions compared to furniture.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
I like it a lot. Derek, did you do all the surfacing and dimensioning work with hand tools? on hard maple?
Very nicely done. The design is very attractive too.
Power tools make this work so much easier.
Gary
Thanks Gary.
Yes, power and hand tools together. Time and place for each.
Regards from Perth
Derek