Holcombe Wall Cabinets

[Prashun Patel]

I took some classes with Brian last summer to build a wall cabinet. I made one with him from red oak and a second one on my own from beech. Full disclosure: The rough dimensioning was with power tools. The joinery and surface finishing was by hand. The Dozuki was used to cut almost everything. I appreciated the delicacy and accuracy this afforded on small rabbets and miters (3/8"-1/2").

I appreciate Brian's designs for their deceptive elegance. The door geometry had me scratching my head on the parts and dimensions almost until final assembly.

[Brian Holcombe]

Prashun, those turned out beautifully! Nice work.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Beautiful work! I'm sure the Scotch stored in it (them) will taste even better now ....ahhh, it will be put to this noble purpose? Right?

[Patrick Chase]

I took some classes with Brian last summer to build a wall cabinet. I made one with him from red oak and a second one on my own from beech.

Very nicely done!

Enquiring minds want to know: Have you learned to detect nano-burrs on your tools?

[Prashun Patel]

"....ahhh, it will be put to this noble purpose?"

Ay!

"Have you learned to detect nano-burrs on your tools?"

Not by a long shot. I still can't. I asked Brian repeatedly how he was able to feel the burr that was invisible to my fingers. Once he told me, "I don't feel the burr. It feels me." Another time, he closed his eyes and sighed, "You feel with your fingers. I feel with my mind."

[David Eisenhauer]

The joinery design is full of Bryan details I see, but the work you performed is outstanding Prashun. How did you hang it on the wall? Was there a Bryan shop dress code enforced or some type of pre-admittance dress/grooming inspection before getting started?

[Patrick Chase]

"Have you learned to detect nano-burrs on your tools?"

Not by a long shot. I still can't. I asked Brian repeatedly how he was able to feel the burr that was invisible to my fingers. Once he told me, "I don't feel the burr. It feels me." Another time, he closed his eyes and sighed, "You feel with your fingers. I feel with my mind."

You do realize that he's going "full P.T. Barnum / Uri Gellar" on you here right? Next he'll be removing the burrs with his mind and carefully placing the remnants in a freshly bent spoon.

If you stare at enough SEM shots of sharpened edges you realize very quickly that there's almost *always* something on some scale that could kind of sort of be described as a burr. It's always a safe bet to say "yo dawg, I think there's still a nearly imperceptible bit of a burr here. Say 300 Hail Marys, kiss the slippers, and strop some more".

PS - It's not a robe, it's a vestment.

There, I think that's enough trolling for one thread.

[Kees Heiden]

Nice work!

[Joe A Faulkner]

Love the cabinet. Tell us more about the construction, please?
1) What joinery was used on the door frame? From the angle of the pictures I can't tell if it is half-lap or something else.
2) How is the door panel joined to the frame. Am I seeing shadows of a blind dove-tails in the back of the door panel just beyond the end of the door frame?
3) How is the back joined to the cabinet?

Very interested to learn more about the construction. Again, nice job.

[Jim Koepke]

Very nice work.

I too am curios as to how this will mount to a wall.

jtk

[Edwin Santos]

Add me to the line requesting details on the door construction. From the front, the story appears one way, and from the back, it then looks like something different might be going on. Thanks

[Prashun Patel]

This shows the details of the beech back. A cleat runs along the top. The bottom edge of the cleat is rabbeted to accept the ship lapped back slats.

The red oak is done a little differently: The slats are connected directly to the case liner top and bottom. The cleat is mounted to the outside of the back. Tomato, Tomahto.

I couldn't take flattering pix of the door. The gist: the door stiles are rabbeted on the front to accept the door panel. It's essentially a ship lapped front. The battens on the back are mortised into the stiles. That's the fixed frame. The top and bottom rails visible on the front are really just there to cap the door; I believe their value is largely aesthetic. Because the stiles are simultaneously rabbeted also on the back (to fit inside the case) AND mortised to accept the battens, the trick is not allowing the mortises to peek through the rabbet. That happened to me on the oak. So what you see there is an error: the mortises peeked through so I had to cut them out and plug them.

[Christopher Charles]

Lovely work Prashun (and Brian)! I'm sure both will be treasured for many years.

[John Kananis]

This is really nice and I can see Brian's influence.

[Brian Holcombe]

The door is designed to function similarly to a Ming table top in that the panel is battened across at multiple locations. The purpose is to allow a slimmer and less obtrusive frame. I tucked away the majority of the rails behind the door panel basically just hooking them over the top and bottom edges to help keep the ends of the panel true and providing a finished appearance to the design. The rails also provide a long grain anchor point for the hinges. The battens do all of the work in maintaining the door.