Pennsylvania secretary

[Bob Glenn]

This probably belongs in projects, but I usually hang out here, so here goes. Inspired by Glen Huey's 18th century Pennsylvania secretary, I set out to build the hardest piece I've ever attempted including my Windsor chairs. So off to the saw mill with check book in hand to buy lots and lots of cherry. This was in 2016 after finishing six months of chemo after surgery for pancreatic cancer. I figured if I'm going to do this, I'd better get started now since I didn't know about the future.

I had done some dovetailing before, but never on a piece this big, so I had to get creative. So proud of myself, I sent this picture to P/W magazine as a shop tip and it was published.

[john jesseph]

Good stuff there! Hoping your health is improved and sustained, sorry to hear about your battle.

[Bob Glenn]

After the usual Christmas gift making interruptions, the bottom case and drawers were beginning to take shape. Cutting dove tails was becoming old hat and that Knew Concepts coping saw earned with my published shop tip certainly came in handy. This is one year out of chemo and things are looking up for me and the secretary!

[Bob Glenn]

Lots and lots of dove tails. I lost count of the hours and the number of individual pieces of wood in this, however, I did keep track of the number of dove tails cut......238! Actually there were a few more since I got tangled up in my underwear a few times making the drawer sides. It's so easy to get turned around!

With a big leap of faith, the gallery has been started. Other than the crown molding this was the most challenging part. Lots of little details to plan out and execute here, but I can finally see the end..........I think. Oh, have I mentioned secret compartments......You just have to build in some secret compartments, there are seven, but don't tell anyone.














!

[Mel Fulks]

Well, old hat is another term for proficient. Fine piece ,and you are willing yourself into the future. Casey Kasum might say
"you've got the feet on the ground while you reach for the drawers !"

[Bob Glenn]

In every large project there is usually a place where you just get stuck and mired down. So with the bottom case unfinished, I moved on to the top case. This piece is getting bigger than I thought and it's starting to take up lot of space in my small shop. This problem will unexpectedly resolve itself in a few months!

[Bob Glenn]

Did I tell you this project drug out for over two years? Did I mention there were a few interruptions? Late last summer, wife and I, over a glass of wine and beer enjoying the sun going down over the lake, I mentioned that getting older, we should consider moving into a single story house to eliminate the stairs. While not a problem now, you just can't predict the future. I was thinking four or five years down the road, wife was thinking sooner and put the word out around the family. Well, oldest grandson emailed us a picture of a stunning house on a lake about an hour away, close to family and located right between two golf courses. We went and looked, then looked again two days later, made and offer and bingo, we now own a new house!

You can't believe how much stuff you accumulate living in one place for 35 years! We took stuff to the auction house, the dump, Goodwill and antique shops. Two months later, one large moving van load and 23 trips back and forth my Promaster van loaded, we are in to our new home and work eventually resumes on the secretary!

[Bob Glenn]

Well, I have to fast forward again. Things got a little blurry after tearing down my nice "forever" eighteenth century shop and moving it all into a three car garage. It took me months to find everything again and I still haven't found my favorite pair of calipers! The nice thing is now that it's winter, and a really cold one, my new shop is heated and just outside the kitchen door. Handy!

One more interruption, albeit a good one.........the new neighbor and I have a lot in common, wood working and golf. Too cold for golf, so............have you ever made a Windsor chair? We just need to find a nice oak log to split up. Did I tell you we now live between two golf courses? Just so happens they are removing some oak trees and the price is right! A couple months later and two new Windsors are born.

Details, details, details. I hate the last stages of any project, especially the ones that go on and on. I've got to get this thing done! I'm not looking forward the curved capitol molding on the top case. It has to be just right to enhance the over-all design, but with in my abilities, which are limited. I've steam bent lots of wood for chairs, but this is beyond doing that, plus I have to figure out how to miter the corners perfectly since it will be the focus of attention. That finally completed, I turned three finials, before I got one that I liked.

Okay the hard part is over, I thought. I forgot about the six unfinished drawers in the gallery! I used hollows and rounds to plane the drawer front profiles then cut them apart into each drawer face, but haven't as of yet slogged through the process of cutting compound half blind dove tailed sides. I did the bottom gallery drawers that way, then cheated on the other four by attaching the drawer fronts on to quarter inch thick fronts with compound through dove tails. So, it's finally done, except I now have to move it into the house. Some help from a couple weight lifter guys from the YMCA gets that done, because I can't lift either the top or the bottom.

Some dangling details......Primary wood is cherry, including the back, with secondary woods of poplar and oak. Horton Brass hardware. Fifteen drawers, seven hidden compartments, 238 dove tails, three coats of oil, two coats of wax, hand carved sunbursts behind the raised panel arch top doors, and two slide out candle holders. Lots of little mistakes, but I've learned not to tell on myself and learned by each and every mistake.

Inscribed on the bottom of the top drawer, for future eyes to behold and ponder is this: "Below the lock that holds the key, one is easy, but there are three. For those who are curious and patient be, there are many more in the gallery. Look at the very bottom and you will see, the one who made this, it is me."

[David Harris]

Wow! awesome job!

[George Bokros]

Beautiful! Great use of figure, design is spot on. Execution is flawless.

[Jim Koepke]

Very nice piece Bob.

Hidden spaces always make me curious as to how to hide them. Like any other secret, once someone is told, they are no longer secret.

jtk

[Bob Glenn]

Thanks, George, but not flawless!

[brian zawatsky]

That, sir, is a masterpiece! Beautiful work.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Beautiful and a triumph on many levels!

[Bill McDermott]

Bob, Your project is a great inspiration. Congratulations.