Blanket chest with pictures

[Bryan Berguson]

This is the butternut blanket chest that I built for my wife for Christmas. Finally got some pictures taken... Lesson 1 learned - take pictures immediately after completion!

The wood came from a old rotten tree next to a friends driveway that he wanted cut before it fell on somebody. It was cut down and stored in my Dad's barn about 12 years ago. The bottom is pine leftover from a board and batton job on an old fixitup house I used to own.

No plans, just a picture in my head of how I wanted it to look. LOML loves it so I guess it was a good picture.

The white spots that show are epoxy filled rotten spots or worm holes. The flash makes them white. They don't show other than the picture.

Dovetails were cut on a Leigh D4R.

Finish is one coat boiled linseed oil with three coats of polyurethane... I'm converted now. I have some shellac and Waterlox on my shelf for the next project(s) thanks to advice I got here.

Thanks to the posters here for the help along the way. John Nixons video was especially helpful.


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Bryan

[Jim W. White]

Nice work Bryan! ....I like the looks of that Chestnut a lot!!

[Mike Cutler]

Very nice work Brian. It's got a fabulous look to it. More than that though it comes with a story that can be handed down.

Well done.

[Ralph Okonieski]

Beautiful chest! The wood has great character.

[keith ouellette]

Thats a great look.

[Jim Becker]

What a nice piece with so much character! Very nice.

[gary Zimmel]

Bryan

Nice job on a great looking chest!

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Very nice is right....I've never seen Chestnut before...nice.

[Greg Cole]

I agree with everyone... nice piece and nice use of what many would consider "lesser quality material" with knots etc.... IMO there's some merit to using such material on show sides etc, just depends on the peice and the person who's going to look at it every day.
Nice job!

Greg

[Jeff Hallam]

How did you like using the D4R? I am embarrassed to say that I purchased one when I had the money on hand, and it has sat in it's box totally unused so far. However, a toy box for my daughter is the next project for me so I'm curious about how it went.

Jeff

[Bryan Berguson]

Very nice is right....I've never seen Chestnut before...nice.

Kelly,

Thanks for the compliment but you still haven't seen Chestnut... The wood I used is Butternut. I hope you still like it!

Bryan

[Bryan Berguson]

Nice work Bryan! ....I like the looks of that Chestnut a lot!!

Thanks Jim! It's not Chestnut though, it's butternut, the poor mans walnut!

Bryan

[Bryan Berguson]

How did you like using the D4R? I am embarrassed to say that I purchased one when I had the money on hand, and it has sat in it's box totally unused so far. However, a toy box for my daughter is the next project for me so I'm curious about how it went.

Jeff

Jeff,

I am very impressed with the D4R. I only did a few small practice boxes before I tackled this chest and they all came out great! I'm using a Freud 3 1/4 horse router on it which is an improvement over the 1 1/2 horse Dewalt I started out with. The extra horse power doesn't bog down and keeps the bit running at full speed. I found there was much less chatter. This has nothing to do with the jig of course just something to consider.

After the chest I cut out four drawers with HB joints and they came out perfect too.

Get it out of the box and start using it, I think you'll be glad you did.

Bryan