An escutcheon is fastened to one of the doors of the bookcase shown at left. On this piece, the key and escutcheons are purely decorative. The doors are actually held shut by spring-loaded catches installed on the inside faces of the stiles near the bottom of the doors. 1 Cutting the tenon in the […]
Category: WINDSOR FURNITURE
. MAKING THE BOOKCASE
PREPARING THE SIDE PANELS FOR ADJUSTABLE SHELVING 5 top collar. Bushing Bushing carrier Shelf-drilling jig Drilling holes for shelf supports Cut the side panels of the bookcase to width and length, then set them inside-face up on a work surface. The commercial jig shown above enables you to bore two parallel […]
MAKING THE FALL-FRONT
Once the frame for the fall-front has been assembled and hinged to the desk unit, the leather top can be glued to the inside face. The leather should be cut slightly larger than the recess. Use contact cement, hide glue, or thick wallpaper paste to attach the material to the surface. Trim it to size […]
BUILDING THE PIGEONHOLE UNIT
The pigeonhole unit is made to fit between the tops of the desk and drawer sections of the secretary. Molding can be tacked in place to hide the gap between the two carcases, as shown at left. You can also omit the molding, leaving the pigeonhole unit removable. MAKING THE UNIT 1 Rough-cutting the […]
MAKING THE DRAWERS
The desk unit drawers are assembled with through dovetails, then a false front is glued to the drawer front to conceal the end grain of the tails. The chamfer cut around the perimeter of the false front shown above recalls the traditional practice of beveling the ends and edges of veneered drawer fronts, which prevented […]
MAKING THE DESK UNIT
Leaving the side panel in the vise, cut along the edges of the pins with a dovetail saw (left), working your way from one panel edge to the other. (Some woodworkers prefer to cut all the right-hand edges first, then all the left-hand edges.) Hold the panel steady and align the saw blade just to […]
ANATOMY OF A QUEEN ANNE SECRETARY
Top Joined to sides with half-blind dovetails Top of drawer section Front edge is hinged to fall-front; ends fit into groove in carcase sides Dust frame (page 112) Supports drawer. Assembled with plate joints; side pieces fit into grooves in carcase sides Loper (page 115) Supports fall-front when in down position. Dowel glued into inside […]
QUEEN ANNE SECRETARY
A MILK PAINT FINISH
The traditional finish for Windsor chairs is milk paint, which is thin enough to allow wood grain to show through. You can buy the paint in powdered form and mix it with water or make your own by following the recipe presented below. The blend provided was used in colonial times as an interior wall […]
ASSEMBLING THE CHAIR
Once the stretchers have been glued to the legs and the legs fixed to the seat, it is time to trim the legs to the same length. The technique shown above involves cutting four wood blocks from a single board, then notching one of them to fit around a leg. Place the block around the […]