Stormy Cabinet
The stormy cabinet was a Christmas gift from my son. On Christmas day he told me that his gift to me was that he wanted to do a project together. Nice thought, but it would have been nice to know beforehand! Not only did he want to do a project together, but he also wanted it to include veneers, hand cut dovetails, dados, and every other woodworking term he could think of.
I had some beautiful curly cherry that I hadn't used because it was from a tree struck by lightning and had the "shakes". This condition causes the wood to unexpectedly separate in a board which makes it a real pain to work with. In addition the boards were odd shaped from the lightning and there were lots of natural edges. But still it might be good for his gift. I decided I would like to have a cabinet for hand tools and the project was on.
The cabinet case and drawers are assembled with hand-cut dovetails. The doors were made using shop-cut veneers with large lips from the original natural edged boards forming handholds to open the doors. A board with a large, wide crack (the lightning strike itself?) was filled with black epoxy and then resawn into veneers which were book matched which again reminds you of the lightning strike. The wood itself has a stormy look which I've never seen in another tree.
A happenstance trip to Woodcraft took my son and I on a road trip to Crossville where someone had some nice curly maple boards for sale. Looking at this wood reminded me of the rain that must have fallen that night. Since the cabinet doors used the crack for handles, I decided I didn't want handles on the drawers either. This led me to the decision to sculpt drawer fronts in a design again reminding me of driving rain from the storm. The curves hide finger holds and undercuts which act as drawer pulls. Later I carved small tool holders from scraps which again remind you of the tree and it's original life. Truly this was a giving tree.
So the gift to my son: learning to design a project, how to prepare wood for use, epoxying wood, making veneers, hand cutting dovetails (I had only used jigs up to this point, but they were easy after this piece), and a memorable project with his dad. His gift to me: weeks of agonizing work without him, but a project that we'll always remember.
I had some beautiful curly cherry that I hadn't used because it was from a tree struck by lightning and had the "shakes". This condition causes the wood to unexpectedly separate in a board which makes it a real pain to work with. In addition the boards were odd shaped from the lightning and there were lots of natural edges. But still it might be good for his gift. I decided I would like to have a cabinet for hand tools and the project was on.
The cabinet case and drawers are assembled with hand-cut dovetails. The doors were made using shop-cut veneers with large lips from the original natural edged boards forming handholds to open the doors. A board with a large, wide crack (the lightning strike itself?) was filled with black epoxy and then resawn into veneers which were book matched which again reminds you of the lightning strike. The wood itself has a stormy look which I've never seen in another tree.
A happenstance trip to Woodcraft took my son and I on a road trip to Crossville where someone had some nice curly maple boards for sale. Looking at this wood reminded me of the rain that must have fallen that night. Since the cabinet doors used the crack for handles, I decided I didn't want handles on the drawers either. This led me to the decision to sculpt drawer fronts in a design again reminding me of driving rain from the storm. The curves hide finger holds and undercuts which act as drawer pulls. Later I carved small tool holders from scraps which again remind you of the tree and it's original life. Truly this was a giving tree.
So the gift to my son: learning to design a project, how to prepare wood for use, epoxying wood, making veneers, hand cutting dovetails (I had only used jigs up to this point, but they were easy after this piece), and a memorable project with his dad. His gift to me: weeks of agonizing work without him, but a project that we'll always remember.