Slant front desk #1: Feet and carcase

Let me start by saying this is my first blog and I hope I don’t screw it up too bad.
My current project is an 18th C slant front desk. The material is Honduras Mahogany. I came up with the design from various pictures in books about American Furniture, particularly “Master Craftsmen of Newport” by Michael Moses.
The starting place was the ogee bracket feet. Believe me these are a project in themselves! I used 8/4×5 1/2” material. All of the shaping was done on the table saw, band saw and cleaned up with a series of cabinet scrapers, files and sandpaper from 80 to 150 grit.

The carcase sides were glued-up and cut to size/shape. Then the sliding dovetail and dados were cut. The dovetails only go 3” back from the front with the rest of the side being dadoed 1/8” deep. The dovetails and dado will house the frames that join the sides together and support the drawers.

You can also see the glue blocks reinforcing the bracket feet. Care must be taken that the grain for the blocks is oriented the same as the mahogany of the foot (horizontal).
The mahogany top is joined to the case sides with a rabbet. The last thing that will be done after the drawers are installed will be to put the back on. More about that when the time comes.
The feet are attached to the carcase, to get it off the floor, and we finally have an idea of the proportions!

As you can see my shop is in my basement. It does get a bit challenging juggling for space but I have a wife that tolerates the noise, piles of wood and sawdust.

In my upcoming blogs I will describe the dovetailing of the drawers, fabricating the desk lid with breadboard ends and assembling the drawer sides with the fronts.

For now I have a piece of 8/4” mahogany that will be resawn to get all of the drawer fronts.

So far all of the material for this chest came from the same piece of material. The piece was 8/4×20” x 120” long.

-- Don, Pittsburgh