Cherry and Maple Blanket Chest

gorgeous! that’s great work.

-- www.darrylmasterson.com ~ www.darrylmasterson.etsy.com

wow…this is great…is it lined with cedar???

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

Steve -

Absolutely beautiful! I like the contrast between the cherry and maple – and I really like the construction details.

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Beautiful chest, Steve. And congrats for your first commissioned piece!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I really love the syle of this piece and you did a great job! Its a beauty! If you don’t mind, where did you get your skills to pay the bills? I aim to be in a similar situation someday.

-- Tim Nuanes

Wow!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!

-- ron,wv

Wonderful chest. Looking forward to seeing some more posts.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

This is really pretty. The gentle curves on the bottom stretchers, and the convex curve on the ends of the top frame, really do the trick! Also framing the figured maple within the cherry frames…very appealing. And the double mortises!

What methods did you use to cut the mortise and tenons?

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

I’d love to see it in 10 years or so. It’s hard to beat the look of naturally aged cherry.

-- Robert from Raymond, MS. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not a practice, but a habit." - Aristotle

That is really nice. I’ll be looking for more items in the future.

-- Watch live video from our shop. http://wwbeds.com/live.htm

Very nice. I really like it.

-- Bob

Nice chest, great use of woods. Nice design. I’m like Don, I like boxes too. jockmike

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

All – Thanks for the kind remarks!! This is a great Web forum and I love looking at all of the projects here for inspiration.

Napaman – Yes but only the bottom is lined with cedar. Who would want to hide the maple sides inside? Actually you don’t need much cedar inside for it to do its job.

Timbers – I am completely self taught except for those high school wood shop classes 20 or so years ago. I just go out and do it … allot. Between reading FWW and all the Internet info out there I have really been able to improve my skills. Oh and decent tools go a long way!! I went out and bought a Grizzly 8in Jointer, band saw, and drill press last year.

Dorje – I struggled with making the tenons. I ended up cutting the shoulders on my table saw and the cheeks on my band saw. I was afraid to use my table saw tenon jig but realized later this would have saved considerable time. I cut the tenons slightly over sized in case I made a mistake. This was a huge mistake in its self since it took me many hours of trimming them to fit with sand paper. I with I had a shoulder plane.

Great Chest SteveV I like the outcome.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Very nice!! Classic, simple, clean lines, great choices of wood!! Nice Well done!

-- http://rjoneswoodworks.com/

Great chest! I love your choice of Maple and Cherry!
Did I get it right, the wood 13/16” thick? Did you used a 1/2” cove bit to raise the panel?

In the last picture, is the the tenon sticking out from the frame, or is it a decorative piece? I like that look!

I am totally self-taught, too, so I hope you don’t mind the questions. Ignorance CAN be cured through questions and answers!
Thanks and God Bless,
Hawg

-- Saving barnwood from the scrapyards

Yes, those are the tennons comming through. The wood is 13/16 and I think I used a 2/3 in cove but maybe 1/2.

Pretty maple, cherry, nice arches on the sides.

-- John

maple and cherry never looked better together great job

-- I love this site !

Glad this came back up! Thanks w.g.411!

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago…wanted to see it but I don’t think I could find it…

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Thanks guys, this was a great project and I miss it dearly. I guess I need to make one for my self.

Was your chest recently featured in Fine Woodworking?

Steve, you can be very proud of the workmanship, and you got paid! Don’t get much better than that.

Dave – No my chest has not been featured in Fine Woodworking (I wish!). Quite the contrary actually … I was commissioned to build a blanket chest “of my liking/design”. Well, I can build but my design skills are not really where they need to be so I turned to he back issues of FWW where I found the article written by John McAlevey so ALL the design credit belongs to him alone.

This seems to be a popular project. I was at a local woodworking show when I saw a chest that looked like the one I was building. When i got the booth, I discovered it was the exact same one. The booth belonged to the CT School of Woodworking. They use it in there advanced furniture making course.

Rikkor – thanks for the very kind comment. The problem with getting paid was I had to part with it!

Steve