Barnes Blanket Chest

Don Barnes, an elder in our church, approached me one Sunday and said, “you’re a woodworker, aren’t you?”. I replied, “sure”. Don said, “Well I have some great walnut wood, if you’d like to have it to build something.” I replied, “Great!”. Don said, “Bring your chainsaw and cut it down. It’s at the side of my house.”

Little did I know I this project—cutting down a tree, getting it milled, drying it and building a piece of furniture from it, would be SO COOOL! Anyway, I got the tree down, carried it to a sawmill in Sanger, TX, and got it planked into furniture lumber. The sawmill went on about how beautiful this walnut was, and they were right. We let it dry, and it was almost two years before I finally decided to use it for a project. I knew I wanted it to be something special, and kept waiting for just the right inspiration.

That inspiration came from Don himself. Back in the mid-60’s, Don had helped start Christian Services of the Southwest, an adoption agency affiliated with Churches of Christ here in Dallas. Now, 40 years later, the organization has grown tremendously and provides a wealth of services for unwed mothers, grieving children who have lost a parent, and other social services. A big fundraiser is held every year in the form of an auction, which helps raise nearly $200,000 to keep the doors open. Because I respect Don so much for his service and contribution, I thought it would honor him if I used the wood from his yard to build an item, and donate it to the auction.

Now, what to build? It needed to be an item that would auction well, show off this beautiful wood and (selfishly) be a challenge for me to build. About this time, American Woodworker magazine featured a Pennsylvannia Dutch Blanket Chest as the cover project. It had all the right elements, including a dovetail case, something I had never tried before. So began the process of jointing, planing and gluing the panels together.

I took a huge plunge and bought the Leigh 24 dovetail jig. It is an absolutely marvelous tool, and I slowly got the hang of it, cutting all 4 corners without much damage to my ego or the wood itself. It also came in handy cutting the half-blind dovetails for the two drawers. This project was fun because it involved so many different skills: gluing and getting panels flat, cutting the dovetails, building the drawers, cutting the bracket feet, and milling the moulding for the trim.
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To stir up excitement and attendance for the auction, my church asked if we could show the chest during Sunday morning services. With the auction still a week away, the chest was built, but no finish had been applied. We showed it anyway, along with a special handmade quilt that some ladies in the church had made to add to it’s appeal at the auction. Don was almost speechless (this was the first time he had seen it) and his adult children talked about trying to win the item at the auction to make it a family heirloom. In fact, my wife decided we would bid, but I told her I hoped the bidding would go much higher than we could afford (it did! But more on that later).

I took another light sanding and began applying the wipe-on oil/varnish finish. I decided at that time to pull some old cedar boards from the stockpile, mill then into thin strips and cover the bottoms of the chest and drawers. A little touch of cedar oil helped bring the cedar smell back alive, and mixed with the oil finish on the walnut, it gave this project a wonderful scent!

The auction was on a Saturday night, and the final coat of wipe-on varnish was applied in the early morning hours Friday. My son and I delivered the chest to the auction site, and we went back for the auction that night. Due to the special appeal of this item, the chest was the last item to be auctioned. It was especially gratifying to me as the bids topped $1000, and kept climbing, but it was also bittersweet because I knew Don’s family would never be able to win the bid.

When all was said and done, the bidding closed at $5100! I was so excited because it raised so much money for the agency, and how much honor it brought to Don. But there’s still more to the story….

The lady who won the bidding was a friend of Don’s daughter. She immediately gave the chest back to Don and his family, so they were able to keep it as a family heirloom after all! Today it proudly sits in Don’s home, and hopefully will remain in his family for many years to come.

After the auction, Don began to reminisce about the walnut tree. He said he actually planted that tree in his yard, using a cutting from a black walnut tree that stood beside his father’s house on the farm just out of Dallas, a tree he had climbed as a young man himself. He also remembered that his father had brought that cutting to Texas from his grandfather’s land in Arkansas! So this was a third-generation tree, with family history through several Barnes generations! I know it must be special to them, because the story is pretty emotional for me, as well.

So, to quote Norm….”this was a fun project to build”. It raised a lot of money for a very good cause, it honored a man who has spent a large portion of his life in devoted service to his church, and gave his family a heirloom to hand down to future generations. (As for me, it was a great project to build because it made me try new things and acquire new skills just to get the project finished!). Everyone got exactly what they wanted.

-- Dan in Dallas