William and Mary Highboy

A great looking piece! Looks like lots of work went it.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

That’s quite a masterpiece! I’m just now reading Jeff Greene’s book on 18th century American furniture, and this looks like it could have come from those pages. Wish I could see it in person – you did a great job.

Cheers,
Kerry

-- Alberta, Canada

wow that is amazing. I love the walnut burl. thanks for the post.

Great piece of furniture Chuck. I went to look at your bio and with 30 years of woodworking, I have to ask….. how old were when you started??.... three or four? Just kidding, you look so young in the photo. I guess that’s a good thing. This really is a fantastic piece. Thanks for the post and I’m looking for to seeing more from you. If you’ve got the desire to teach, I have the desire to learn.
JJ

-- Make things with wood.

yet another amazing piece. you do great work

-- making sawdust....

Another fantastic reproduction, Chuck!

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

Well I’m speechless. Any idea on the hours to complete?

-- Peoria, AZ where the wood is always dry...

Beautiful work. As Kerry said, would be great to see the actual item.

-- Bob

What, you didn’t custom-cast your own brass hardware? Terribly disappointed!

LOL….just kidding. Very nice, sir.

-- -Be Blessed!, Patrick

Equisite work as always. Thanks for posting.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Your work is off the charts, period. Nuff said …

-- Paul D, Atlanta GA

This sets the standard: The height of excellence! The wood is beautiful, the finish is great and the craftsmanship is awesome.

-- --Chuck

Thanks to everyone for their compliments. I’ll try to answer a few of the questions and comment on some of the things you all brought up as well as adding some additional background information.

First, a fair amount of time did go into the piece. The first time I made this highboy, I made two of them. One for the customer and one for me. Which brings up the answer to a couple of the comments posted. If you’re in the Philly area, and want to visit, please give a call and drop in. I still have my copy of the highboy which means, if you do visit, you can actually see one of these in real life. I’ve built three or four more since that original run. The first two, however, are still my favorites. I spent about 80 hours just making herring bone inlay for those two. The last one of these highboys I built took about three or four weeks to build in its entirety.

JJ, I’m older than I look but to clarify, I got my first taste of woodworking when I was 10 or 11 but I consider my actual start when I was 12. That’s when I got serious about it. I do teach and you are welcome anytime. I’ll try to get around to working on a blog that lays out some of my woodworking history as well as some of the better stories from all those years of professional woodworking. Hopefully, it’ll be something you will find interesting. My website has several planned expansions that will include a weekly blog and some tips and techniques, I just have to get the time to get them up and running. Until then, I’ll keep exploring and posting here. This is a pretty good place to be. Thanks to all you LJs for making me feel at home.

-- Chuck Bender, period furniture maker, www.acanthus.com

Now this is one of the best!!!!!! I think you are a great master craftsman. Very nice what a great job.

-- Davesfunwoodworking

Beautiful as always, defines excellence. You truly are a master craftsman. mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Dave your work is trully amazing, you say that you took the measurements from a piece in the museum. Well I think they need to make some room for some of yours. Think you need to be on the American Master Craftsman…Keep up the exceptional quality, as your a motivater in the Craft. Just looking at your projects wants me to study more and more. Your brother in woodworking John

-- Your Brother in WoodWorking John, Pittsburgh , PA.

Again the bar has been raised! I only hope to approach it some day.

What a great way to make a living, to create something that beautiful.

Charile Mullins

-- God makes the wood beautiful--I simply rearrange it to make it more useful, hopefully.

Lovely work again, mon ami. You can’t beat the classics.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

WOW!! I aspire to do work like you!! That is one awesome piece of furniture!! A classic!!

-- Matt, Houston Texas

Chuck,

How did I miss this one when you originally posted it?? Sorry about that but I am glad it came back around on my review list. This is a beautiful piece of furniture. Normally I like to add some comments on the details of a piece but there simply isn’t room or time to do that on this. Outstanding attention to detail will have to suffice for this one. The finish looks good on this as well.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Scott,

Missing a project when it gets posted around here isn’t hard to do. I’m glad you caught it when it came back around again. Thanks for the compliment.

Matt,

Thank you is all I can say. Seeing your work, I consider your words a great compliment.

Thanks to all for the words of encouragement.

-- Chuck Bender, period furniture maker, www.acanthus.com

your work never ceases to amaze me! i love the walnut burl, it is good to see an example of its too since i am using it for the drawer fronts on my armoire. its is such as beautiful wood as so it walnut. thanks for the post!