Proy Wood

Well, all is not mdf here even though it may look like it in my most recent post ... Will finished up the double bureau yesterday and as I suspected, the cherry is spectacular ... This is my first photo session with my new lights and I think I can do better. The cherry seems kind of cool compared to the real thing ... Its still set up so Ive got all weekend ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
this was a hard piece to photograph with all the action in the wood grain ... i took the one above recently and it looks like we could call it bees wing cherry.
Its interesting to see how the design evolved as we progressed. If you check the cad drawing in the previous post (linked above) youll see we started out with the legs pointing in the opposite direction, which is the way weve always used them as table legs. in this case, when we were waving them around before they were attached, inverting them seemed to give the bureau more connection and a better feeling .... The cherry was soooooo nice, we debated the hardware choice until the very last minute ... In the end, we didnt want to clutter the look of the piece and Sam is in the middle of a big railing project anyway ... So, brainstorm, imho ... continue the bolt theme with lag bolt pulls ... There was some concern about getting them installed exactly perpendicular, so we made the jig below. First we drilled the guide holes on the drill press, marked out the centers, stuck the brad point drill through into the center mark, pushed the wood guide firmly against the drawer face and drilled the pilot hole. Next we put a longer lag through the wood guide block and screwed it home. That created the perpendicular threading for the actual, shorter pulls which we installed by hand in the precut threads ... there are four 1/8" thick carpet glides on the back of the jig to protect the finished drawer face while in use ...
Below is a close up of the metal finish on the legs ... The angle iron was dynabraded (rotary air sander) with 80 grit and 120 grit. next it was treated with a chemical called ‘ready brown’ from Sur-Fin Chemicals that works on brass and steel to quickly darken it to a brown black color. After treatment it was neutralized with a solution of baking soda and water, sanded again to add highlights, and top coated with ben moore ‘high gloss, low lustre’ metal finish … sounds complicated, but isn’t …
Great job Will and Sam ....

There is one thing you can count on with the experts on the Antique Road Show. If you “messed” with the antique you are showing them, they will be very quick to point that fact out.

The phrase the experts usually use is; “You know the (whatever) is not original?” I am sure those few simple words sound different to the owner of the antique, especially if they are aware that the show has millions of followers whom hang on every word the experts utter. It probably ends up resonating in their ears as, “What the hell did you do to this beautiful antique, you moron?”

I am a huge follower of this show. While I find the British series more entertaining, I find the American version more educational. There is just more variety to American antique furniture, both in materials and techniques. Great stuff, the Antiques Road Show.

This show was mentioned in a recent post on The Full Chisel Blog. It seems that Stephen did some restoration work on a piece native to Salt Lake City that was included in the episode the Antiques Road Show filmed there a few years back. It surprised me even more that Stephen did this restoration work on the piece a full 24 years before I watched that appraisal.

So here’s the point. Stephen did some serious restoration on a piece that was appraised by Leigh Keno on the Antiques Road Show. Leigh is not only one of the more knowledgeable in the show’s bevy of knowledgeable appraisers, but an appraiser who consistently uses the “not original” phrase. The only assumption I can come to for Leigh not mentioning the restoration work is because he didn’t notice it.

In his chosen profession, Leigh Keno is an absolute professional.

As it turns out, so is Stephen Shepherd.

Were there any doubts?

Peace,

Mitchell

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