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[charlese]

Joe - This is just plain BEAUTIFUL work!! Can't say it any other way, but to go on and on. Thanks a million for your additional photos. They really express your design and construction. The raised panels on the inside of the cabinet doors were a pleasant surprise. I bet it is also for anyone around when the door is opened. Wow! solid tiger maple! Who says you can't get wood like that anymore?

A special tip of the hat for your wife on this Mother's day for her inspired idea on how to make serving trays from the drawers.

I wish I had the knowledge, let alone the skills to do that king of finishing! Beautiful!

Now on to the next step in learning how to make chairs. I have thought about trying a couple, but the key word in that sentence is "thought". I am willing to bet you are in that same category.

Really glad to have you around the forum! Hope to hear more from you.

[a1gutterman]

Charlese,
Thanks for the kind words. All the pieces are made from solid Tiger Maple and Birds Eye Maple. I posted some more detailed pics so you can see some of the techniques I used. The drawers are hand cut half-blind dovetails with 3/4" Maple fromts and 1/2" Mahogany sides and backs. The drawer bottoms are 1/2" poplar. The dividers on the hutch bottom and server use a sliding dovetail/dado combination that I learned from Fine Woodworking magazine. The doors for the hutch base have raised panels on the inside. The large drawer on the bottom was sized to hold the two table leaves. The two top drawers on the hutch base use a single through dovetail and also double as serving trays (my wifes idea).
The finish color comes from a water soluable analyn dye, finished with 3 coats of boiled linseed oil and 5 coats of blonde shellac buffed out with beeswax and 0000 steel wool.
Here's the pics:

Looking at your pictures, you made raised panel doors and then put the raised panel to the inside?

[jg300da]

Looking at your pictures, you made raised panel doors and then put the raised panel to the inside?

Yes, that is how the Shaker style of door was made so I tried to make it a true reproduction. The Shaker style was never ostentatious, but always functional. The raise panel itself was designed as a simple way to take a full thickness board to make a frame and panel door without having to plane the entire board down to the thickness of the groove in the rails and stiles.

[a1gutterman]

Yes, that is how the Shaker style of door was made so I tried to make it a true reproduction. The Shaker style was never ostentatious, but always functional. The raise panel itself was designed as a simple way to take a full thickness board to make a frame and panel door without having to plane the entire board down to the thickness of the groove in the rails and stiles.

Well, it looks very nice.