New Book - Blanket Chests


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Yo yo yo - check this out! (I'm excited. Can you tell?)

Taunton Press has a new book coming out called Blanket Chests. It's co-authored by Scott Gibson and Peter Turner and features 30 different chests, one of which is MINE! The official release date is March 15, 2011. Two weeks away! It's one thing to write magazine articles, it's another to have work featured in a book.

http://www.tauntonstore.com/blanket-chests-peter-turner-071312.html

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Yo yo yo - check this out! (I'm excited. Can you tell?)

Taunton Press has a new book coming out called Blanket Chests. It's co-authored by Scott Gibson and Peter Turner and features 30 different chests, one of which is MINE! The official release date is March 15, 2011. Two weeks away! It's one thing to write magazine articles, it's another to have work featured in a book.

http://www.tauntonstore.com/blanket-chests-peter-turner-071312.html

Very cool! Which one is yours?

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Congratulations!!! I made a chest just for that book when the entry call was made on FWW. I had some correspondence with Peter and sent him my photos and I was rejected. Sniff. :^(

My entry:

_MG_4733.jpg

That is a nice looking chest. It looks absolutely massive. What are the dimensions? I do like the proportions and the curve at the bottom is nice. There are a few things that I would do differently which I can share if you are interested.

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That is a nice looking chest. It looks absolutely massive. What are the dimensions? I do like the proportions and the curve at the bottom is nice. There are a few things that I would do differently which I can share if you are interested.

Dimensions and construction details can be found here:

http://www.garagewoodworks.com/Blanket_Chest.php

Sure, Id love to hear any suggestions. It's cherry with ebony inlay.

Congrats again to you!

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Dimensions and construction details can be found here:

http://www.garagewoodworks.com/Blanket_Chest.php

Sure, Id love to hear any suggestions. It's cherry with ebony inlay.

Congrats again to you!

Apparently I was too enamoured with the photos to notice the dimensions!

Here are my thoughts on your chest:

The stiles have nice straight grain and look good. However, the legs and rails have more figure which distracts from the design. Also, the legs are a different colour than the bottom rail and stiles. I think the panels have too much variation in colour and figure (I see that you were careful to maintain grain continuity in your maple hall table). For the front/back/sides of my chest, I needed to glue up multiple boards to get wide enough stock. Can you tell where the joints are? This is where stock selection is key and I suspect this may be why your chest was not selected. In most cases, I get my wood in flitches so the colour and grain is consistent throughout. I like the pegged tenons but am not sure about the vertical inlays in the stiles. The aromatic cedar is a nice touch and the inside looks very clean.

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Apparently I was too enamoured with the photos to notice the dimensions!

Here are my thoughts on your chest:

The stiles have nice straight grain and look good. However, the legs and rails have more figure which distracts from the design. Also, the legs are a different colour than the bottom rail and stiles. I think the panels have too much variation in colour and figure (I see that you were careful to maintain grain continuity in your maple hall table). For the front/back/sides of my chest, I needed to glue up multiple boards to get wide enough stock. Can you tell where the joints are? This is where stock selection is key and I suspect this may be why your chest was not selected. In most cases, I get my wood in flitches so the colour and grain is consistent throughout. I like the pegged tenons but am not sure about the vertical inlays in the stiles. The aromatic cedar is a nice touch and the inside looks very clean.

I appreciate your feedback. The center front panel is bookmatched (left and right sides of center panel). I attempted to do this for every panel, but the bookmatching process didn't go as planned. Also I learned that bookmatching a panel with three pieces is a futile process. :^)

I think most of the color imbalance is due to my poor photography skills than anything else. Also, the piece was fresh off the saw by a few days; since then the cherry has developed a nice patina and evened out a little more (see below).

_MG_5705.jpg

"...I needed to glue up multiple boards to get wide enough stock. Can you tell where the joints are?"

No, but there is significant color variation from sap to heart wood, but you managed to keep it symmetrical which was a nice touch.

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I think most of the color imbalance is due to my poor photography skills than anything else. Also, the piece was fresh off the saw by a few days; since then the cherry has developed a nice patina and evened out a little more (see below).

Amazing how much cherry can change in so little time!

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I appreciate your feedback. The center front panel is bookmatched (left and right sides of center panel). I attempted to do this for every panel, but the bookmatching process didn't go as planned. Also I learned that bookmatching a panel with three pieces is a futile process. :^)

I think most of the color imbalance is due to my poor photography skills than anything else. Also, the piece was fresh off the saw by a few days; since then the cherry has developed a nice patina and evened out a little more (see below).

_MG_5705.jpg

"...I needed to glue up multiple boards to get wide enough stock. Can you tell where the joints are?"

No, but there is significant color variation from sap to heart wood, but you managed to keep it symmetrical which was a nice touch.

I actually like your chest but, one point you cannot book match more than two pieces of either timber or veneer. Book match is a very misused statement and we are all guilty. The true way to book match is to take a piece of timber rip it through and then placing them on the bench on edge and simply opening them up as if you were opening a book lay them side by side and you have a book match this cannot be repeated as to rip either again will only give you two matching and one reversed plank. Most people think they are book matching when they are actually slip matching.

Still like the cabinet all the same.

Pete

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I actually like your chest but, one point you cannot book match more than two pieces of either timber or veneer. Book match is a very misused statement and we are all guilty. The true way to book match is to take a piece of timber rip it through and then placing them on the bench on edge and simply opening them up as if you were opening a book lay them side by side and you have a book match this cannot be repeated as to rip either again will only give you two matching and one reversed plank. Most people think they are book matching when they are actually slip matching.

Still like the cabinet all the same.

Pete

"you cannot book match more than two pieces of either timber or veneer."

That's why I said above that "bookmatching a panel with three pieces is a futile process." :^)

The center front panel is bookmatched (left and right sides of center panel). It is not slip matched; although slipmatching would have been a better alternative! :^)

Thanks for the comments!

-Brian

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"you cannot book match more than two pieces of either timber or veneer."

That's why I said above that "bookmatching a panel with three pieces is a futile process." :^)

The center front panel is bookmatched (left and right sides of center panel). It is not slip matched; although slipmatching would have been a better alternative! :^)

Thanks for the comments!

-Brian

Actually, you can bookmatch more than two pieces but they all need to come from the same board. For best grain match, you would need to unfold the slices in a zig-zag fashion as viewed from above. You could do three, four, or twenty pieces if your stock is wide enough. I think that an even number of pieces would look best, as it would complete the mirror image look.

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Actually, you can bookmatch more than two pieces but they all need to come from the same board. For best grain match, you would need to unfold the slices in a zig-zag fashion as viewed from above. You could do three, four, or twenty pieces if your stock is wide enough. I think that an even number of pieces would look best, as it would complete the mirror image look.

No you cannot!

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No? This is essentially how one would lay out veneer for a starburst table.

Maybe, but it is not 'Book Matched' which was exactly my point saying it is a much misused term. If I understand what you are saying by laying the pieces down sort of concertina fashion then the actual book matched faces of numbers one and two will be placed glue side down, numbers two and three would be book matched so would numbers five and six, but one and two and number three would not.

Also if you lay out a starburst as you say you will have much too large a grain step by the time you place number one next to number 20 or how ever many pieces you are using. There is a definite way to avoid this by systematically moving pieces around the sunburst in order to arrive at as close a mismatch as is possible. I do actually have a book here somewhere that describes this process exactly I'll look it out.

Pete

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Maybe, but it is not 'Book Matched' which was exactly my point saying it is a much misused term. If I understand what you are saying by laying the pieces down sort of concertina fashion then the actual book matched faces of numbers one and two will be placed glue side down, numbers two and three would be book matched so would numbers five and six, but one and two and number three would not.

Also if you lay out a starburst as you say you will have much too large a grain step by the time you place number one next to number 20 or how ever many pieces you are using. There is a definite way to avoid this by systematically moving pieces around the sunburst in order to arrive at as close a mismatch as is possible. I do actually have a book here somewhere that describes this process exactly I'll look it out.

Pete

Hi Pete,

Couldn't the process be described as a "double bookmatch"? Perhaps it is not the proper term.

Yes, I have read about how to lay out a starburst. It's a little bit different from a panel because the two ends meet. I believe the pattern is something like the attachment (pretend it's a round table and each number represents a pie-shaped piece of veneer):

post-2746-0-18371600-1299523374_thumb.pn

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Hi Pete,

Couldn't the process be described as a "double bookmatch"? Perhaps it is not the proper term.

Yes, I have read about how to lay out a starburst. It's a little bit different from a panel because the two ends meet. I believe the pattern is something like the attachment (pretend it's a round table and each number represents a pie-shaped piece of veneer):

The method you describe I was taught to call a fold out pattern match. But, as long as people know what you're describing I doubt it matters really what you call it. It's just me. When I was an apprentice the master I was under used to blow a gasket every time he heard some one saying things that were not precisely how they should be said. I suppose some of it must have rubbed off.

Looks as though that veneer selection should work out nicely. For something like 90% of a 32 leaf veneer stack I'd say that would be great. The guy I have in this book only quotes two timbers that are virtually impossible to match in any form. One I've never heard of and one I've never used so I reckon we'd be OK. Ever heard of Japanese Tamo? The other is Cinnamon.

I will say though that a pattern match in knife cut veneers is normally easy to obtain. It gets more difficult with thicker sawn veneers as the stock thickness is obviously greater meaning that leaf number ten could be from a part of the plank several inches from leaf number one. When trying to grain match boards however the difference very soon becomes too great to adjust or accept.

Regards

Pete

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