Blockfront Cabinet Completed but...

[Hammer5573]

I've always wanted to build a blockfront cabinet ever since I first saw one. I spent months studying the history of this style, practiced the joinery that I would need to build it, made full scale drawings and took a self-taught crash course on carving fans (Youtube). I had a chance to purchase some Sapele, one of my favorite wood species, and I started building. I purchased the lumber in the rough-cut state and wasn't able to identify the striped wood from the unstriped when picking out the drawer fronts. As you can see, two of the drawer fronts are striped and two are not (big disappointment). Can anybody tell me of there is a way to identify striped Sapele when it's in the rough-cut state?

 

[treeslayer]

All that time paid off for you, it looks great, well done!

[Coop]

Hammer, that’s beautiful, well done. And I think the alternating drawers add interest. You should be proud. 

[Chestnut]

Wow that is awesome work.

Identifying figured wood can be difficult in a rough state. My advice would be to get a portion smoothed out with a block plane and then rub some denatured alcohol or mineral spirits on the smooth patch to see the result.

Additionally for sapele the stripped effect is achieved when the lumber is quarter sawn and may show up a bit on rift sawn lumber as well but probably less so. Looking at the end grain may give you an idea of the grain orientation that could help determine what the face may look like.

[Chet]

On 4/10/2023 at 6:40 PM, Coop said:

And I think the alternating drawers add interest.

I am with Coop, I like the drawers.  Either way would have looked nice.  The whole project came out great.

[GlennL]

Now that is IMPRESSIVE!!!! Nicely done!

[pkinneb]

Wow!! That looks like a lot of work great job!