Credenza

JOHN A. FRY

CUSTOM CRAFTED FURNITURE

This elevated shot shows the anigre veneered drawer bottom, and the detail in the top. The end tables are 23” tall and the tops are just under 26” X 26”. All three tables are finished with five coats of an oil/varnish blend.

Here is the pair of end tables together. This photo is to prove that I really did build two. Each table has over 500 pieces of wood.

And of course, the matching coffee table. Yes! These tables are wild, artsy to the extreme, and they are definitely NOT for those who dislike multiple wood pieces of furniture. May they at least enjoy the construction process.

I started by prepping and re-sawing all the necessary maple and boire veneers. This is a bunch of stickered and clamped boire.

All the patterned veneers for the raised panels were sliced from glued up solid blocks of boire and curly maple.

Just like the larger shop sawn veneers, these were sliced and sanded to 1/16”. I cut several extra, just in case.

The MDF substrates for the raised panels in all the aprons were beveled at 12 degrees and the beveled edges were veneered with commercial figured anigre veneers that I had in stock.

I glued the patterned veneers to the panels using yellow glue and a fixture to hold the veneer centered on the face of the panel while it was clamped. Then I made another template as a router guide that the panel slid into firmly, and I routed the 1/8” grooves to hold the miniature 1/8” bullnosed cockbeading. After mitering these tiny moldings by hand, I glued them into their grooves.

The framework for the panels is “cross-banded” boire and a rounded over 5/16” bead of wenge. I made this by edge gluing large sheets of the boire to the substrate and then sliced the strips across the grain of the boire veneer. Then the strips of wenge were made by first using a roundover bit on both edges of a piece of solid wenge at the router table, and then ripping off the 5/16” strips. They were then glued to the veneered boire strips. Finally, on the table saw, I cut a 1/16” rabbet on the wenge so the roundover portion actually overlapped the delicate edge of the commercial veneer on the panel’s edge.

I set up stop blocks on my 45 degree miter sled and cut all the apron panel frame pieces. I used a band clamp to “set” the glued framework and then placed additional clamps to ensure good contact all around.

The anigre leg stock was purchased as 8/4 lumber and my attempt to re-saw this stock down to the desired 4/4 thickness on my band saw resulted in two very dull, $200.00 carbide re-saw blades in one 20“ long cut! This is what they call high silica content. Wow! I wound up using my nasty looking 18T flat top ripping blade and got through it OK.

I beveled all the leg parts (using the same blade) and taped them for the glue up.

I glued the edges, rolled them up, and used band clamps and cauls for good pressure.

These legs will get four sided tapers, so I did as much milling as possible before doing the tapers. Here you see the cove being cut on the router table, the dadoes for the moldings on the bottom and just above the cove, have all been cut. All the mortises for the aprons have been completed at this time also.

The bottoms of all 12 legs have been plugged with anigre blocks, the outer two faces of all the legs have been routed in the upper portion for the inlaid mini raised panels.

The drawer fronts were made just like the apron panels except the veneers were laid up on sold mahogany. The half-blind dovetails are inlaid with Peruvian walnut, and the sides are white poplar. I veneered the drawer bottoms with figured anigre.

Next, I built a sled to taper the legs on the big planer with the Byrd Shelix head. To accommodate both lengths of legs and a four sided taper, I made it to be able to add blocks to change the taper angle, and a screw clamp so it would be held against stop blocks.

After the tapers were cut, I made this router template to cut the recesses for the angled herringbone boire inlays. These had to be cut on all four surfaces of all twelve legs.

To make the herringbone inlays, I edge glued strips of boire cut at about 45 degree angles. They were tapered and trimmed to fit, on the table saw.

All twelve legs are inlaid and ready for the mini-panels to be glued into the upper recesses. Every recessed border will be finished off with ¼”, by ¼ round, wenge molding.

The mini panels that get glued into the upper leg blocks were made exactly like the larger panels. They have beveled edges and are veneered with anigre, they had one solid center piece of boire, and it is bordered by a tiny, 1/16” bullnosed cockbead, set in a 1/16” groove. Here the finished panels are being glued into the recesses.

After making all the quarter round wenge molding, I mitered everything to fit on the table saw using clamps and stop blocks. The 45 degree cuts on the upper moldings were pretty easy, but because of the tapered legs, the moldings for the bottom inlays were a much different set of angles.

I used a bunch of mini spring clamps to glue the moldings in place.

The coffee table aprons were end glued together and then these three panel assemblies, as well as all the single panel aprons, were glued to a ½ “ Baltic birch plywood backer board. Mortises were then cut in the ends with a router for the mortise and loose tenon construction.

The top has a ½” wide wenge-maple-wenge banding. I made this by milling a flat piece of wenge at the ½” thickness and then ripped a 1/8” kerf in both edges. I glued a 1/8” thick slice of maple veneer in both kerfs.

Then I sliced off the banding at 1/16” thick and sanded smooth.

I taped and edge, glued all the 1/16” thick shop sawn veneers together for the tops.

I used mahogany backer veneers on the undersides of the tops. This end table top is right out of the vacuum press.

The table tops were bordered and profiled with Peruvian walnut. Then I milled the profiles for all the moldings and the inlaid beading out of Peruvian walnut, and then fit, mitered, and glued them into place.

Here are a couple of detail shots. This one is of the table top's mitered corners. The outer veneer between the Peruvian walnut border and the wenge banding is shop sawn, figured anigre that I cut from a beautiful piece of 4/4 stock. I did my best to bookmatch as many of the corners a possible.

And finally, this one shows the corner block and leg in detail.

Chisel And Bit Custom Crafted Furniture

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