Here's my first completed wwing project of the season. It's a towel chest for our bathroom made of red elm. The doors and drawer sides are ash. The drawer has handcut dovetails, the sides are frame and panel...nothing too fancy. The stain is a combination of golden oak, cherry, and early American.
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Thread: Red Elm Towel Chest
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08-09-2009, 12:52 AM #1
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Red Elm Towel Chest
Last edited by scott spencer; 08-10-2009 at 12:03 AM.
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08-09-2009, 12:59 AM #2
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Very nicely done. Great form fit and finish.
"There’s a lot of work being done today that doesn’t have any soul in it. The technique may be the utmost perfection, yet it is lifeless. It doesn’t have a soul. I hope my furniture has a soul to it." - Sam Maloof
The Pessimist complains about the wind; The Optimist expects it to change;The Realist adjusts the sails.~ William Arthur Ward
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08-09-2009, 01:19 AM #3
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Good design, really like the dovetails on the drawers, I've always had a problem doing them, I appreciate it when someone knows how to do them right!
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08-09-2009, 02:25 AM #4
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WOW - that is awesomly stunning
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08-09-2009, 02:30 AM #5
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The way the grain on the top and drawer front "pops" is almost hypnotic.
Nice dovetails, I don't have the talent to do that well with a machine.
Very nice!
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08-09-2009, 03:26 AM #6
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Red Elm, very nice Scott. I really like the color. Did you just mix the stains till you were happy or is this a match for other pieces? Also, how thick are the sides? Wow, I'm just Mr. Questions this evening aren't I?
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08-09-2009, 03:57 AM #7
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beautiful work.
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08-09-2009, 07:36 AM #8
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Great stuff, Scott.
Very nice work. The through dovetails on the drawer are a bit different, but I like the look. I've been finishing up a couple Siberian elm bowls, and they have a very pronounced grain like the top of your cabinet.
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08-09-2009, 10:20 AM #9
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.,.,.,
Last edited by John Bartley; 12-05-2010 at 09:12 PM.
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08-09-2009, 10:53 AM #10
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Thanks for the kind words everyone. John - I really like the look of elm too...the grain is amazing, and I agree with you about ash too....hard to believe it isn't used more...it's cheap, stable, mills well, has beautiful flowing grain that reminds me of the better examples of oak, and stains nicely. It's also becoming endangered.
I wasn't quite sure where I was heading with the dovetails Vaughn...I basically just wanted to try some, and that's what I ended up with! 
I do like them, but they're not really tied in with anything else.
OK Mr. Questions...the color wasn't really a match to anything else, but I had a color in mind that I was trying to achieve that was kind of a cross between golden oak and early American. The color idea came from an antique piece that my MIL has. Elm has some good natural red color but also has a lot of color variation that includes some brown and pronounced blond areas, so different boards required a different mix to get them to blend the way I wanted. The ash also stains differently than elm and took more cherry to get it close. I'm sure there are better ways to achieve uniform color, but it was kind of an afterthought on the fly using what was available.
The side panels are just about 7/16". The 4 upright pieces are ~ 1-1/8". The tenons on the cross braces are actually sliding dovetails....another hair brain idea I had to add strength, but what a major pain to slide into place once they had glue on them.
The original plan called for a couple of nice corbels at the top, but the fluting up the sides interferred with their location, so I abandoned them for now 
. I'm still toying with the idea of adding something decorative, whether a unique looking corbel that fits, or some pegs, but since I didn't have any "good" ideas yet, I decided to leave well enough alone until I see how the pedestal feet look. 
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