small cherry writing desk

allen levine

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new york city burbs
very simple, tapered legs, mortise and tenons, very small pencil/pen drawer, will use tiger maple for the drawerfront if I can find the pieces I have without killing myself moving 2000 lbs of lumber.

Im just very unhappy with the green cherry and some of the boards are common with knots.
Learned a lesson about buying wood on the internet, no matter how nice the people were, the quality of their lumber doesnt cut it for me.

So any suggestions how to fill in this knot on the tabletop? (I miscalculated and turned a board the wrong way and thought Id be cutting the knots out, but had knots on the other side, couldnt trim it enough)
I tried some glue and sawdust, its smooth, but I dont know how it will take stain.
 

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1. Rout for a dutchman and match the grain as close as possible.

2. Make a 'design element' with a bowtie across the joint and repeat the same for the other side.

3. Do a marquetry element (leaf or whatever in contrasting wood).
 
or dye the are you have filled with some trans stint and then like bill said make it part of it..it appears to be centerewd well on the end so i vote to do as bill said or leave it and color it to match a knot color..
 
1. Rout for a dutchman and match the grain as close as possible.

2. Make a 'design element' with a bowtie across the joint and repeat the same for the other side.

3. Do a marquetry element (leaf or whatever in contrasting wood).

since I have absolutely zero experience with any type of inlays except for a straight line, Id think Id mess it up alot more trying to match a grain and getting the cut exactly right without a inlay bushing/bit.
I think the easiest way out for me is to try the epoxy, if I dont like the way it looks, Ill just cut the top down and reglue it.)
If youre not busy bill, I would love to have you come visit and do some inlay work on it. Dinner is on me.
 
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... If youre not busy bill, I would love to have you come visit and do some inlay work on it. Dinner is on me.
Thanks for the invitation, Allen. But this old southern boy gets the shakes in Yankee land! :rolleyes:

(Besides, I'm far from an expert on inlays. I've done some but only simple stuff so far.)
 
I was playing around with it last night. There wasnt much of a hole, so I dug out the glue and sawdust, then took some sawdust mixed with a drop of poly. Made a past, let it set, but while it was drying I took out a little artists paint brush and touched the area with very dark stain. It dried, and I still didnt like the feel, so I used some crazy glue on top of the knot, smoothed it out, let it dry. Now I have a knot that is dark, but with the cherry stain, I think it will work.
I will not make any tops or front panels with knots anymore. Little knots ok, but no more 1/2-3/4 inch knots, no more.
I stained the bottom of the top to see how it would look, and its a bit darker than I care for, but a little color wont kill me.
Id still prefer waterlox finishes, but for this small table I didnt want to lay out 85 bucks for 2 quart cans of original and gloss.
Ill finish assmebly tomorrow and start sanding down the top to a finer grit, then work on the leg sections and aprons.

I popped together a birch ply drawer for it today, when I get on the armoir build I will have the PC omnijig set up and I will remake the drawer using solid maple, with a dovetail joint.Until then, the plywood drawer is fine.
 
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the knot looks like a knot, I can live with it, but wont make a top again with a knot.

so I took 2 steps foward, but 3 steps back.

I finally make my drawers correct sizes so they fit the slides well. Ive always seemed to have a problem, but lately, havent had to remake any drawers.

My original design had a 3.5 inch wide apron, but when I looked at it, it didnt look quite right so I made the aprons 3 inches.
Unfortunately, I didnt change the drawer height measurements and I couldnt fit the drawer in tonight.
booooouuunggg! Had to smack myself in the head, the mind is slipping fast.
I carefully looked where I had pins, and cut the drawer on the TS in half.
Put it in place, then reglued the top back on.
Just have to take off the slide when Im ready to make a new drawer.
 
and now that Im thinking about it, I realized Im a bigger idiot that I thought(when I tried to explain it to my wife and told her Im a bigger idiot that I thought I was, she said shes known that for years)
Now that the glue has dried, I cannot unscrew the back screw on the drawer part of the slide, since its not possible since the slides are attached to a piece that I was going to use as a runner.
wow, Im really sinking on this one.
Now I will have to take a jig saw and just cut the drawer in half from the bottom, carefully of course, shoulda just made the dovetailed drawer.
 
I went out to see if the glue had completely set, and then realized, wait a minute, I only put 2 screws on the slides knowing the drawer is coming out eventually, and Im in luck, the screws are in the front and one in the middle, where I can unscrew it by pulling the drawer out. Whooosh....sorry about the 2 previous posts, thought I was past careless dumb errors, but its all good now.
 
heres what the drawerfront looks like, and the knot.
I will lightly rub it down with stain again just to make sure I got it all even, then apply poly tomorrow.
My wife wants a very high gloss finish on the top.
 

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Shoot Allen I think it adds character to the desk! It doesn't look nowhere near as large as in the first photo you posted. Besides it's off to the side and not in the middle of the writing surface.
 
I stained it 2 times with provincial colored stain, then stained over it again with the cherry stain.
It will effect the glass like look my wife wants, as it will not be one uniform surface.

Im going to start my therapy this coming week, so I wont get much done before thanksgiving and then the floor guy is coming, so I lose the finish room for good.
Ill have to put this desk aside till I get all the molding installed, the closet unit installed, take apart the bed and reassemble it in the old finish room, then clean out the other bedroom so I have a new finish room.(alot smaller, but thats life)

Im going to go to either Rosenzweig Lumber in the bronx, or Conlon lumber in White plains ny, and get my hands on some 6/4 fas cherry to build the armoir/chest.
These are both huge reputable dealers, have to pay more, but I can select my own lumber and not depend on some moron to select it for me and count it all wrong.
It would be great if Larry was only a hop and skip away.(Id rather give him my money, at the family discount ofcourse)
 
I think you did a great job on the knot. Remember that the difference between amateurs and pros is that pros hide their mistakes better. You are well on your way. From where I sit, it looks very acceptable. Next time though, no knots on the top. I think my friend Allen Levine said that.
 
allen you come this way or have someone else come this way and we can fill you up on some hardwood.. dont have any 6/4 cherry but got some 8/4 but alot more thats a solid 5/4.. i am gonna have to sell off this scrap yard to pay the mortgage payment and the food bill for charlie..:)
 
my wife is killing me, she mentioned today, she has plenty of fabric left for the chair. The chair? Why cant we buy one from staples, with the little wheels on the bottom of it?
no, she wants a little desk chair, one made out of wood.

She has no clue I hate chairs, absolutely hate to build them.
 
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