Contents 12 7 26 37 40 Introduction Measuring Antiques Educated guesses fill in the gaps Building a Chest of Drawers Joinery and design ‘considerations Holding the Notes Building an adjustable music sand Leg-and-Apron Table ‘Add a removable leaf when ‘company comes Shaker Style End Table Shaping a pedestal without alathe Making a Hepplewhite Card Table Recapruring an essential delicacy Brandy Stand A lightweight able with a ‘marquetry top A.17th-Century Chest Scooping curves with a scrub plane Hepplewhite Chest of Drawers: Delicate inlay fans life into a traditional piece 70 77 80 84 Spice Boxes Hidden compartments for special seasonings Campaign Chest Locking drawers and a drop- front seereaire Building a Roll-Top Desk Interlocking slats form an al ‘wood tambour Post-Office Desk Simple construction in the Souther tradition Kentucky Quilt Cabinet Acabinetmaker tackles two: board construction Constructing a Walnut Chest A keepall” scaled down 10 fitany room Shaker Casework Simplifying the glories of Sheraton and Chippendale Provincial Corner Cupboard Nofrlls country joinery Kentucky Cupboard Retaining the essence of the country ste ‘The Pencil-Post Bed Jigs for machining tapered coctagons 96 102 M10 17 122 126 Building a Bent-Back Rocker’ Soft rock fiom hardwoods Building a Sengebenk A Norwegian bench with buliein sorage Making the Chippendale Chair = The way toa chair sto mind your las and squares The New England Windsor ‘Ateation captures the imagination of contemporary makers “Through tenons and serbed cope joints Building Fireplace Mantels Amiebellum desis provide inspiration IndexMeasuring Antiques Educated guesses fill in the gaps by Dick Burrows art and a farmhouse necessity. In the larger coastal cities L colonial times, furniture making was both a highly refined craftsmen, trained in rigid European apprenticeships, p1o duced stunning pieces for the wealthy and status-conscious, Meanwhile, numerous country erafismen were turning. native lumber into practical, yet elegant, family furnishings. Ironically the best examples of both styles have become classics, creating a seemingly insatiable demand for historical and construction notes on vintage pieces, Since few cabinetmakers managed! to preserve their con tion drawings or to take notes, you ustally must rely on the furn ture tiself 10 show how the old guys did it, Museums and private collections abound with fine 17th. to 19th-century pieces, and are, in effect, living libraries of plans. Carlyle Lynch, cabinetmaker ind retired has devoted ye places like Old Sturbridge Vilage in Massachusetts, Old Salem and the Museum of Farly Southem Decorative Arts (MESDA) in North Carolina. Although I've never been ain aficionado of the old ‘ways, [found Lynch's enthusiasm for period furniture infectious. While he insists that there are no magic tricks to measuring furniture, there's more to it than poking around with a euler. Be fore you can do it right, you need 10 Sto measuring furniture at an how boards were sur faced, how joints were cut and how furniture was built in the Analyzing antiques is part detective work, some guesswork and ‘much careful measurement. Lynch finds @ Gin sliding rule ‘good for measuring small pieces like drawers and as a caliper to gauge thicknesses. The I6-drawer mahogany case be's examin ing is one of the jewels hidden in Duncan Phyfe's tool ebest. 8 The Best of Fine Woodworking days when hand tools were the only tools, Otherwise, you'll nev cer grasp what's iden by veneets, moldings and thick layers of yellowed finishes ly, if your skills at reassuring nervous owners are as good as Lynch's, you can examine many pieces. As you tice the delicate carvings with your fingertips and examine centuries-old we maker and his joints for telltale marking lines and tool magks, at come alive Lynch when he measured Duncan Phyfe's personal ool box (the results are shown in the drawing on page 10) at the New York Historical Society and two pieces at MESDA. Before you begin work, you want to do and how you plan to do it. Some old pieces may For me, that was the best part of working with ake sure the owners of the piece clearly understand what be too fragile to be moved or handled! much, One owner might yother will ask you to leave for just suggesting you want to remove any hardware let you remove and trace an escutcheon, whi To avoid missing any vital details, Lynch works systematically He starts with overall dimensions, measuring each major compo: then works down to each He sketch: es each piece, measures it, hen marks the measurements on his sketch. Then he remessuires it, By measuring everything wice you ensure accuraey and the odds ae you won't overlook an im portant detail twice rent in tuen—sides, top, back, front joint, curve and angle, carving, molding and turnin When we measured the toolbos used by Phyfe when he was ly 19th century, Lynch large chest. The chest is painted brown and is as drab as Phyfe's furni the darling of trendy New York in the e began with a general appraisal of ture is elegant, although the box's interior is a woodworkers dle light of chisels with pewter ferrules, finely set planes and exqui: sitely shaped saw handles. After removing some of the tools and the ches’s sliding inner cabinet, Lynch made one rough, box like sketch showing the front and side view and another showing, the top view. He pretets to make freehand pempective drawings i, but any sketch will do as long as you can decipher your notes and match the right measurements to record his measurem to the right part. Lynch strives to he accurate t0 within Ms in, He began measur enters ule on the outside of the chest, he measured the depth and height of the end. ‘Then he determined how the side was fastened to the top, bouom, front and back, and noted these de tails on his sketch, Since the box comers are dovetailed, he mea fon the right side Holding 9 zig-7ag car sured the pins to find the thickness of the back and front pieces, By inserting the rule inside the chest along the Sime end, he obiained the inside dimension of the end and verified that plus the width of the front and back pieces, equaled the outside From Fine Woodworking magazine Jul 1985) 58525