Gooseneck Cabinet is finished - sash door, finish and availability

Well, its done. The sash door has been built and installed, using hardware from the ever-wonderful Londonderry Brasses catalog.  The finish has been applied, 18th century pattern paper now lines the shelves. Now I have to hold on to it until the end of March for its exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts / SAPFM period furniture show. After that, I will be looking for a new home for the piece. If anyone is interested, please contact me at zacharydillinger@gmail.com for pricing / delivery.

A breakdown of the finish:

I started by rubbing in a little BLO, then sealed that with a couple of coats of blonde shellac. After that, I used a dark brown glaze to even out any color differential in the cherry as well as color the pine top to more closely resemble the cherry. Then, I put on five coats of blonde shellac. Finally, I rubbed out the shellac with 0000 steel wool and dark brown paste wax, leaving a small amount of wax in the sash moldings and in the volutes. The wax was then rubbed down with linen cloth, providing a final glossy (but not too shiny) finish. 

I may add a little more wax in the sash moldings, they need a little "schmutzing" up. 

Some have asked for a description of how I did the sash door. I tried to take photographs but I needed three (maybe four) hands to do that.  So I wrote a quick description:

The stock has to be precisely the same thickness (3/4") for the joinery to come out right and for the door to close properly. So I had to thickness plane with accuracy. Not a usual thing for me but easy enough. I cut the stock close to the right length at this point. I would have preferred to make it all from one length, but the cutoff of cherry I was using was not long enough to make that happen. I just went with the flow.

Lay out joinery by scribing a 1/4" wide space that is 1/4" in from the front face. Mark out mortise and tenon locations in all stock together as much as possible to keep things nice and square. Chop mortises, then cut in the 1/4" x 1/4" glazing rabbet (on a small piece this will help prevent blowing out pieces of your fillet, which you will do if you try to chop after the glazing rabbet has been cut). Reset fillister plane to cut 1/4" wide by 1/8" deep rabbet. Plane one rabbet using the front face as your reference, then plane another using the top edge as reference. This will leave you a small fillet which will later be rounded off with a hollow plane (I didn't have a sash ovolo this small, so I had to make what I had work).

Cut tenons, then round off molding (done last to protect the molding). Then cope tenon shoulders to a miter and then to fit over the molding on the mortised piece. Tweak the fit as necessary to end up with a square door with mullions that are straight and not too wonky.

Assemble the center first, then add the top and bottom rail, then put on the left and right stiles. Clamp and drink the beverage of your choice.

This sash door is pretty easy. About two hours of actual work from rough stock to assembled and glued. Larger sash take a lot longer. 

Well, that is the last post on the gooseneck. Another beauty in the bag. Next up is a Hepplewhite sideboard for my wife. It will be nice to build a piece with intent to keep it for once!

Zach