here is a link to my most recent project.  It's a solid cherry pie safe with two adjustable shelves.   The back is beadboard and the drawer fronts are bookmatched.  The finish is 3 coats of waterlox sealer followed by three coats of walterlox satin finish sprayed.  My son's in the highscool band (drummer) and I'm a supporter and with budget cuts its getting harder to support the music groups by the local gov't.   We raffle it off tonight 200 tickets at 10 bucks a piece so 2,000 bucks for them to support the music program.  Sad part is my wife was going to buy a few tickets and I told her it would look real bad if she won.   So she compromised, I get to build a second one. 

http://www.flickr.com//photos/22447246@N06/sets/72157629684779463/show/

Tools used Festool MFT/3 TS55 & M&T joinery is domino.   

Thought about it but due to time just could not take it on.  The company I found not to far cut me a discount when I told them what it was for and they prefinished the tin.

That is a really nice pie safe!  Great job! 

My first exposure to them was on the New Yankee Workshop with Norm.  Maybe it's more of a New England thing?

Thanks for the kind words.  As someone els mentioned it was developed in colonial times as a way to keep insects away from cakes pies ...   I grew up loving furniture of this type.  Now to be true the origionals, they would have been probably pine or the ones I saw mostly as a lad wormy chesnut because those woods were widely available till the great blight.  I remember my cousins house (we were poor) and the house would have been considered a blight today, ceiling's railings and waynescoating all of wormy chesnut.    Anyway I always wanted to make one, but I like working with cherry.  Anyway thanks again for the comments.

That is a very fine piece of work and I wish you the best of luck selling all of the tickets.

I was a bit like Kev, wondering exactly what a cherry pie safe might be. John's post reminds me that in the 1950-60s we did not have a fridge at home and so we had a larder - a room off the kitchen with just a small (probably north facing) window for ventilation and a work top made of marble to help keep things cool.

I think that many of the old British traditions and terminology live on in North America (fawcet, sidewalk and turnpike are just a few examples). I really enjoyed my tour of Virginia when I was in the US a few years ago and took delight in the preservation in the historic towns there. From what I have seen on the FOG, I think that a lot of the traditional woodworking skills are thriving in North America as well.

Well done.

Peter

Beautiful!

But without a close up....I'm not sure the "Tin" is installed correctly.

From the images I can't tell for sure but it looks like the tin is installed backwards. The working pie safes I grew up with had the sharpe edges facing out (they were punched out from inside). You learned not to get too close and brush them as they would rip a shirt or cut skin if brushed. This is due to the fact a bug will not climb over a sharp edge as it will scratch them. The scratch will cause the bug to die, so instinct for self preservation keeps the bug out.  If they are installed backward they become a bug collector trap and the food will soon become infested.

Please tell what way the sharp edges face on your project.  Also if I'm just flat out wrong about how they must be built/installed to work let me know.

Cheers,
Steve

Ahh, you're nitpicking. Whatever he wants to call it is his choice. The real baseline is that it's pretty irrelevant in this day and age if the tin is punched in or out, because most houses these days don't have bugs crawling through them like in days of yore.

Mr, Upscale,

If you read my post I say it is "not a big thing" I also go on to say "Baseline is it a very nice piece and as long as the owners like it that is all that matters....just don't store pies in it. "

It seems you are the one as you say that is "nitpicking".

As stated I like the piece... My Grandfather made them. The punched side was viewed as the most attractive and if lettering was added it was done so it was readable when the door was open and the pies and breads were being displayed and served. They were a presentation piece of furniture to show off the cooks skills along with being functional. Also back then the homes were also bug free as that is cleanliness issue not a 21st century chemical issue.

I was just looking at the pictures... if it was a Victorian table with Mission legs I would have raised the same point if you call it one thing...it should be what you call it.

The main thing is the guy built a beautiful cabinet and he's happy....do you have an issue that that? I don't.

Cheers,
Steve