Cabinet in Elm Burl veneer

[mouppe]

I completed the cabinet as a present for the wife just in time for Valentine's Day. Hopefully when she sees it she will be blown away and authorise further Festool acquisitions!

It's veneered in elm burl with a bookmatch on the doors; the finish is garnet shellac French polished. I may add a wax coat later. It's still awaiting door pulls from Brusso, and a final sanding on the legs.

It took me over four months from start to finish. The curved doors and veneering the top were particularly difficult to do. The back is maple frame with a plywood frame, the interior is all aspen with a little inlay. No finish needed on the inside- I just sanded it to 500 grit with Granat.

It's based on a Rulhmann design from the 1920s. I can explain any other details or techniques if you like.

Thanks for looking.
Richard.

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[Theshipstore]

What fantastic piece of work you have there.  This is the ultimate valetine gift for sure. Love the inlay on the shelves...the elm burl is really impressive
Kinda impressed by that shop window and all the natural light it allows you to work in also

Great Job

Sal

 

[Ken Nagrod]

WOW Richard!  Very nice!  Reminds me of a piece my grandparents had from around the '20's.  Love your touch of inlay there.  Seems to be something you're dabbling in with all your pieces now?  Can't wait to see it with the pulls.
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[peter halle]

Richard,

WOW!  WOW!  WOW!

If you could make it to the FogFest the Virginia Museum of Fine arts has many Ruhlman pieces in their collection that were donated by the founders of the company that I worked for 5 different times.  In our corporate headquarters I had a chance to see others.

Your skills are amazing!

Peter

 

[rjwz28]

Beautiful!  And that wood is crazy.

Rob

 

[dltflt]

Richard that is stunning.  Your wife is a lucky lady.

 

[AlexThePalex]

That veneer on the front is simply stunning. What a sight.

 

[Holzhacker]

Fantastic. Can you share where you sourced the veneer?

 

[keithjfuji1439]

Very nice looking piece! What technique did you use to create the curved doors? [huh]

 

[Jesus Aleman]

Richard, where did you get the veneer from?

 

[Kev]

Very nice looking piece! What technique did you use to create the curved doors? [huh]

Yes - of all things - that's the part that intrigues me too.  [unsure]

 

[rmwarren]

Wow indeed! That is a fantastic piece, incredible grain!

AND, it's nice to see I am not the only one who uses blue tape for handles...

RMW

 

[PaulMarcel]

Stunning work all around, Richard.  Love your use of inlays in recent pieces. I'm also curious where you got the veneers from as they are stunning, too.

 

[nydesign]

Amazing !
Did anyone else notice the bat or bird in the book matched front?
It's like a rorschach test, that burl is crazy looking.

 

[waho6o9]

Beautiful work, the inlay is an elegant touch. Thanks for posting.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Awesome!  Great design and well crafted!  Love the matching forms of the door edges.

 

[Rob-GB]

Very nice looking cabinet Richard, you've gotta get some "greenie" points for it for sure  ;D

Did you get any issues with the veneer? I ask as, and don't tell my boss, the first and only time I did any veneering (unless you count iron on edging) the burr oak became quite lumpy during the pressing of it and took a fair bit of belt sanding to flatten out...scary times [eek]

Rob

 

[woodguy7]

Richard, did you say the inside was Aspen ?  Never seen that wood before, is it part of the Maple family.  Nice & white looking.  Those veneers are stunning, future family airloom.

 

[mouppe]

Thanks for all the really kind remarks. Let me answer the questions in two parts.

The veneer is from a company called NAGAM based here in Montreal. They specialise in veneers, but they also carry some less common lumber, such as sapele and avodire. I believe they are one of the largest veneer suppliers in North America, but they cater mostly to the wholesale trade. They do not have a website but here are their contact details. Family-owned firm, great to deal with.

http://www.profilecanada.com/companydetail.cfm?company=796703_Nagam_Inc_Saint-Laurent_QC

Re the doors, they caused me a lot of trouble and initially I made a pair using a coopered method but I found it impossible to match the curve on the carcass front. So I scrapped them- aaaargh!- and started anew. I could have made a form and used bent plywood in it but I chose to go with a ribbed door using the same template that I had used for the carcass.

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Ribs cut from plywood glued to a 1/8" sheet of plywood. Bowclamp used to clamp down the centre. I bought these clamps specifically for this project and they were very useful here.

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Then I added a second sheet of 1/8" ply to the other side, trimmed it to width, and glued on solid wood stiles which I planed and sanded to the right angle. The joinery is good but definitely not structurally strong. It is fine for lightweight use such as in this cabinet, but not fit for heavier use. I made them oversize so I could route a profile in the edge as a kind of dust seal. Doing this also means you can get the door fitting exactly right as you have lots of material to play with.

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The advantage of using the carcass template is that the fit is spot on first time. Then I veneered the front in my vacuum press.

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[mouppe]

Re the veneer, it was really easy to work with. No softening or flattening to deal with. Gluing it to the plywood substrate was very simple although I had poor adhesion issues at the beginning with white glue and reverted to yellow glue after that. Usually I use white glue for veneering, but I think the paper-backed veneers perhaps work better with yellow glue? Not sure why.

The only thing to note is that because it's a burl, there are several pin-prick holes to deal with during the finishing process. I filled the big ones with wood filler, for the little ones I just used a touch-up pen. The shellac takes care of the rest.

Here are the uncut sheets. I played around with the bookmatch before cutting. I think it looks like an owl or a scary ghost. I don't want to know what a shrink would say if I had to take a Rorschach test! The piece is also matched on the sides.

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I think the aspen is an excellent wood for cabinet interiors. This is Quaking Aspen, not the same as European Aspen. It's unrelated to maple. It was quite hard to source, I had to travel 30 miles or so to get it, and there are many lumber suppliers nearer to me than that. Here it is mostly used for paper and pulp. Dead easy to work, nice and white, polishes up well. The problem is the boards are no more than 4 or 5 inches wide, so you have to join several to get a decent panel. There are 4 in each of my shelves.

I decided to add the inlay to balance the crazy burl on the outside, otherwise the interior would have been too plain.

Peter, I'd love to get to the FogFest but it's going to be tough this time. Hopefully there'll be a sequel that I can attend.