Townsend Style Chest (or Bureau)
P. Michael Henderson
Above you see the Townsend chest (made 1765, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and my chest in it's present state. I'll change the picture as I make progress. I've changed the format of these pages so that the most recent posting is at the beginning instead of the end. Please send me an e-mail with any comments you may have. I'd appreciate an e-mail just letting me know you found my site, even if you don't have any comments about the chest - mike@mikes-woodwork.com
12/15/05 - Several people had told me that beeswax was not the best material for lubricating drawer runners. They recommended paraffin and I finally got around to buying some. I removed the beeswax with mineral spirits and rubbed the paraffin on the top, bottom and outside of the drawer sides. The paraffin really does work much better. The beeswax tends to stick while the paraffin does not. The drawers operate much better with the paraffin.
9/14/05 - I received the Horton brasses and installed them. I also put some beeswax on the drawer runners and on the inside of the chest where the drawers run to eliminate any racking that might be left. The pictures below show a couple of different views of the front and one of the back. This completes the project.
9/06/05 - I sprayed the chest with lacquer and ordered the hardware from Horton. I put three coats of lacquer on all of the chest but used "water white" lacquer which goes on thinner than regular lacquer - so the lacquer just adds a bit of shine to the chest without that "plastic" look so common with lacquer.
The drawers now work very well, without the racking I had experienced earlier. I don't know if this is due to the finishing materials, or if I just did a good job of adjusting the drawers, or what. But they now work well - I'm sure they would be completely acceptable to anyone using the chest. I'm going to put some beeswax on the runners and the side of the chest where the drawers would rack to see if this will improve things even further.
I brought the chest into my home and will install the hardware there when I receive it - if I left the chest in the shop, it'd collect shop rash. It'll take a week or so to receive the hardware. After I install it, I'll post a picture of the completed chest.
9/04/05 - I finished sanding the chest and put one coat of thin shellac on it as a sanding sealer. Next, I'll sand it with 320 and 400 sandpaper and then shoot it with water white lacquer. I'm going to aim for a low gloss finish that doesn't call attention to the finish but shows off the wood. I need to order my drawer pulls and will probably go with the Horton H-34s unless someone convinces me otherwise.
9/02/05 - I finally got the drawers working reasonably well and glued them up. I'm now working on the finishing - I've applied a coat of dewaxed shellac to most of the chest, except the blades. I need to trim the blades a bit to better match them to the blockfronts. Once I've got all that done, I'll shoot the chest with "water white" lacquer.
On a personal note, I'm a native of New Orleans and have family still living there. I'm happy to report that all of my family members are safe, although we don't know the status of some of their homes yet. I've been searching for a map which shows the extent of the flooding, especially in Jefferson parish. Even if their homes are untouched, it appears that it will be a long time before they will be able to return.
8/24/05 - Well, I finished carving the shells. I need to sand the convex shells a bit to smooth out some of the tool marks but the actual carving is now done! For this picture I put paint thinner on the wood so that I could see what the drawer will look like after finishing. I think cherry (which this is) is more difficult to carve than mahogany.
8/23/05 - Life has a way of sticking all kind of obstacles in the way of getting the carving done. However, I have started working on the concave shell and have made some progress. I still need to finish the rosette and the shadow line.
8/10/05 - I started working on a practice concave shell. The concave shell is easier than the convex shell, except that there's a lot of wood to remove. But once the wood is removed, shaping the flutes is quite a bit easier than carving the flutes of the convex shell. I'll do a bit more on this practice piece but will soon start on the actual drawer.
I discovered something that's not obvious before you actually carve the shells. If the blockfront innie and outties are made the same size, as I did, you wind up with a concave shell that is smaller than the convex shells. The convex shells overlap the outtie blockfront, making them larger than the outtie blockfront. But the concave shell is actually smaller than the innie blockfront - note in the picture below how the shell sort of sits within the innie blockfront. So when I carve my concave shell, I'll have to set it just a bit higher so that the tops of all the shells create a straight line. "You never really know a piece of furniture until you build it."
8/07/05 - I finished carving the two convex shells. They both need some smoothing in places but I'm going to start on the concave shell next. The centers came out okay - especially considering that I'm just learning to carve. If you look real close you'll find mistakes but at a normal viewing distance they look acceptable. See the close-up of the center of one of the shells, below. The black marks are sap inclusions in the wood. Cherry has a pronounced grain characteristic and the grain shows up where it is cut through. The picture would show the carving better if I had a side light instead of a direct head-on flash.
8/06/05 - I started back on the carving yesterday. Here's one of the shells with the center partially done. I still need to carve the center of the petals and do the pineapple crosshatching at the bottom. And then, of course, do the center of the second convex shell and all of the concave shell.
7/29/05 - My wife, Norma, was in the hospital for a week. She's home now, doing fairly well, but it'll be a while before I get back to carving the shells. It's just not something I feel like doing right now.
7/19/05 - Rather than start the carving of the center of the one shell, I decided to start carving the second shell so that I could do similar things at the same time. So I now have two shells with the flutes carved but the center not carved. I need to study the SAPFM article some more to fully understand how the centers are carved before I put tool to wood.
7/12/05 - I was sidetracked last week by some home issues that I had to take care of and didn't get to do much carving. However, I did finally get the flutes rough carved and will start on the center soon. Of course, this is just #1 of two - so I'll have to see if I can carve the second one to match this one. Carving cherry is a lot different than carving bass wood.
7/07/05 - I'm working on one of my convex shells in cherry. I had a false start and messed up on my first attempt in cherry. I was using Nora Hall's technique and it just doesn't work well on cherry. I dug out the SAPFM journal Vol 3, Art Peters article on carving the Newport shell, and followed his directions with better success. I also read the article in Fine Woodworking, which described the same technique as Art's article. I'm not finished yet but here's a picture of where I'm at. Of course, I still have to do one more convex shell and the concave shell so it'll be a while before I finish carving - then I can start sanding and finishing.
7/01/05 - I finished my first shell to a rough state. I wonder how our ancestors were able to get their shells so smooth. I'm fairly sure there was no sandpaper in 1765 so they must have used scrapers and maybe some alternative for sandpaper, like sharkskin. I'm not going to "finish" this shell since it can't be used - I'm going to start on the shells in cherry for the chest.
6/25/05 - We started carving a convex shell in class today, using basswood. Although I'm not finished with my shell yet, I find the carving not too difficult. I'm going to try to finish the basswood shell this week and start two convex shells in cherry. Of course, I'll have to scale the shell to fit my chest. I'll probably use the layout in the SAPFM journal and scale it to my drawer. I'll tackle the concave shell last - I'll have more experience carving by then so maybe I won't mess up the whole drawer front. I'll post a picture of my basswood shell in a couple of days.
Regarding the fit of my drawers on the chest, I'm going to try putting a "runner" just inside the drawer side, on the web frame, in an attempt to keep the drawers from racking. I'll let you know later how it worked and will post a picture of what I do.
6/12/05 - I'm in summer school at Cerritos College, taking a carving class and a turning class. We haven't started carving Newport shells yet, but should start in a couple of weeks. Soon I'll be able to start carving the shells for the chest.
I continue working on fitting the drawers on the chest. Although I've been able to get the drawers to fit and operate reasonably well, I really regret not using commercial drawer guides (like the Blum under drawer guides). No matter how much I adjust the drawers, they simply do not operate as smoothly as drawers with commercial guides. The drawers are wider than they are deep so they rack pretty easily. I had originally planned to use commercial guides but was convinced by several expert period furniture makers to go with the traditional approach. I think there's a school of thought that when you build a period piece you should only use the materials and techniques that were used in the original pieces. I can appreciate someone wanting to understand how our ancestors built things, and for that reason building using only materials and tools that were available during the period, but when you use modern tools, what is the purpose of limiting yourself in other ways? In other words, if you're going to use a jointer and planer to prepare stock, why not used commercial drawer guides (and other modern materials and techniques)? For that matter, if you're not going to publish on how our ancestors built furniture, why do it the "original" way. The piece you're building is a modern piece, based on (or inspired by) a period piece. Is the piece any better if drawer guides aren't used? I would answer "No." The person using the furniture will appreciate the ease of operating the drawers, the self closing feature for the last few inches, the built in drawer stop, and maybe a few other features of the drawer rails.
Maybe this attitude (of not using certain modern materials and techniques) is like a religion - some people just believe and logic has nothing to do with it.
5/5/05 - I attached the top and the top molding today and did some fitting of the drawers. Next, I need to complete the fitting of the drawers and glue them up (except the top drawer since it has to be carved). I'll also start sanding the chest. This summer I'm taking a carving course at Cerritos and will use what I learn to do the shell carving. I probably won't make any updates to this web page for a while.
On attaching the molding on the side of the chest - based on advice from Dennis Bork and Howard Steier, I glued the front portion of the molding and nailed the rear. I toenailed from the back of the molding into the case which eliminated any nail holes in the face of the molding.
Regarding the top, I left the top protruding in back about 3/8 inch. I had read that period furniture makers usually did this, perhaps to minimize the space between the case and the wall.
5/4/05 - I fabricated the top molding today. I used a 2 inch core box bit to cut the upper cove. Note that I went more than an inch into the bit which makes the cove elliptical instead of a quarter round. The astragal portion was done separately then glued on. The astragal was cut with a 3/16 beading bit and the lower cove was cut with a 3/8 inch cove bit. The two pieces were then glued together. I still need to do some more trimming and fitting.
5/2/05 - I did some experiments today to help me decide how to finish the chest. I used the bottom of the top because I wanted a large surface. I'd already done some samples with small pieces of wood but things look different when you use a large surface. I sanded the back of the top and first applied a solution of lye - two teaspoons to 16 oz of water. I applied this to the whole top. I wiped off the excess lye solution and allowed the top to dry. Then I applied a solution of brazilwood extract - one teaspoon to 16 oz of water - on half the top. I allowed this to dry, then neutralized the lye (whole top) with a weak solution of white vinegar in water - I didn't measure, I just put some vinegar in the bottom of the cup and filled it with water. Then allowed the top to dry. The result is as you see in the picture below. I found the brazilwood extract side to be too red. The lye side was acceptable, only darkening the cherry as if it was already aged.
5/1/05 - I cut the profile in the top today. I used an ogee raised panel bit to get the major profile shape then used a 3/8 inch roundover bit on the remaining edges. Next, I start on the top molding. I'll probably do it in two pieces, one for the cove portion, and the other for the astragal edge below the cove. I'll then glue the astragal portion to the cove portion to make a single piece of molding. One thing I haven't figured out yet, and would appreciate your advice, is how to attach the molding along the side. The molding will be cross grain to the side so it needs to be attached in a manner that allows for the wood movement. My thoughts right now are to put a sliding dovetail for the rear and glue the front. Advice? michael.henderson@cox.net
The story of the chest continues here.