I finished yesterday fitting the three bottom drawers to the Campaign Secretary I’m building and I started in on building the gallery – it’s all dovetailed now. I’d be quite happy with my progress if I weren’t about to get into a car. For the next 10 days I’ll be on the road, taping a … Read more
After much searching, purchasing and examination I settled on a suite of hardware for the Campaign Chest I’m building for Popular Woodworking Magazine. The hardware arrived this week, and I could not be more pleased. While hardware is always one of the most important aspects to a piece of furniture, it is even more critical … Read more
When it comes to building chests of drawers, most examples I’ve seen since the 18th century and later have drawers that graduate from top to bottom. Bigger drawers at the bottom; smaller drawers at the top. This arrangement wasn’t always the case: 17th-century chests of drawers would commonly alternate shallow and deep drawers – deep, … Read more
One of the hardware vendors that is always on my short list is Whitechapel Ltd., which offers a lot of quality, hard-to-find pieces. So after some digging through the company’s catalog and web site, I purchased some samples of campaign-style hardware to take a look. Overall, these English-made brasses are excellent. The pulls are heavy … Read more
My credit card is groaning a bit thanks to all the hardware samples I’ve been ordering to find a selection of quality brasses for some Campaign-style pieces I’m building. Today I received a chest pull that I ordered from Londonderry Brasses of Cochranville, Penn. I have some other pieces on order from Londonderry, but this … Read more
When I took my first woodworking class in 1993 I was gung-ho to learn two things: through-tenons and through-dovetails. At the time I was intoxicated by Arts & Crafts furniture and exposed joinery. For many woodworkers, I suspect that exposed joinery sends a message: This piece is made well. It’s not made using corrugated fasteners, … Read more
While Horton Brasses has agreed to produce some custom pieces of campaign hardware for the chest/secretary I’m building for Popular Woodworking Magazine, that doesn’t squelch my desire to see what other makers have on offer. So I ordered a load of campaign brasses from Ansaldi & Sons of Hudson, N.H. The company has a wide … Read more
