China Cabinet Project

I have been spending most of my project time since early December on making a china cabinet to replace a crude built in in our dining room. It is ambitious and I don't know if I'll get it to look as planned.Here is a sketch of what I am aiming for.

The lower cabinet doors were something of a challenge. The quarter round pieces in the corners required me to develop a new hand tool to make the half round molding on the edge. You'll see what I mean if you enlarge the image.

 The molding on the straight pieces were easier, I made them with a plane produced by the Stanley Tool Co. about 60 years ago( and no I am not the first owner). Each door contains 9 pieces

and had 12 mortise and tenon ( deep groove and tongue) hand sawn and chiseled joints; one at each corner to hold the frame together and two at each corner to hold the quarter round piece in place.

It also took a long time for me to find the exact piece of board with the right figure in the grain for the central panel of each door. Finally last Sunday I got them glued together using traditional hot hide glue as was used two hundred years ago ( not by me). Cold temperatures meant the gluing had to be done in the kitchen rather than the unheated shop or barn. The doors are far from perfect and still need some touch up, but overall, I'll call them  successful.

The mahogany and the shellac finish combine to yield  a finish that is iridescent and that changes color and tone with the angle from which the wood is viewed.

I am now using scrap wood while practicing making up the sides and tops of the lower cabinet. With mahogany plywood going for $125 a sheet, and solid costing $10 a square foot, I need to get it right on the first try when I get to the real boards.