Thread: Dutch Pie Safe Build

Since moving into our apartment, and along with the furniture I built beforehand, I've pretty much furnished the whole place. Aside from our couch (which I have no interest in making), our dining room suite (which is old-ish and we both really like) and a crappy rocking chair from IKEA that I may one day replace, it's all my furniture.

But there was one significant spot which needed improvement. Right as you walk into our apartment, there is this small wall which divides the entry room from the rest of the apartment. We kept our coats hanging there, and a small, two shelf stand that's sold by IKEA as a TV stand, but we used it for storing our most often used shoes and just general, miscellaneous junk. You know that one drawer in every home, usually in the kitchen, where you just keep crap? Things like tape, spare keys, notepads, rubber bands, and whatever else you can't be bothered to think about go into it. It's the "junk drawer", for lack of a better word. We needed one of those.

So I set out to select a furniture form which was nice to look at as the first thing you see in our home, had a big drawer for junk, and had doors either over or under the drawer where we could store shoes.

I settled on a Pie Safe.

For those unfamiliar, a Pie Safe is a somewhat dimunutive cabinet, most commonly a single drawer over two doors consisting of a frame and panel construction where the panels are perforated tin which has been punched into some form of design. There are plenty of examples on Google images. They vary, of course, with some having two drawers, some being a 'high chest' style with the doors at eye level, and with a variety of tin panelling, including some which have the panels on the sides and front.

I designed one which would be simple but would include subtle, elegant embellishments. My plan was to punch the tin myself.

It took me a while to decide on the wood. I was initially thinking I would use Queensland Walnut and copper panels, but I thought that might be a bit much, and I wasn't sure Walnut was the best choice. It's too elegant and too highly valued. It just seemed wrong for such a simple, borderline "rustic" (he coughed, shuttering at the very mention of the "R word") piece of furniture.

And then it came to me like a lightbulb. In the largest lot of wood I bought in Aus, there were around seven boards simply labeled "Wattle". The boards were 250mm wide but only 20mm thick. They had been planed to what was likely 3/4" at the time, and then allowed to sit and further distort and dry for decades. So I was accepting a challenge by using them. I would have to design a piece of furniture with stock finished at around 17mm. I had no post material, and I'm not into veneering, so this was significant.

For those who are skimming, I could use your help identifying this wood at the end of the post

Challenge accepted.

The panels for the sides, bottom, and top were glued up in the Wattle species. I usually use American White Ash (Fraxinus americana) as a secondary material, but it's bleach white and I wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing when I opened the doors, so I went with Red Oak (Quercus rubra).

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I glued up what would be the false top, the drawer divider, and three movable shelves. The shelves were set aside.

At this stage, I cut the joinery for the sides and top. The bottom and the drawer divider would be joined with rebate and dado joints. I'm not a huge fan of these joints. There's a lot of glue surface, but it's crappy. As a result, I decided I needed to dovetail the false top in and use a full frame and panel back to add strength.

Some progress shots:

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Before gluing up, I had to cut the embellishment curves on the base of the two sides. These would be a narrower version of the same curve across the front. I did this using graph paper for scaling, carbon paper for transferring to template material, then a bandsaw, rasp, spokeshave, and scraper for shaping the curve.

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I think this is a good method for ensuring you achieve a mirror image. I was really happy with the results.

Following glue-up, I had this:

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The drawer would ride on the divider formed by the lower oak piece. The sides of the drawer slot are formed by nailing two strips down using cut nails. I know that this is pretty unorthodox. Nonetheless, I did it for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to add some rigidity and heft to the piece. This is one of the ways in which I overcame the thin, Wattle stock problem. Also, building a web structure to support the drawer just kind of seemed harder and more time consuming. Red Oak is relatively cheap here, so I figured why not?

At this stage, the front of the cabinet looks kind of crappy with the obvious, exposed through rebates. I predicted this and planned accordingly of course. The plan is to effectively attach a front facade to the piece which would give the piece shape, define the divisions, and include the front embellishment curve at the base. I could do this in two ways, as I saw it. I could simply cut a bunch of pieces to fit and build the facade up using glued on strips of wood. I almost went with that, but I chose the harder, stronger method of actually building a full mortise and tenon framework facade and gluing it all on in one go. I was happy I did. It turned out really well.

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Now, you probably see where this is going. The top would be screwed onto the false top. I was pretty proud of myself at this point. Not only did I remember to drill and coutersink the screw holes on the underside of the false top, I also had the foresight to realize I needed an incredibly small screwdriver to attach it. Never fear. I simply made one. My toolmaking skills aren't up to IanW's level, but I got the job done:

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I then made the doors using a full mortise and tenon framework construction, leaving a rebate in the back side where the tin panels would be attached later. I failed to document this, but I used a hollow chisel mortiser and hand cut the tenons. They turned out well.

I chopped the hinge mortises using the "just hit it the same amount with every whack" method:

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Sidenote: When your hinges are as wide or wider than your stock, it makes it way, way more difficult to get your doors flush. Having a back side on your mortise is a real boon.

Then I built the drawer. Fairly straightforward, full dovetail construction:

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I chose the porcelain knobs because, for whatever reason, that's what this piece reminds me of. I have some sort of associative memory of seeing these in old farmhouses with porcelain knobs. So that's what I went with. It's not for everyone, but neither is this cabinet... These were reclaimed antiques. When the brass tarnishes and the porcelain begins to yellow I think they will really look the part.

At this stage, the time had finally come to punch the tin. By now, I was dreading it. I made a coffee table last year which included weaving. I'd never done any weaving so I just set to it and by the time I was done I said "Wow, that was really easy! And fun! And in no way inflicted suffering on my body!".

Not the case with punched tin.

This is hard. It's hard on the ears, hard on the hands, hard on the shopmates, and just, generally speaking, hard to get it right. I started with 24 gauge "tin" (which I'm sure is just some kind of steel) and eventually called back and asked what the thinnest they had was. I went back and bought 26 gauge tin. That made it easier, but not much. This is a very time consuming process. All up, I probably spent a full eight hours on it, including a couple of practice runs. Nonetheless, I got through it. Here are some progress shots:

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I chose a mirror image of the same image. This is an image I created using some ideas from other, old panels, and also from the botanical drawing of a very specific flower. My girlfriend did her PhD research on grasslands ecosystems in Western Australia's Wheat Belt, and her favorite flower was Rhodanthe manglesii. It's got a handful of common names like the "Everlasting Paper Daisy" and the "Mangles' Everlasting" among others. I thought it would be indiscernible, but then I posted those images on Instagram and one of her former colleagues actually recognized it. I must admit, that was vindicating...

A note on tools... I started with the handmade thing you see in the photo above. This is just a turned handle bolstered on each end with a piece of carbon steel rod running completely through it. I did about half of the punching with this, before getting frustrated with it and just sacrificing a nail set. The turned handle kept sliding around on the piece of steel and glue had no effect. I was expending tons of energy just gripping the thing. By placing a nail set in my drill and rotating it against my grinder, I was able to create a very sharp point. This punch worked exponentially better. The hammer was sold as a file maker's hammer at an antique store in Tennessee. I could not possibly think of a better hammer to use. It was truly ideal.

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I attached the panels into the rebates using some old, household tacks which I assume are from the 1960s to nail down mitred strips. Gotta love that New Old Stock smell...

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So the top got screwed on, and I got to use my screwdriver... mega win.

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Then I built the frame and panel back and predrilled the nail holes. That was about a day's work.

The shelves would be supported by dowels turned with shoulders. I did this because I want to be able to move them later. If so, I'll just drill new holes. I didn't want to do the "strip of holes down each side" thing.

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After the shelves were fitted well enough, I nailed on the back:

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And then attached the doors and voila:

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And there you have it.

Now I could use some help...

I always like to comment on the wood I use so as to share my thoughts on its workability for others. The problem is, I don't know what species this is! So hopefully, after describing this wood, someone would be willing to help me out.

It's fairly light, and fairly workable. Heft-wise I would compare it to something like American Walnut or Queensland Maple. It's a bit brittle, which is something I associate with Australian Blackwood, but it doesn't have that stringy feel that some Blackwood can. It machined really well, sanded well, and planed and scraped well. Aside from the brittle, unpredictable nature of it, I would call it a really great wood to work, and beautifully colored taboot.

It was also as Wattle, and I think if it was Acacia melanoxylon it would've said Blackwood. It also came from Queensland, and it is my understanding that Blackwood doesn't grow to large sizes that far north. To get 250mm wide quartersawn stock out of the tree, it would need to be quite large. It also has the wavy, almost curtain-like grain patterning that the large, rainforest trees often have when quartersawn.

Also, for what it's worth, it was in a large lot of wood which primarily was sourced from the Atherton Plateau/Tablelands region, so it is likely it also came from there.

Based on that, and what I can discern from the interwebs, I feel somewhat confident narrowing it down to three species of Acacia. A. melanoxylon, A. mearnsii, and A. aulacocarpa. If I had to put money on one, I would say A. aulacocarpa.

But what do you guys think?? If anyone is capable of chemical/genetic wood ID I would be happy to send you a sample. I contacted a consultant in Brisbane and he wanted AU$200, and I just can't pay anything like that.

Ok, hope you enjoyed the read. That's it for the pie safe.

My next build, as you might expect, is a shoe safe for storing our pies.

Cheers,
Luke