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13th September 2020, 09:23 AM #1Senior Member
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Mahogany shelves for a c.1850 Parisian bookcase
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I sourced some sawn Mahogany nominally 250x28mm from Otto's some months ago, to make an additional 7 shelves for a glass doored Mahogany bookcase, which only had 5 shelves. The existing shelves someone suggested may be Manchurian Oak.
I had had the boards surfaced on one side by Otto's, as I had intended to take them down to the 23mm thickness of the existing shelves. I rigged up a quick and dirty router sled, on my welding table. I had bought a Torquata SP-500-H, 50mm diameter router bit to make the milling a bit quicker.
router bit.jpg
The router bit cut quite well, minimal track marks. But due to the diameter, a relatively short 1/2" shank, and wanting to keep it reasonably engaged in the collet chuck, the dust shroud wouldn't fit on the Festool OF 1400. There is mahogany dust/shreddings EVERYWHERE. Still, I had built the welding room to make a mess in, just wasn't thinking of wood dust at the time.
router sled_1.jpg
router sled_2.jpg
Once router planed to thickness, and sanded to an initial 120 on the Rotex, I hand planed the front edge to a very flat bullnose. I had bought another router bit specifically for the job, looking for a consistent profile on each board, but the shape was way too pronounced. So I resorted to hand planing them with a number 5. On the first board I just worked down to a pencil line, but hard to see mounted vertical in the vice.
So I dragged out a pencil line on both sides, 3mm from the edge, and green taped to the line. One of those woodpecker t-squares with the holes in came in handy.
marking.jpg
This worked really well. The tape just gave a bit of fuzz once the plane passes kissed it, and sometime a bit of green up through the plane throat flagged far enough.
edge tape_1.jpg
tape fuzz.jpg
I just worked to establish the outermost radius, upwards to the centre, which was just slightly flat. More of a fingernail profile than a bullnose.
edge tape_2.jpg
Hand sanded with 120 grit on a hard-ish block to smooth the residual plane track transitions, then Mirka 240/3620/400 on a soft Mirka block. I wiped a pass of orange Shellac (F&W) to see what the final result might look like, and I was pleased with the result.
mirka.jpg
shellac edge.jpg
All 4 corners of each shelf are notched. Just simple 15x15mm square notches on the back corners, but the fronts are bit more profiled, to clear the swing of the door. A template from an existing shelf, and a bit of cautious cut and test fit, refine and re-test was called for. The 7 boards (nominal 1.2m lengths) were c.$650 AUD, so I wanted to avoid buggering one. I got brave after initial hand sawing, and resorted to the Jigsaw - which is not necessarily consistent with the prior sentence. But all went well. A slight touch up with a rasp in a couple of places (lovely new Aurious arrived last week), and good to go.
first two.jpg
I am undecided about what finish to use. Probably some blonde shellac flakes I have. Or maybe Tung Oil? I don't want any residual capable of leaching into books put on the shelves, so probably a light wipe of the blonde shellac. The existing shelves are a bit too smooth both sides, to not have been finished at some point. At first I thought it was probably just abrasion polishing from use over the last 170 years, but it looks a bit too consistent for that. And how much polishing can happen from taking books in and out occasionally? I tried a bit of metho and white paper towel, but got no colour back at all. I am wondering if some idiot decided to poly wipe them in recent years. There is no guarantee that the shelves are those originally fitted to the cabinet of course. They tend to get pirated along the 'supply chain'.
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14th September 2020, 08:59 AM #2SENIOR MEMBER
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Hi node105
Is a Parisian bookcase a bookcase with glass doors and a drawer at the bottom?
Cheers Yvan
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14th September 2020, 04:57 PM #3Senior Member
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Hi Yvan,
Not quite, it is a Mahogany bookcase from the area of Paris, stylistically Louis XVI. Glass doors, no drawers. Very lovely hand rolled glass, when you catch the light from the right direction, the ripples in the glass can be seen.
241 x 31 cm, 237cm height.
bookcase - 1.jpg
bookcase - 2.jpg
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15th September 2020, 08:55 AM #4SENIOR MEMBER
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Thanks for the pics node105! Beautiful, most handsome in its simple lines.
The Minister for Everything aka SWMBO wants one
Cheers Yvan
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