Thread: Let's restore some dignity to this cedar chest

I've now made all the case runners.
I'll nail these to the sides through the original nail holes. No glue will be used, it's a sure way to split the sides.

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Glueing the plough strips to the finished drawer.
You can NEVER have too many clamps

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One of the large drawer fronts has both knob holes chewed out of the back. I don't know why this happened, but it made it impossible to tighten the knobs with the knob screws.
I chiselled out a section around the holes, flattened the area with a router plane, and will glue in pieces of cedar.

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I'm hoping to get the case built this weekend.

Looking good, but know what you mean re having to fix up all those small little problem areas.

I too still have a couple of such issues to finish off with my chest's restoration, especially now as I have finished off the polishing of the chest frame & drawers.

Looking forward to seeing how your chest all comes together, especially given how much re-construction work has had to be done. I have got that ahead of me with my cedar box restoration project.

The backing inserts are finished. Planed off and drilled.

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I've nailed the drawer bottom into the small drawer and given it a coat of shellac.

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I put together the large drawers, glued in the runners and given them the first coat of shellac.

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I'm building the case now. I'll post some pics soon.

Now that the chest is somewhat together now, I started to tune the case runners to get the drawers sitting nicely.

I glued in the drawer stops.

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Tweaking all the runners.

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The drawers are sit properly in the case now.

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I must have removed a couple of kilos of nails from this chest, but I've already put about half a kilo back

I'm currently cutting out the foot blocks that will have the bun feet doweled into them.
I'm going to stain the sides soon. I'll do this while I have good access to the sides and won't get stain all over the other pieces.

Really impressed with your reconstruction work on this project. It is going to look really nice once finished. Given the sides are kauri, what stain were you planning to use, given the front is cedar ? I too next need to cut the blocks for the bun feet for my chest. Given the size of the hole I need to cut, for the dowel, again how do you achieve this. That is do you have a large enough drill piece on your drill press or is this a job for the good old brace and bit. That is what I was planning on doing for mine.

Originally Posted by Horsecroft88

Really impressed with your reconstruction work on this project. It is going to look really nice once finished. Given the sides are kauri, what stain were you planning to use, given the front is cedar ? I too next need to cut the blocks for the bun feet for my chest. Given the size of the hole I need to cut, for the dowel, again how do you achieve this. That is do you have a large enough drill piece on your drill press or is this a job for the good old brace and bit. That is what I was planning on doing for mine.

Thanks.

It's been a long process.

I'll be using the same stain that I used for the knobs and bun feet. I use my metho brush wash, which is just metho with a bit of shellac in it, and mix it with red and brown ochre (artists pigment) until I get to a reasonable colour.

The feet have 25mm dowels turned onto them. I'll be using a brace and auger bit. It'd be easier with a 25mm speedbore in the drill press, but where's the fun in that

Hi all ...

I've given the sides a rub with the ochre mix.
They should look fine under a good coat of polish.


Before and after.

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I've now built the top case runner/dust cover for the chest.
This has to be installed at the same time as nailing on the backboards. The runners are nailed to the backboard for support at the back.

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I should have the whole thing together tomorrow.

I'm getting pretty close now.

The backboards are on and the runners are working nicely.
Another half kilo of nails added

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I've built the foot blocks, drilled the holes, and rounded the corners of the front ones.

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Nailing on the foot blocks. I won't glue the bun feet in yet, as I need as much stability as possible when it comes time to plane the top.

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The poor old top has a fair bit of ... um ... character. I'll need to plane it because the caustic strip has bleached away a lot of the colour.
It's fairly cupped, so I'll need to nail it down before I can start.

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It was jointed very well, but I'll re-joint it because there is a lot of paint that has seeped down in the join and it's impossible to scrape or clean it without messing up the seam. It must be clean wood for the glue to hold.

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All glued up.
Next job is to nail down the top and grab out the trusty smoother.

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Damn fine work happening here Thumbthumper. Wish I had your workshop though for my projects.

Was most interested to see you rounded one of the corners of the your mounting blocks. Is this a traditional thing to do, or was it something you liked. I need to get this stage done on my project too, and while on my large chest I am currently finishing off I will probably keep the blocks square, for my small chest (like yours) this could be an excellent detail to incorporate. Have learnt much from your work/pictures. Thankyou for documenting this.

I also really like the colour you managed to get into your feet. Once again I take it the red ochre mix. I have only been lightly sanding my feet so far and was going to experiment with some stains, but perhaps I too should go and grab some artists red ochre to help build up colour first.

Well done with the top, I can certainly see this was needed. Starting to get close to finishing all the construction work on this project. It sure is going to be a lovely chest of drawers once more to enjoy and use. A far cry from what you started with.

Originally Posted by Horsecroft88

Damn fine work happening here Thumbthumper. Wish I had your workshop though for my projects.

Was most interested to see you rounded one of the corners of the your mounting blocks. Is this a traditional thing to do, or was it something you liked. I need to get this stage done on my project too, and while on my large chest I am currently finishing off I will probably keep the blocks square, for my small chest (like yours) this could be an excellent detail to incorporate. Have learnt much from your work/pictures. Thankyou for documenting this.

I also really like the colour you managed to get into your feet. Once again I take it the red ochre mix. I have only been lightly sanding my feet so far and was going to experiment with some stains, but perhaps I too should go and grab some artists red ochre to help build up colour first.

Well done with the top, I can certainly see this was needed. Starting to get close to finishing all the construction work on this project. It sure is going to be a lovely chest of drawers once more to enjoy and use. A far cry from what you started with.

I've seen foot blocks that are square, and some that are rounded on the corners (only at the front of the chest). I have a small cedar chest that has rounded blocks, and I have a massive cedar chest that had square blocks all round. It seems to mirror the base of the chest (my large chest has a square base and my small chest has a round molded profile like this chest).

Having said this, I chose to make rounded foot blocks for this chest because I could see the age mark outline from the original blocks underneath. That made the decision simple

The pigment mix (which uses both red and brown) was used to colour secondary timber to emulate the cedar, which was getting scarcer.
Are your turned feet cedar? I can't quite tell in the photo.
If they are, what I would do is either coat them in a Potassium Dichromate mix and put them in the sun (a few times), or wash some 'dirty' polish over them (or both).
Potassium Dichromate is an oxidizing agent that is really good at darkening woods such as cedar and mahogany. I understand that not everyone has it in their shed
If you have some old bits of furniture with original polish on them, you can scrub at them with steel wool and metho, and make a dirty polish mix. It blends cedar very well.

If your feet are pine, go ahead and purchase red and brown pigment. Mix it with metho, and make your own stain. The pigments will last for years and years.

Sorry for my rambling, I get passionate about colonial furniture and restoration techniques

Originally Posted by Thumbthumper

I've seen foot blocks that are square, and some that are rounded on the corners (only at the front of the chest). I have a small cedar chest that has rounded blocks, and I have a massive cedar chest that had square blocks all round. It seems to mirror the base of the chest (my large chest has a square base and my small chest has a round molded profile like this chest).

Having said this, I chose to make rounded foot blocks for this chest because I could see the age mark outline from the original blocks underneath. That made the decision simple

The pigment mix (which uses both red and brown) was used to colour secondary timber to emulate the cedar, which was getting scarcer.
Are your turned feet cedar? I can't quite tell in the photo.
If they are, what I would do is either coat them in a Potassium Dichromate mix and put them in the sun (a few times), or wash some 'dirty' polish over them (or both).
Potassium Dichromate is an oxidizing agent that is really good at darkening woods such as cedar and mahogany. I understand that not everyone has it in their shed
If you have some old bits of furniture with original polish on them, you can scrub at them with steel wool and metho, and make a dirty polish mix. It blends cedar very well.

If your feet are pine, go ahead and purchase red and brown pigment. Mix it with metho, and make your own stain. The pigments will last for years and years.

Sorry for my rambling, I get passionate about colonial furniture and restoration techniques

No no, your ramblings speak my language and your advice is really appreciated. I too love colonial furniture and appreciate the quality of the pieces, their construction and therefore the required techniques to restore and/or conserve such pieces. My antique collection includes a significant level of cedar furniture, the majority colonial though some victorian. My home was built in 1850 and includes a mix of cedar, baltic, huon and kauri joinery. The doors in the main part of my home are two panel but immensely thick baltic (never seen such internal doors ever). I also have a 1825/26 Regency farmhouse, which is heritage listed, was nominated for the National Estate, and a significant part of the joinery in this house is cedar, 6 panel doors, architraves, window reveals, skirtings etc. Don't get me started as I probably could write a book on the restoration of both these houses.

So to answer your question, the feet I had turned are cedar so I will go with your advice, one question though where does one obtain potassium dichromate from, apart from perhaps a laboratory ?? which I possibly could manage given my work has a comprehensive NATA accredited laboratory.

I hear what you say re the mounting blocks, on both my very large cedar chest of drawers they are/were square. Not sure re my small cedar and pine chest. Will have to investigate. But yes in this instance I totally agree with the decision you took as you have replaced what was original per the design on your chest of drawers. Might just have to invest in a spokeshave, and a decent plane or two. Mind you a decent work bench and vice equally would come in handy.

I also like the dirty polish technique. I am familiar with that process, as have used it also to blend in repairs. A bit like incorporating wood cutting particles into putty to fill holes in. So many little tricks to getting the appearance just right.

Cheers Dave

This has been a great read so far. What sort of shine are you considering giving this.

Dave,

I can only dream of home like that.
My wife and I have pretty much decided that we will retire in Hobart (sooner rather than later hopefully).

I have never bought K₂Cr₂O₇
My FIL gave me some crystals that I have had for years. I made up a solution (dissolved in water), and have been using that.

I do notice that it can be bought online.

Potassium Dichromate Patina : Adelaide Moulding & Casting Supplies

It's not a very nice chemical and needs to be treated with respect. It does work well though.

If you're going to continue to restore furniture, you'll be amazed at how much you will use a plane.
A spokeshave is handy but not used as much.
You can start with a #4 plane and a few chisels. This is a very slippery slope though (see the hand tool forum) .