Shaker Nightstand with Inlay

 In 1st quarter of 2023, I took the Wood Working 2 class for the Mount Diablo Adult Education school.  The prior quarter I had taken WW1 from them.  The piece we were assigned to make was this shaker nighstand.  The were several reasons I took the class:  more exposure to woodworking machines (I have very few at home), completion of this class opens up access to all the other woodworking classes, I like the instructor, I like taking a class one night a week (breaks things up).

There were a few things at the outset that I decided to do differently:  

I was going to be selective in terms of what machines I would and wouldn't use.  For example, I just don't like routers and jointers, as such I wasn't going to use them and I would find other ways to get things done.  In my mind, this would be a bit closer to how I wanted to woodwork at home.

I was going to be nice wood.  It was going to be chery as that's my favorite.  The top was going to be nicely figured cherry (quilted cherry).  The sides would be plain cherry.  The legs would be rift sawn.  Since I knew what the project for this class was well in advance, I ordered the wood October so that it would have 3 months to equilibrate/dry.

I was going to see how quickly I could get it done.  I wanted the table but I wasn't going to be extra fussy over it.  I wanted just the simple wood to speak for itself.

How did I do?  Points 1 & 2 I stuck to.  Point 3 fell by the wayside.  I was making good progress on the piece and would have likely finished it up half way through the class.  Then, I saw two things that inspired me enough to do a change in plans.  On instagram, MeridithHeartFurniture showed some images with really nice inlay on the top of her piece (Meredith Hart (@meredithhartfurniture) | Instagram).  I wanted to do something similar.  Within a week of that, Tom MuLaughlin of Epic Woodworking did a video on putting cuffs on furniture (https://www.youtube.com/live/FUKjJFK177w?feature=share).  I liked that as well and wanted to do that.  Now, if I had planned to do these from the onset, I would have done it differently.  As such, it was a bit more difficult to do.  Overall, this was fun work that required great focus.  I probably spent 40 to 50 hours on the overall build without taking into account the inlay.  I think I spent 100+ hours to do all this inlay (150 hours total). 

I am happy with the way it came out.  The top is a bit more formal that I would normally build for myslef but overall I like it.  What I also discovered is that I really like Tried and True Linseed oil finish.  It's the second or third time I've used it.  I like the look it has with cherry.  For almost all of the pieces I've made over the last 7ish years, I've used shellac and have really liked the look of shellac.  I will likely finish more of my pieces with the Tried and True oil.  It's not an either or situation.  

The construction itself was straight forward.  I resawed the top to mirror the grain in the curly cherry.  The riftsawn legs came from on 8 quarter piece.  I had a few sides where it wasn't perfectly riftsawn so those were faced inside and in the back.

For the dovetails, I had the space between the tails at 1/8".  I like it and this is the narrowest gap I've used to date.  I think I want to make some future drawers with a 1/16" gap between dovetails to see how that looks.  For the back of the drawer, I did a more fancy (in my mind) connection.  I used a dado that that had through wedged tenons.  It came out nice as well. 

The top was connected with turn buttons.  

The inlay was all done by hand and most of it was from 1/8" thick ebony and figured maple.  I bought the inlay banding and forget it's components.  I also learned that if the edges of the inlay are black, it helps to hide any gaps.  I also like the drawer, sides, and back of the piece also have inlay.  It doesn't jump out but is a nice touch that gets noticed on a third look over.  

The finish as I mentioned was Tried and True partially polymerized linseed oil.  I did four coats of their varnish (0000 steel wool between each) and then two coats of their partially polymerized linseed oil with beeswax.  I followed the instructions to the letter with one exception - I wait a full week between coats.  In between coats, I took it outside to sunbathe and to darken the cherry.  It made a noticeable difference.  I figure a longer wait can't hurt, except it tries my patience.  All in all, I'm very happy with how it turned out.  Little by little my house is getting filled with furniture nicer than I could afford to purchase.

One final note.  I don't dislike a table saw but I don't think it's all the necessary for the way I wood work.  I have a 15" bandsaw and I can do a lot of things with it (once I finally get it set up - just got electrical upgraded in garage and will purchase dust collector soon).  In terms of cross cutting, it goes by really quick by hand.  This past weekend, I had a bunch of 12 to 14 foot boards I needed to cut to 8 foot lengths (they were 12" wide and 4 quarter thick).  I scribed around the board a 1/8" wide set of lines and sawed between them for this rough cut.  After a few, I decided to time it.  It took all of 2 minutes per board to cross cut.  If I were doing hundreds of boards, sure I would want somethign mechanized but for the half dozen to 10 boards I had to cut, by hand was adequate.  Again, I don't have anyting against anyone woodworking the way they want to.  I am trying to keep to a minimum set of machines and the bandsaw, planer, and mortiser are all I fell like I really need to work the wood.  To each their own.