In Shop Blog, Techniques

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“Now let us drink to the success of our hopeless endeavor.”
— Russian dissident toast

My
plan for the June 2011 cover project was a 17th-century “book press”
from Samuel Pepys library – considered by many historians to be the
first glass-doored bookcase ever built. It is a massive example of
carved oak and many mullions.

And
it is also too much to accomplish in the next four weeks thanks to the
day job, a couple teaching gigs and the inevitable time bloat of any
project. (Anyone got a water pill?)

So
we switched gears a couple weeks ago and I am deep into the new cover
project. It is almost as ambitious as the Pepys press, has a cool story
behind it and has been on my list of projects to do for a long time.
More details soon.

— Christopher Schwarz


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Showing 9 comments
  • Kurt Schmitz

    Absolutely love that hybrid dovetail pic. An inspiration all by itself.

  • Jeremy

    Well everything has a room for improvement… This just proves that bookcase project is not an easy task. I remember my first project and I have to admit it was a disaster. It is a war between measurements and the materials. But as I go one and after wasting effort, time and money I finally got it.

  • Matthew Holbrook

    Chris:

    Isn’t your "day job" woodworking and woodworking journalism? If you enjoy woodworking and being an editor, would you really want to have a non-woodowrking day job?

    Matthew Holbrook
    reformedtruth@yahoo.com

  • Zach

    Civil War era field desk?

  • Charles

    Since the new project has yet to be promulgated, I presume we are implicitly being asked to guess at what it is.

    Is it half a bookcase? No, that doesn’t make sense… Half a bookcase that converts into a workbench (by flipping it on it’s side)?

    Ok, I stink at this guessing game… guess I’ll just wait for the details… feel free to roll with either of my ideas though.

  • Jared

    Definitional question, I always thought divided light windows were divided by muntins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntin) and mullions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullion) divided one window from another?

    – Jared

  • Al Navas

    Interesting layout at the corner, where I expected a half finger. I had to look twice, Chris.

    Al

  • BART JOHNSON

    Jefferson’s book boxes, via R.U. ?

  • Rob Cameron

    Is that some soft, supple pine I see?

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