Recreating an 1820 Welsh Dresser (Part 1)

Описание: This year, as a Christmas present for my wife (Gina the Gorgeous), I’m in the process of recreating a Welsh Dresser from 1820.

This all came about because Gina needs more storage and display space for the family china (I didn't even know we had any family china). She found an awesome Welsh Dresser from 1820 for sale on the internet. There are only two little problems: (a) it’s currently in Wales and (b) I couldn’t even afford the shipping, let alone the Welsh Dresser itself.

Her next suggestion was, “Why don’t you build one for me? You’re always saying you are an engineer and you’ve got all sorts of tools in the garage!” It’s hard to argue with logic like that. Of course, having tools is one thing -- knowing how to use them is a different kettle of fish.

There’s an old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Fortunately, I know a friend called Bob who is a master carpenter. I now spend my weekends at Bob’s shop working on the Welsh Dresser. Bob assures me we will have the piece finished by Christmas (it just struck me that he’s never specified which Christmas). For each piece or type of joint or whatever, Bob first makes one out of a piece of scrap wood showing how it’s done, then I make one out of scrap poplar with Bob looking over my shoulder offering advice (“It works better if you use the sharp end of the chisel”), then Bob leaves me to work on his own stuff while I make a bunch more.

When I’ve mastered the task to Bob’s satisfaction, which typically coincides with my no longer being able to feel my fingers, I get to do the whole thing all over again, but this time working with scrap pieces of oak, which is much harder to work with, let me tell you (did I forget to mention that the Welsh Dresser is predominantly made out of oak, with some poplar (e.g., the sides of the drawers) and some hickory (e.g., the door and drawer knobs and the turned decorative pieces).

Finally, I get to start working with the real versions of the week’s items. Yesterday (as I pen these words) I started working on the drawers. For each drawer, the two sides are going to be attached to the front using half-blind dovetail joints (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovetai.... This video shows me working on one of the sides of one of the drawers.