I am new to this world of woodworking, but I have decided that one of my first projects will be a pair of mission end tables. I’m hoping they turn out firewood greade or better, and that from this first experience I will be able to move forward.
I like mission style furniture, GF likes the look of cherry wood. Would it be possible to create mission furniture out of cherry and have it look at all reasonable? I am thinking that with the right stains perhaps the look could be established, but of course the QS grain wouldn’t be there.
Also, more of a technical question (Just to show how little I know) when you work with QS wood, will the grain remain consistent, or do I need to worry about losing the flecks and texture if I cut it at less than 90 degrees to the original face? (At what point does it lose the QS appearance and go back to looking like regular – Flat Saw?- Oak?)
Thanks for your help,
Dagwood
Replies
Dagwood ,
Cherry wood is now offered as an option by such companies as Stickley , along with the traditional Oak , so there are no rules . If Blondie wants Cherry wood , then by all means make it beautiful . I did a job for a Dr. and his wife who had purchased some Stickley pieces in Cherry , but they needed a cabinet for a large screen and components , that was too custom to find in a showroom . The Cherry was stained dark Mahogany and matched the other pieces well . Are you milling boards from logs ? If not when you purchase Q sawn it is what it is. The rays of Q sawn will vary throughout the lumber even from the same tree , even on the same board . There is also some color change as well .
good luck hope this helps dusty
My understanding (or misunderstanding as the case may be) is that the flecks in QS are seen at a given angle to the growth rings of the tree. So that cutting at whatever angle to the face of any given board wouldn't necessarily produce more or less flecks. It's gotta be done in relation to the growth rings that you can see on the end of the board. I believe the flecks in Maple work the same way.
I believe there was a recent blurb in FWW on how to "adjust" the ray fleck by slight resawing Q sawn lumber. This was to better align the growth rings prepedicular to the face of the board.
I like mission style furniture, GF likes the look of cherry wood.
If your smart... I'd make it from Cherry or so it looks like it! To me a style of something is just that... A style.. Any wood will work.. It all depends on what YOU/Her like.
Unless you want exact copy of something... I like Mission style but not finished as it was...
EDIT:: I forgot... I'm old...
or do I need to worry about losing the flecks and texture if I cut it at less than 90 degrees to the original face?
YES.. ANY wood you cut however it was cut will change somehow... Just QS sort of forgiving.. Sort of...
Sorry.. I just have this REAL problem with 'look the same' with any
wood.. To me wood is wood and is ALWAYS different.. every inch of a tree is..
Edited 9/6/2005 7:31 pm ET by WillGeorge
I agree that any wood would do. It seems to me that Stickley (all of them) used the oak as well as cherry, walnut, and mahogany as well as others. I myself have used a combo of bubinga and birdseye maple for end tables. They are very eye catching and that is a very good thing at the shows I do.
Darrin
Just read a book on mission/stickley and I believe that they noted that there were some original stickley stuff in cherry.
I have to agree with what another poster was implying though. if its cherry, pleaze dont try to make it look like quartered white oak......
also like another said, there aint no rules.............
Many of Harvey Ellis' furniture designs for Stickley and others utilized cherry and maple as well as inlays. While Ellis' designs are not traditional craftsman/mission/prairie, they emphasize many of the same characteristics of simplicity and function. Visit the STickley Bros web site and you will see a great variety of styles as well as woods other than QSWO. Good luck with your project.
I built both our living room set, (with a stuffed oxblood color leather couch and arm chairs from NC), and the den and dinning sets in the craftsman style from cherry with some walnut accents, they look wonderful. Just don’t stain it, let it darken naturally in the sunlight. I used an oil, varnish, wax combination finish, about four coats and past wax to top it off. QS white oak fumed dark is a little heavy for my tastes, aged cherry is just right. Also look Thomas Mosers stuff, lots of craftsman style in cherry.
The original Stickley pieces were mostly made from quarter sawn white oak. Optional woods (from the catalog) were mahogany and maple. I've never seen an original piece made from cherry, but that doesn't mean it isn't acceptable. Moser's stuff and the current reproductions from L. & J.G. Stickley look pretty good to me.
I think the designs are strong enough that they look good in nearly any wood, except for plain sawn red oak. I just finished a reproduction of a Gus Stickley bridal chest in Jatoba and quilted birds eye maple. It looks a lot different than the original, but gets a lot of compliments.
my $.02
Bob Lang
http://www.craftsmanplans.com
Bob Lang,
The currant catalog from Stickley lists a lot of pieces available in both quarter sawn white oak and Cherry, plus they have a whole line of stuff made from mahogany back then and today Honduras (we used to call it cuban mahogany prior to Castro) mahogany was the premium wood.. (please do not for one second think that Phillipine Mahogany is anywhere near the same wood)
Let me put in a plug for Bob Lang, since bless his heart, he is too modest to toot his own horn. Mr. Lang has performed a real service for anyone interested in Craftsman furniture by authoring a collection of books (four , I think) in which he provides plans and scaled drawings of many of the most popular original Stickley pieces. If you are heading in this direction, you should look them over. His web site is noted in the tag line of his post. Also, last I heard, he had hired on with the magazine, Popular Woodworking.********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
To answer part two of your question: yes. The appearance of quartersawn wood depends on the direction of the rings visible on the end grain in relation to the face. 90 degrees is the ideal angle, but common definitions for quartersawn stock are from 75 to 90 degees.
Bob Lang
http://www.craftsmanplans.com
In the old days. woodworkers most likely used whatever wood species they could get locally that met they're design and engineering requirements. My guess is that stickley and his contemporaries found that oak was plentiful, white oak fumes quite easily, and quartersawn grain is strong and resists warping, which comes in handy on all those skinny pieces laid parallel to one and other, where any warping would be a visual disaster. The rays are simply a by-product of these choices and they quickly became the signature design feature. I wonder if stickley really intended this result. He certainly followed thru with this detail in most phases of what we consider mission style, even where plain sawn would suffice functionally, such as tops and aprons. I believe if the originators of the mission style had cherry forests in their back forty, quarter sawn cherry would have been perfectly acceptable. It's certainly pretty enough for the job.
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