After years of woodworking I have decided to venture into veneering. I plan to build the William & Mary chest shown in the attached photo from one of my wife’s magazines. The photo caption is not much help, it only indicates that it is an antique.
I believe the drawer fronts and probably the top are a walnut burl veneer but I am unsure of the border around the drawer fronts. Satinwood seems to be a common wood for a contrasting border but this seems to be darker unless it has been stained.
Does anyone have an opinion on the border veneer? Thanks for any help.
Replies
Walnut and maple were two of the primary woods used in the William & Mary period, they also used fruitwood of different types. Often the lumber was local, rather than imported tropical. There isn't enough detail on the picture to make an identification. Maple is a sharp contrast and also strong for edges.
Veneer Identification
hammer1, thanks for your reply. Just in case you did not open the photo in a larger window, you can by simply clicking on the image. The more I have looked at the photo the more I wonder if it might be mahogany? If the drawer borders are maple they must have stained them because the color difference is subtle which I really like.
Any further thoughts?
If the piece is from the period, it is likely that a maple border would have darkened considerably over nearly three hundred hundred years. Maple can get quite a bit darker over time.
The walnut would have lightened considerably as well Reproduction W&M often would stain the border to make the contrast look more appropriate to an older piece. In fact, some makers of reproduction W&M would bleach the walnut with two part bleach to remove most of the color and then restain the bleached walnut shades you might see on the period pieces.
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