Curvy Cabinet: Bending Dovetails in Butternut
Apr 30, 2012
Allt the parts ready for glue-up
Last February I came up with a technique for adding extra thickness to the ends of case sides and then rounding the inside and outside edges to give a “bending dovetails” look to case joinery. I really liked the organic look and feel of the corners, so I wanted to give it another try with a nice close-grained wood. After completing a recent entertainment cabinet piece in butternut, I had a few scrap boards left over from the project – nothing longer than 30 inches or wider than about 6 inches. It has an interesting recycled copper latch and a symetrical design. Here are a few photos of the process and the finished cabinet.
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Allt the parts ready for glue-up
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Glue-up with a slow-set glue.
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A large washer and a small combination square helped out when adding the guide lines to the front face of the cabinet.
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I used a rasp to round the outside corners.
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The rasp again to clean up the inside curves. A small block plane and a flat chisel took care of the rest of the bevels.
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Here's the sculpted cabinet after I cleaned up the curves with sandpaper. The door is in place to see how it looks.
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The scuplting at the top of the door was added to solve a problem. I thought I had everything figured out as far as the pivot point for the brass rod and how the door would swing, but when I started to open the door it would hit the inside curve of the cabinet corner. Chamfering back the top of the door allowed it to open to 90 degrees before hitting the inside curve of the cabinet. Later I added copper belt rivits to the inside shelf cut-out to prevent the door from opening past 90 degrees and denting the inside curve of the cabinet.
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Here's the finished curvy cabinet. Check out the photos to see some of the building process and more details of the finished piece.
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A french cleat is mortised into the case sides to hang the cabinet, and three pine ship-lapped boards make up the back.
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Corner detail
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Here you can see how the butternut grain matches very closely. The glue line almost dissappears where the ends of the case were thickened with a piece of the same board. See "Bending Dovetails" link in the body text below for a better description of this process.
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Here you can see the door stops on the finished cabinet, keeping the door at 90 degrees.
Comments
That is one nice piece John. The bending dovetails (curved) is something I'm gonna have to try. Just wish I had some old recycled Butternut. That wood is reel purty>.
Hi garyprott,
I really like the butternut too, both in how it works and the color, but go ahead and give it a try with any wood you have. Just try to choose a carving-friendly wood. A harder wood won't matter so much for the outside corners and edges, but I think it will make a difference when carving the inside corners. Thanks!
John
John, this is exactly something I would love to learn to do and with your pictures, I'm going to try. I love this. Good job.
wow, what a beautiful technique! i'm quite the beginner, but i will try to work up to this! one question - i'm building my first hanging cabinet and i really like how you mortised the cleat into the sides. i am curious how thick is the cleat for this size of cabinet? is 1/2' enough or thicker? also how long is the tenon on the cleat? i guess you don't have a lot of material with the rabbet for the backboards, how much is enough? most all the designs i can find just screw the cleat on but this is so much more elegant! i just want to be sure it is strong enough. thanks for your help!
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