I felt in need of some practice to “tune-up” my hand tool skills.  My planes were living in an old dresser – a constant pest to have to get in and out the old worn drawers and their protective socks, always behind whatever piece I was working on when I needed one, there was a space on the workshop wall……..

……and the October 2008 FWW “Hand Tool Skills” issue arrived in the mail.  On page 106 Mike Dunbar had a “9 joints to practice” piece – building a colonial cupboard.  I live in a colonial house.  I needed the practice.

Essentially these are his techniques for that piece.  I  re-dimensioned the cupboard to accommodate all my planes, the single door split in two to make passing the cupboard easier in the workshop and to reduce the load of a large door on the simple hinges.  This also reduced the amount of expansion the floating panels in the doors would exert on the door frames in the humid summers – allowing me to split the float over two doors and reduce the chance of a gap in dry weather.   I skipped the bracket base as it was going on the wall and added two large stretchers blind mortised into the back to carry the load of hanging it on the wall.  I also skipped making the moldings and just used simple beveled trim.  A little more robust in the workshop.

Poplar and Cherry hand resawn, hand jointed and planed from rough boards.

Tremont cut nails and Acorn colonial hardware.  A little polyurethane glue on the rabetted shelf ends for long term stability.  Finish hot paste wax – hand rubbed.

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