Hi Folks, This storage for Piano books started out as a request from my wife who wanted something that would fit into the space at the side of the piano as seen. I have 3 kids learning the piano so decided it would need at least 3 shelves if not 4.

I wanted to do it a little differently and i also wanted to allow light into it and to be able to see the sides of the books too, in order to identify them more quickly.

At the time i was also reading a couple of books by the late James Krenov. I was taken by his philosophy on woodwork , something i like to think that i share. I was fasinated by the little spring catches he used in some of his detailed projects in the book so i decided to use something similar on the drawer i have. I decided to put a drawer on wooden hinge rather than the usual pull drawer, again, just to be different and as a challange too. I never did one like this before.

So it came into being. The drawer took longer than the rest of the cabinet due to the detail of getting the catch right.

I did a mock up first and carved out the little catch from ebony which is housed inside

the oak floor/base of the drawer. I then fine tuned the mechenism with the spring. ( the spring being taken from a pen. Funny article in Krenov’s book actually. I had to laugh. Anyone who read his book will know. I would highly reccommend it. He used to buy the cheap pens in the shop , take the pens apart in the shop and discard the whole pen and keep the springs, then walk out!! )

Anyway, i got my catch down to a T . 🙂 I have people trying to open the drawer, they tell me ‘its stuck’, and i go over, distract them a bit, then release the catch and open the drawer, its funny. Eventually i tell them the secret. Great fun with kids too!!

The curve of the drawer is laminated from american walnut. Again i made a former first to bent 4 individual strips of walnut for this. THe radius of the base of the drawer is taken from the centre of the ebony dowel i use as the hinge. This measurement is important when trying to get the turning arc correct.

The front little handle i made again from a carved piece of ebony. The took about 1 hour to make. Again i wanted something a little different.

  I used a water base laquer to finish it off to go with the oak floor!

 

Hope you like it.

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