Israel Martin Describes The Process Of Making A Small Cabinet Hand
I love using quartersawn French oak because it is quite a hand-tools-friendly wood, so is really well suited to my work. Recently, I had to make a small cabinet for a bathroom that would also be used as a shelf and I decided to make it from French oak. I made the carcass with through dovetails and sliding dovetails and then added three drawers. I had some rare wood offcuts that Garrett Hack sent me a few years ago and I was looking for a chance to use them, so I took the opportunity to use one small piece of an unknown wood to make the drawer pulls.
Making the carcass
I began by planing a piece of quartersawn French oak and then ripping it in two. I used these pieces to make the top and bottom and the two sides of the carcass. They were joined with through dovetails and then I started working on the drawer divisions. I made sliding dovetails to securely join them with the top and bottom. To make the males, I used a very special sliding dovetail plane that Hernan Costa, a great furniture maker and toolmaker, made for me a couple of years ago.
To make the grooves I used the plough plane and simply used small pieces to cover the small cut left by the plough plane at the ends. If done with care and if the right pieces are chosen, this method works great and is much faster than making stopped grooves. I made the back with a piece of quartersawn cherry. I fitted it into the grooves and also used brass screws to fix it to the divisions.
Making the drawers
The drawers were made from quartersawn maple. In order to get the correct width I bookmatched the maple pieces. I made every piece to fit in its exact place; I like the drawer front to fit really tightly in its place before making the joinery. The goal is that, after I make the drawer, I have to carefully plane it to make it fit in its place. When this was done, I made the drawer backs and joined them with sliding dovetails. After I glued up the drawers, I carefully veneered the fronts with shop-made ripple sycamore veneers.
Drawer pulls
I normally make drawer pulls with my small lathe but in this case I wanted to add something more interesting to the piece. I looked for some interesting woods in a pile of offcuts that Garrett Hack sent me a few years ago and found some rare wood – I don’t even know what species it is. I shaped these small pulls with rasps and files.
Pulls are normally the part of the piece that people touch and I wanted to make them comfortable to use even with just one finger. I fitted them in a recess at the top of the drawer and secured them with 2mm holly pins. They add a nice detail when you open the drawers.
The inside trays
I like to add small useful details, and in this case I made a simple dovetailed box that goes inside the middle drawer. The box is made from continuous grain maple with quartersawn cedar of Lebanon for the bottom. I glued the pieces as if they were plywood because the tray is very narrow and wood movements won’t affect it too much.
I like to add small useful details, and in this case I made a simple dovetailed box that goes inside the middle drawer.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ISRAEL MARTIN