John Taverner, Molendinar, QLD

Wenge Drawers
African wenge, Tasmanian oak
215 x 215 x 220mm

This is a ladies jewellery box consisting of four drawers.

Method of Construction
Construction is from five pieces of 9mm pine veneer five ply all cut square and to exactly the same size by using disc sander and hand smoothing plane.
The black strips and drawer fronts are wenge from Africa, also known as African/Congolese rosewood. The wenge is very dense and difficult to work due to the knurly grain and the strips were ripped from the board using a marking gauge and hand ripsaw. Then the strips were dressed to size using a disc sander, caliper rule and sanding on garnet paper glued to 6mm thick sheet of laminated glass.
Next step was to glue the wenge strips to the ply sides, back and top panels using water based glue. Then the edges of these panels were again dressed square and to same size. The wenge strips were then dressed flush smooth and in wind using garnet paper on laminated glass. Using a small electric router the edges of the panels were then rebated to form the small grooves at the edges, and the internal faces of the ply panels were rebated to allow for the assembly of the box. Again using the electric router, the inside faces of both sides were grooved to take the drawer runners, which were then glued in.
My next step was to glue the base, top, sides and back together to form an open box, making sure that all sections were kept square and flush at edges. Then the edge strips at top and sides of face were glued on, and the 6 x 6mm strips at the corners were glued in to form the grooves on all faces. The face strips and corner strips were then sanded flush and smooth using garnet paper on sheet of glass.
The base moulds were run and rebated on router and glued in position.
Feet were made individually then glued in position.
Drawers are made from Tasmanian oak and the front panels are formed from two pieces of wenge to gain the ribbon effect of the grain on their faces. Trenching, grooving and rebating to drawers were done with router and drawers were glued and pinned together at joints with small brads. Handles on drawers are solid brass.

Finish
The finish to the unit was achieved by two coats of Mirotone Spraylac semi gloss rubbed back between coats with a final rub down with a scotchbrite pad and O’Cedar Revive furniture polish.

Photos: Peggy Taverner