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| Roman Numeral: | Signed & Dated | This chest of draws was made for our first son from black cherry. This was my first larger piece built in the 1/2 garage workshop I had at the time. The shop was heated with propane as needed and had to allow our vehicle in at night. I managed to complete it just two months before his birth. The next year the Pensylvania German inspired flowers were painted on the draw fronts.
The chest had a one piece back that would shrink each winter and cause the draws to bind. I hadn't learned about wood movement and how to deal with it. The back finally developed a crack which stopped the binding problem but looked just awful. In late 2008 I re-made the back retaining the original back as part of a panel-in-frame assembly that allows the panels to move within a frame. Especially important was to keep the original signing and dating portion of the old back. The flowers were also removed from the draw fronts as no one ever liked them. Aside from the color difference of the new wood and newly exposed wood the chest looks great. The color differences will even out as the new wood catches up to the aged wood. All new work was finished with a waterborne acrylic finish. |
| Desc: | Chest of Draws - Cherry | |
| Year: | Jun-1975 | |
| City: | Greendale | |
| State: | WI |