POPULARWOODWORKING.COM ■ 45erything up tight. Hog out the waste
with a Forstner bit and clean up the
mortises with a chisel.
The keys are simple wedges made
to fi t the mortises. Start with thicker
keys (front to back) and plane them
down so that when they are driven
an equal amount of the key sits
above and below the mortise. Shape
the bottom and top any way you
like. A round-over is appropriate,
but I rather fancied the band-sawn
look on the African blackwood, so
I broke the edges with an apron
plane and left the texture on the top
and bottom. Per Stickley’s original
instructions, don’t drive the keys so
hard that it breaks out the end grain
of the tenon. A few taps past fi nger
tight is suffi cient.
Measure the exact depth and
length of the other shelves from the
dados and trim them to fi t. The end
grain will be visible, so shoot or sand
the grain to a fi nished state.
The routing jig comes in handy
one last time. Clamp the guide fi rm-
ly to the posts and use a handsaw
to trim the tops and bottoms of the
posts to length and parallel with the
fl oor. Trim one side and then use
that to mark the other. Chamfer the
edges and clean up the saw marks
with a sharp block plane.
Do any necessary fi ne-tuning
and break all the outer edges with a
block plane. Go over all the surfac-
es again with 220 sandpaper and
apply fi nish. There’s no reason to
strive for a mirror fi lm fi nish here.
I suggest a varnish or oil fi nish that
will wear well if you intend to dis-
assemble and reassemble the piece.
Tung oil or Danish oil built up over
several coats is a wonderful choice.
And that’s it! Find a place for this
magazine cabinet in your house
where life is apt to accumulate and
then get on with living. PW
James McConnell is a writer, photogra-
pher and hand-tool enthusiast based in
North Carolina.
17 Use a chisel to square up the
stopped dadoes for the shelves.
18 A router plane helps clean up
and fi ne-tune the depth of the
stopped dadoes.
19 Do a dry fi t with the top and
bottom shelves and make fi nal
measurements so you can cut the
rest of the shelves to size.17
18
19