444 4
than a year of dealing with the "coarser" workmen.
Many of the artists in residence created furniture designs.
Apparantly Whitehead selected a general form, and drawings
were made by individual artists. Decorative panels were a com-
mon feature, although most were painted, not carved. Among
the most talented designers at Byrdcliffe were Edna Walker
and Zulma Steele. This piece was designed by Walker.
The designs by Walker and Steele are the most beautifully
proportioned and distinctive pieces of Byrdcliffe furniture. This
cabinet in particular is a refreshing break from the mass and
machismo of many Arts & Crafts pieces.
100 Years Later
Usually when I make a reproduction of an existing piece I try
to stay as close as possible to the original. In building this
cabinet, however, I had to make some guesses, and I made a
few changes to suit my own taste. I had only a photograph of
the front of the cabinet and overall dimensions to work with,
so the layout of the side panels and the details of construction
are my best guesses.
In the original, the carvings are very fl at. They are simply
outlines of leaves and branches with the edges rounded over.
I originally carved the panels this way, but just wasn’t happy
with the effect. I thought they seemed rather lifeless and
static, so I recarved the panels and added more relief.
Additionally, the crown moulding on the original comes
fl ush to the bottom edge of the top, apparently attached to
the edges. The closest router bit I could fi nd (Freud 99-406)
had a small fi llet at the top. I thought this looked nicer, and
rather than wrap the crown around the perimeter of the top,
I set it below, letting the top overhang by^1 ⁄ 8 ". This added one
more shadow line, and if the top expands or contracts, then
the joint between the moulding and the top won’t show.
The third change was to the color. The oranges and reds on
the panels are the same as the original, but the green stain is
darker and deeper in color. The finish on the original varies in
color, and I suspect that it may have faded or been refinished
at some point. I decided to use a richer forest green, similar to
a color that can be seen in another Byrdcliffe piece, a fall-front
desk designed by Steele.
Oak and (not) Sassafras
Like the original, the visible parts of this cabinet are made of
quartersawn white oak. The carved panels are often described
as being made from sassafras, but they are obviously not. The
carving depicts the leaves of a sassafras tree and in the origi-
nal the panels are either poplar or basswood. I used basswood
for the carvings, soft maple for the drawer boxes, and poplar
for the interior web frames and back of the cabinet. The dust
panels are birch plywood.
I brought the rough white oak into the shop and let it ac-
climate while I worked on carving the panels (right). I’m a
decent carver, but not a fast one, so the oak had plenty of
time to adjust. Full-size patterns for the panels are available in
pdf format from our web site at: http://www.popularwoodworking.
com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/iris.pdf.
I gave the completed panels a thin coat of blonde shellac
before coloring them with watercolor pencils, available from
any artist’s supply store. The colors are applied dry, then blend-
ed with an artist’s brush dipped in water. I let the panels dry
for several days, then gave them two coats of amber shellac to
seal in the color and warm up the background.
The Real Work Begins
I milled all of the oak parts slightly oversized, and let them sit
for a few days before planing them to fi nished dimensions.
Absolutely straight stock is essential for a project like this. The
side panels are all joined with mortises and tenons. Once these
were assembled, I cut a rabbet on the long edge of each panel
so that the faces of the stiles fi t in a stopped groove cut in the
legs as seen at right (page 46). This makes the sides of the
case very strong, and if the stiles shrink in width over time, the
joints won’t open up.
The web frames and dust panels are also mortise-and-tenon
construction. I clamped the stiles together to lay out the mor-
tises and then realized that leaving them clamped together
A group of stiles for the web frame is clamped together to lay out the
joints. Leaving the stack clamped together provides a stable base for the
router used to cut the mortises.4 40-51_ByrdcliffeLinenPress.indd 44 0 - 51 _ByrdcliffeLinenPress.indd 44 3 3/25/13 9:56 AM/ 25 / 13 9 : 56 AM