1100 00
done effi ciently, faithful to the design.
I also wanted the color and character of the mahogany to look
the way original pieces do. It took some detective work and head
scratching to work out the methods and materials. In the end,
this table looks more like the original than most reproductions.
My plans called for 32 mortise-and-tenon joints and 72 square
plugs. The plugs on the legs appear to be going through the
mortise-and-tenon joints that connect the rails to the legs. If you
look closely at the inner set of legs on the previous page, you will
notice that the plugs are centered in the width of the legs.
The only way these plugs could be functional would be if the
tenons were long enough to cross the midpoint of the leg. If that
were true, then the tenons would need to be reduced in thick-
ness, so that they could cross
each other. This would com-
plicate these joints as well as
weaken them. This set of plugs
is just for show.
I also questioned the need for
pinning all three of the plugs at
each of the corner joints. One
would be suffi cient to reinforce
the joint. Pinning all of them
could weaken the tenons,
and introduce problems when
the rails expand and contract
seasonally. I decided to pin only
the middle of each tenon and
make most of the plugs only
decorative.
The original drawings detailed
Digging for the Details
In many Greene and Greene reproductions, the fi nished project
doesn’t look quite right, or the methods used are terribly ineffi -
cient. In highly detailed projects like this, half the battle is making
nice details quickly. The other half is the sequence in which the
work is performed.
Many times people follow someone else’s reproduction, rather
than referring to an original example. The problem with this is
that details get changed or exaggerated, and then are taken as
good examples. The style gets watered down and the methods
become too complicated. I wanted to make this piece as it would
have been made by the Hall brothers; excellent workmanship
NO. ITEM DIMENSIONS (INCHES) MATERIAL COMMENTS
T W L❏ 1 Top^7 ⁄ 8 18 69^3 ⁄ 4 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 4 " x^3 ⁄ 8 " tongue each end
❏ 2 Breadboard ends 1 3 181 ⁄ 4 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 4 " x^3 ⁄ 8 " groove one edge,
1 ⁄ 4 " x^5 ⁄ 8 " x 2" groove both ends❏ 8 Legs 23 ⁄ 4 23 ⁄ 4 291 ⁄ 8 Mahogany
❏ 2 Top end rails^7 ⁄ 8 55 ⁄ 8 13 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 2 " x 1^1 ⁄ 4 " x 4^5 ⁄ 8 " tenon each end
❏ 2 Lower end rails^7 ⁄ 8 6 13 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 2 " x 1^1 ⁄ 4 " x 5" tenon each end
❏ 4 F & B top rails^7 ⁄ 8 55 ⁄ 8 81 ⁄ 4 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 2 " x 1^1 ⁄ 4 " x 4^5 ⁄ 8 " tenon each end
❏ 2 F & B cloud lift rails^7 ⁄ 8 63 ⁄ 8 211 ⁄ 2 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 2 " x 1^1 ⁄ 4 " x 4^5 ⁄ 8 " tenon each end
❏ 4 F & B bottom rails^7 ⁄ 8 6 8^1 ⁄ 4 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 2 " x 1^1 ⁄ 4 " x 5" tenon each end
❏ 2 F & B bottom mid rails^7 ⁄ 8 6 21^1 ⁄ 2 Mahogany^1 ⁄ 2 " x 1^1 ⁄ 4 " x 5" tenon each end
❏ 72 Plugs^3 ⁄ 8 3 ⁄ 8 5 ⁄16 Walnut Ebonized
❏ 4 Splines^1 ⁄ 4 7 ⁄ 8 6 Walnut Ebonized
❏ 2 Cleats^7 ⁄ 8 7 ⁄ 8 103 ⁄ 8 Mahogany
❏ 2 Cleats^7 ⁄ 8 7 ⁄ 8 187 ⁄ 8 Mahogany
greene and greene sideboard
3
PLUG PATTERN A PLUG PATTERN B PLUG PATTERN C PLUG PATTERN D
AND BOTTOM OF LEG
DETAIL9 98-109_Greene&GreeneSideboard.indd 100 8 - 109 _Greene&GreeneSideboard.indd 100 3 3/25/13 9:57 AM/ 25 / 13 9 : 57 AM