I'm working on the G.Washington desk in Margon's American Furniture Treasures. Here's the original: https://untappedcities.com/2017/05/17/the-desk-of-george-washington-inside-nyc-city-halls-governor-room/
Still working on the legs, but thinking ahead to the top. The top on the original is a single slab of mahogany roughly 65 x 30 x 1.5. There is a fairly small letter shelf on each end but that still leaves a large open space; no leather pad.
My thought was to build a two-layer top out of three-quarter poplar (or other secondary wood). The bottom layer would be a frame and the upper layer would be full width material to create a substrate for veneering. I've done some small hammer veneering projects and I enjoy it, but that's alot of veneer, particularly long runs of it. On the upside, the edges/ends are crossbanded, so I would just need to get the interior seams lined up. Looks like 15-20" wide veneer is available, so I could do the top with a single joint. May even be more interesting to do a book/butt match, though that's more inconsistent with the original.
Not sure what other choices I have, other than to glue up multiple six-quarter boards. In which case, I'm probably going to have two or three seams as it's much harder to find 15 inch width boards. That'll also move/crack/check like the original or more so.
Would appreciate thoughts on the veneering approach and/or other suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Still working on the legs, but thinking ahead to the top. The top on the original is a single slab of mahogany roughly 65 x 30 x 1.5. There is a fairly small letter shelf on each end but that still leaves a large open space; no leather pad.
My thought was to build a two-layer top out of three-quarter poplar (or other secondary wood). The bottom layer would be a frame and the upper layer would be full width material to create a substrate for veneering. I've done some small hammer veneering projects and I enjoy it, but that's alot of veneer, particularly long runs of it. On the upside, the edges/ends are crossbanded, so I would just need to get the interior seams lined up. Looks like 15-20" wide veneer is available, so I could do the top with a single joint. May even be more interesting to do a book/butt match, though that's more inconsistent with the original.
Not sure what other choices I have, other than to glue up multiple six-quarter boards. In which case, I'm probably going to have two or three seams as it's much harder to find 15 inch width boards. That'll also move/crack/check like the original or more so.
Would appreciate thoughts on the veneering approach and/or other suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
