Michael Stiennon

A Chippendale Block Frount Bureau made of Black Walnut, Cherry and Monterey Pine finished with Super Blonde Shellac. The deminsions are 36" W x 34" H x 19 1/4" D. Made in Madison, Wisconsin.

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This was one of four block fronts built over a period of four plus years. They had been a goal of mine since I first read Nutting's FT. From a copy of Moses/Sack I saw the three varieties and decided that it would be interesting to build all three at once. I made several 'mistakes' on a cherry kneehole, did better on the mahogany kneehole. Tried the handtool only approach only with the three drawer chest and added some complications to the flatfront shown here. I started with the shell carvings and did a dozen and a half convex and concave to get the feel of it. I had done the feet before for a series of bureaus and bookcases. The prior projects also used cock-bead on frame construction. I did not use the traditional method of applying the cockbeads on the sides - see my post in the forums for the tools I made and how I did it. I used hide glue and am now a convert. I like the piece to show off the wood so I used a minimalist approach with super blonde shellac only.