Townsend Kneehole Bureau Drawings & Bottom Step 1

I have decided on my next project.  It will be the Townsend Kneehole Four Shell Bureau.  A bureau is like a chest, it used to store things and it is usually in a bedroom but it is not a dressing table.  That is the 18th century interpretation.

The Townsend Kneehole Bureau that I plan on reproducing is on display at the Yale Art Gallery. It can be located here. Townsend Bureau at Yale

It is a beautiful piece of 18th century furniture and highly prized by those who could obtain one.

The original was made from mahogany primary wood and chestnut as secondary wood.
It is nearly impossible to obtain chestnut these days because it was wiped out in the early 20th century.  I am going to use poplar and pine in it's place.

I am working on sourcing the original brasses pattern right now.  I want to reproduce this piece as close a possible to the original in construction and look.

I have some full size drawings mounted on the wall as I usually do for my project.

I have two matched 20 in wide by 12/4 mahogany boards 11 ft long for the project.  They are figured and matched grain.  I had them resawed with some 4/4 and the remaining 1 3/4 inches.

I marked out all of the 4/4 that I need for the sides, top and drawer dividers.

I glued up two poplar boards to make the bottom board.  It is 3/4 inch thick and 34 1/2 wide by 18 3/8 deep. The cut out in the middle I made with a hand saw is for the kneehole.

My jointer and planer are too small to handle this 20 in wide stock, so I have to hand plane them flat.  I just sharpened my Stanley #7, it is cutting real good.

Now I have the two sides flat and trimmed to 18 3/8 in and 13/16 thick.  It is time to plan the dovetails for the sides.

The tails are about 2 in wide, probably should be wider so there would be less to chop out.

The inside panels around the kneehole are being glued up.  I made them about 10 inches of mahogany and 9 inches of poplar since the inside of the kneehole is generally not seen I can use the secondary wood.

Sawing out the tails on the bottom of the sides.  I cut both at the same time.

After chopping out the tails and sawing the pins on the bottom. Here I am chopping out the pins on the bottom board.

Dry fitting the sides to the bottom board.  They are a good tight fit but probably too many.

Now that the sides are on, I am going to dovetail the inside panels to the hole in the bottom and dado the bottom to fit the inside panels next. That will be in the next post and video.

That's it for now.. Here is today's video: