# shaker 2 drawer table



## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

Cherry & tiger maple. I believe this may be one of my favorite pieces of furniture that I have ever made. It is a knock-out, and is ooohed&awed over by just about everyone who has ever seen it. Mostly made with handtools, except I turned the knobs and used a router for the top detail. Thanks for looking


----------



## jd99 (Jun 17, 2009)

OOOOOOOOHH AAAAAAAAAW. :happy:


That's a great looking table, I like the contrast.


----------



## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

Absolutely *spectacular*, galturner!


----------



## jerrymayfield (Sep 25, 2004)

That is a very beautiful table.

Jerry


----------



## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

WOW! You have some very special talent! That is just gorgeous!


----------



## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

definitely deserving of a big thumbs up!!!

nice lil touch with the edging on the drawer fronts...

very nice work gal turner!!


----------



## xplorx4 (Dec 1, 2008)

Well done, I too like the contrasting woods. I can easily see where it would catch a lot of praise


----------



## TRN_Diesel (Feb 24, 2009)

Very nicely done. I really enjoy the contrasting woods.


----------



## vikingcraftsman (Mar 31, 2006)

Love it.


----------



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

Shakers are probably spinning in their graves over your wood choice but it does look good.  Tiger maple is some fun stuff.

Well done!


----------



## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

Hi Rob, thanks for taking the time to comment. I do believe that the shakers would have loved this table.:thank_you2: When they made stuff for themselves they used beautiful woods.Mother Ann said to make the stuff beautiful, but without useless ornamentation. Curly woods were prized then as they are now. There are many historical writings available about their philosophies, and about their woodworking. I have spent 20 yrs learning about shaker concepts & ideas. Glad you like my table:thank_you2:


----------



## DerekO (Jan 20, 2010)

Very, very nice. And with handtools mostly at that too.

Isn't it a Shaker woman who invented the circular saw?...I am not positive, but that pops into my head when I think of Shaker woodworking.


----------



## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

hi Derek: yes a sister (Tabitha??) has been credited with the concept of a circular saw. The story as I heard it was that she was watching a spinning wheel and the idea of having teeth on the wheel to cut wood, came to mind. Glad she thought of it!!! I believe another sister had a woodworking first also. Then of course a few fellas had good ideas too..the chair tilter and others. People seem to think the shakers were not progressive, but they were inventive and loved progress if it made their lives easier. They would travel to Europe to buy new tools, and all over the US to get new technology. I have enjoyed immensley learning about these lovely folks. It's such a shame that their social conciousness and gentle ways have gone with time. We could stand to renew some of their thinking.


----------



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

gal turner said:


> Hi Rob, thanks for taking the time to comment. I do believe that the shakers would have loved this table.:thank_you2: When they made stuff for themselves they used beautiful woods.Mother Ann said to make the stuff beautiful, but without useless ornamentation. Curly woods were prized then as they are now. There are many historical writings available about their philosophies, and about their woodworking. I have spent 20 yrs learning about shaker concepts & ideas. Glad you like my table:thank_you2:


I've also read they liked curly woods but somehow I have it in my head that they typically dyed them. The "bright" maple color seems a bit out of character for Shaker furniture. Turned candle stands come to mind.

Curly maple is some fun stuff. Get good with that high-angle smoother and scraper to deal with its surface? 

I recently found what I thought was curly aspen in the wood bin at my local Home Depot. After showing the small piece (only one there) to a guy that specializes in selling exotics and figured woods, he thought it could be aspen but more likely a silver or red leaf maple that got tossed into the pile at the mill. It sure cut funny, much softer than any maples I'd played with before and very chippy along the edges. Scraped OK but a bear to plane even at 55 degrees.


----------



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

gal turner said:


> hi Derek: yes a sister (Tabitha??) has been credited with the concept of a circular saw. The story as I heard it was that she was watching a spinning wheel and the idea of having teeth on the wheel to cut wood, came to mind. Glad she thought of it!!! I believe another sister had a woodworking first also. Then of course a few fellas had good ideas too..the chair tilter and others. People seem to think the shakers were not progressive, but they were inventive and loved progress if it made their lives easier. They would travel to Europe to buy new tools, and all over the US to get new technology. I have enjoyed immensley learning about these lovely folks. It's such a shame that their social conciousness and gentle ways have gone with time. We could stand to renew some of their thinking.


I've read about the circular saw story too. There is some evidence to suggest she wasn't the originator but instead made some improvement to make it more practical? I think it was something George Wilson wrote an article about. However I can't seem to recall sufficient detail for Google to cough up a decent result.

The Shakers were pretty progressive when it came to manufacturing techniques. They had all kinds of great ideas for woodworking machines and I think they also had some innovative packaging machines for their seed sales business.

Just gearing up to sell all those chairs and rockers would have meant coming up with machines to increase throughput.


----------



## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

Hmmm..Rob..I went thru all my refernce material on Shaker finishing. they did make stains & varnishes. But at what time frame I could not find. They did use Shellac and used it on their furniture. I used it on the top of my table to highlight the "curl" and then used varnish over it. Remember too that I was using a flash & the top is a tad light. I suppose they could have used a dark shellac ..but if you are seeing pieces in a book of a 1770's or 1860 piece, time would have darkened the wood and the varnish. So I really don't know if they stained curly maple. They might have. May have to do more research! Have a good day


----------



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

gal turner said:


> Hmmm..Rob..I went thru all my refernce material on Shaker finishing. they did make stains & varnishes. But at what time frame I could not find. They did use Shellac and used it on their furniture. I used it on the top of my table to highlight the "curl" and then used varnish over it. Remember too that I was using a flash & the top is a tad light. I suppose they could have used a dark shellac ..but if you are seeing pieces in a book of a 1770's or 1860 piece, time would have darkened the wood and the varnish. So I really don't know if they stained curly maple. They might have. May have to do more research! Have a good day


+1 on a direct flash changing colors! I've decided to use that to my advantage as my camera seems to pick up defects more easily because it is seeing a little bit into the IR range. Two pieces of wood that look seamless when hit with a direct flash can show where there might be a problem or glue blot. Most digital cameras have considerable IR sensitivity in their sensors but the manufacturers include an IR cut-off filter.

And I think you are right about the aging of the shellac issue. Especially on turned tiger maple. With the sudden changes from end to long grain you would definitely get different absorption of the shellac (garnet I assume) and thus over time a much different color shift.

It is interesting to try and decipher how the finish will change over time. Because if you make a new piece in the style of "X", do you try and make it look like a brand new piece or accelerate the aging of the finish. We forget that the furniture ages and changes over time.

I understand that the different bishoprics (is that the right term?) over time grew to have different tastes in design. Was there also some influence based on different Shaker communities having different specialties in their commercial manufacturing? I'm thinking of the influences of their chair/rocker and box factories.


----------



## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

yep, stuff was different from community to community. Mother Ann apparantly gave directions / guidelines, and then each person made choices too. If one can see pictures from the different communities , it becomes apparant that outside influences from furniture styles from Europe, and what woods were available locally, made a difference too. Many times they made stuff different (oval boxes vs. round colonial) just so people would know they were shaker made. A fascinating group of souls, and an interesting history during the times they tried to maintain their groups & way of life.


----------



## drasbell (Feb 6, 2009)

Great looking table and very nice craftsmanship just plane beautifully done!!


----------



## jmg1017 (Apr 9, 2009)

Great job on the nightstand Gal! Love the figured Maple. Any pics on the drawer construction? Just an observation, most Shaker pieces I've made/seen use inset drawer fronts instead of overlay type. 
Also multiple woods on the same piece were common, such as Cherry tapered legs and Maple drawer fronts.


----------



## gal turner (Mar 3, 2010)

jmg: thanks for your comments and observation. Yep they were better woodworkers than I. I live in a climate that goes 60 below and 100 above. We also go from desert like humidity to gosh awful. I have made inset drawers with quartersawn wood and they still have problems. So I just swallowed my pride & make overlaid drawers. Have a great day


----------

