Phone table

I know, I know, people do not have a land line anymore but I saw this little phone table at a home nearby and just had to make my version of the desk. I would guess that the original was made in the 40's or 50's.








Here is my version. The original did not have a drawer. I felt that a drawer was much more useful than a phone book. (what is that anyway?)

 I began by making the mortises in the legs. I cut the tenons and made a mortice in the tenon that accepts the opposing tenon. This effectively locks the tenon in so that it can not pull out.

 Here is the tenon that inserts into the tenon above.

 This is how the tenons lock together inside of the leg.

 The chair back had to be bent. It is better to use air dried lumber, but that is extremely difficult to locate. Kiln dried has the lignins set and so it is necessary to re-saw the board, steam the pieces in a steam box and then clamp to a form. This picture is the back of the chair in the bending form.

 This is the chair back after gluing. The top is scrapped and then jointed.












The flowers are made and then inlaid into the bent back. This picture shows the cloud lift design that is common with arts and crafts furniture.









The back is fitted to the leg.

 I re-sawed a piece of figured walnut into the three pieces that you see. I book matched two of the pieces on the left here and slip matched the far right piece. After the three were glued into a single large piece that measured 22" x 22" I began the marquetry of the flowers.

 You can see here the flower just sitting above the cut out for the flower. When they join, they are tight fitting and no joints between the flower and the back ground should be seen.

 Here is the table in the rough. Final sanding and clear finish is all that needs to be done.

 Here is a raw view of the top veneers.

 Chair open view without the drawer.

 This is the beginning of the drawer cavity. I bent the walnut by steaming and then clamping it into the form. The gaps on the sides are hidden areas.

 Rare earth magnets hold the sides in place.

 Here you can see the front drawer with the carved wenge pull handle.

The front drawer has rare earth magnets that pull the hidden drawer.

The hidden drawer needs to be accessed by putting a finger in this finger hole, depressing a locking tab, and then pulling the hidden drawer out of the cavity.

 Here is a view of the finished top. I treat my walnut with Deftoil stain to keep the walnut from turning coffee cream brown. The bookmatch and slipmatch can be seen quite well here.

 The chair back flowers. The stems on the top are flush with the top so as not to interfere with writing. The stems on the chair are proud of the surface to give a 3d appearance.

 The pull on the drawer is carved wenge.