Walnut Headboard-Chest

Below are some pictures of the main carcass for the headboard-chest of a black walnut bed underway in the shop right now.  It was dry fit for the first time yesterday.  It was quite a challenge to get the nearly eighty hand-cut dovetails to mate properly.

walnut bed 3 (2)

The tops of the boards are still rough- they will be shaped a little- softened- but mainly left as is.  The lid will “float” inside the top of the chest.

walnut bed 1

A foreshortened side view.  Here one can see all the dovetails- yet to be trimmed- th chest will be taken apart and re-assembled a few times before final assembly, where after the pins and tails will be trimmed flush.

walnut bed detail 1

A detail of a Q.S. white oak butterfly- decoratively and hopefully functionally placed in a knot with a small split.  There are quite a few butterflies throughout the piece for the task of securing splits and abnormalities-  the joys of screwball  Kansas walnut.