Front View

The desk is done.  Well, nearly done.  I need to make pulls yet for the drawers, but the right design still eludes me.  In the mean time, the desk can be used.  I moved out the other two desks in the room.  One of them, I am sorry to say went right to the trash.  I found a lot of service from that desk, but the time had come to get rid of the particle board furniture.  The other is an antique that was too small and it has gone into service for my wife.

All Extensions

The pictures show the desk in its new home.  The attached views show the desk’s mirror sides, with each side having a writing shelf and a small drawer.  And then the bookshelf on the one end.

As I began to move things on to the desk, I found myself nervous about scratches, and scuffs.  I had a big battle in my mind as to whether this was a functional desk or a show piece.  It really is not nice enough to be a show piece, but I spent a lot of time working on it, and protecting it over the past year.

I built the desk because I could not find one I liked.  I am blessed with long arms and long legs which do not comfortably fit most desks.  Apparently, a rule of thumb is that everyone has to use the same size furniture.   So, reason ruled, and the desk now holds all of my computer stuff, phones, and sundry.

Corner View

So far, I am enjoying it, and loving the Greene and Greene style highlights.  I am still dreading the first bang or scratch, but that is life.

Drawer Side

Rough Ebony Insert

Virtually every piece of Greene and Greene furniture contains ebony highlights.  As I prepared to add the highlights to my desk, I considered using Indian Rosewood instead due to the cost of ebony, and the scarcity of it in my area.  However, I found some in Des Moines, and I like the look.

You can see in this first picture a piece of ebony already glued into the socket and rough cut to to the appropriate height.  The ebony is not glued where it fits into the breadboard end so that as the wood in the main body of the desk top (the core) expands and contracts, it freely moves in and out.  The desk is still sitting above the frame here as I work on the ebony.

Corner View

The effect is wonderful to see and feel, as you can see in the next photo.  In this photo, the ebony has been routed and then all four edges of each piece has been hand worked to take off the sharp edges.  Wow, that was tedious.  But, it is beautiful.

In the photo, you can see a lot of dust on the pieces yet, and you might notice that the drawer does not have a pull.  I am still mulling over the design for a pull.  However, the top is now secured to the frame and has a nice solid feel to it.

End View

This last photo shows one of the ends of the desk with the ebony plugs in the smaller holes covering the screws that hold the breadboard to the core.  As mentioned in an earlier post, only the middle 4 or 5 inches are glued and the rest is screwed so that expansion allows the core to move along the rest of the breadboard.

Breadboard Cutouts

The breadboards for the desk are mostly done.  They fit on each end of the core of the desk, or the main flat part of the desk. Each finished end fits on the core over a spline, and glued only in the center 4 inches.  The rest of the breadboard is not glued, but screwed on.  You can see from the picture where the sockets are for the screws.  There is enough play in the holes for the screws that the core of the table can expand and contract with changes in humidity.  That allows the core to move along the unglued portion of the breadboard which remains mostly stable.

Breadboard

The larger center cutout is for looks only.  Each of the cutouts will be filled with a piece of ebony and left just a little bit proud.  My layout is a bit different than the model that I am imitating, so I hope mine will still look nice.  By this time the core is about ready for final glue-up and adding the ebony accents.  I will post those pictures in the near future.

The writing shelves are done.  Each is made from quartersawn white oak with an Indian Rosewood front.  I kept this piece of rosewood around for a time when I might recreate a couple of Stanley plane handles (totes).  But, I love the wood and wanted it someplace where I would be able to see and touch often.

I left each piece natural.  Although the desk itself is stained, I like the contrast of natural wood.  The drawers were the same.  I stained the fronts, but left the rest natural.  Like the rest of the desk I finished the writing shelves with Deft brushing lacquer.  I put several coats on so that I could sand it down smooth, using lacquer to fill the pores of the wood.

In determining how to pull the shelves out from the underside of the desk, I considered my options for a pull.  Putting a knob or handle of any kind made me shudder to think about, so I decided to cut out the underside with a finder grip.

You can see from the photo that there is a recessed groove that is wide enough for several fingers.  I left a raised lip on the front side of the shelf that provides an additional grip for the finger.  The comgination of the recess and the lip provide a nice handle but with very little visible from the front side.

Cut Outs for Trim

After starting this project early this year, I finally got satisfaction as I drew to the point of putting on some stain.  Before that however, I finished chopping out areas where an accent piece of wood will fit between the breadboard and the core of the desk.  With that accomplished, I sanded the edges and finalized the round-overs.

I used a router with a 1/8 round-over bit on most of the pieces, but the ends could not be done with the router.  The guide bearing could drop into the mortise and that would leave a deep gouge.  So I finished them with a file and sandpaper.

Speaking of sandpaper, I think I tend to get crazy.  Most people and articles say to sand down to 220 and then go to stain and finish.  I always go to 320.  However, 320 grit is so very hard to find around here for some reason.  Sure, you can get the 3-sheet pack, but that is too expensive.  I like to buy 20-25 packs if I can to reduce the price per sheet significantly.

Stained Core

After hitting everything with 320 paper, I set the core up in the garage on a couple of sawhorses.  My wife’s mother came for the weekend, along with one sister-in-law.  Doing the staining in the garage and letting it sit overnight kept all of the fumes out of the house.

The picture shows the core lying on top of the frame and the unstained breadboard temporarily attached.  I hope to get the breadboard ends drilled and the cuts made for the accent wood in the near future.

I am afraid that I am going to run out of good weather for applying the finish in the garage.  Soon it will be too cold, and the fumes are a bit much for my wife to handle.