I built this two tiered desk for Jan, in the spring of 2018. It was a very special project as she was a returning client - having commissioned the Corner Cabinet in Pear 5 years earlier. The desk is made from rift sawn white oak with brass details (and Port Orford Cedar drawer bottoms).
Layout of the mortises.
After squaring all the stock - I begin laying out the mortise and tenon joinery.
I use floating tenons - as opposed to cutting tenons from stock.
With joinery cut - I tend to dry fit everything so I can start to work with shaping, proportion, and other elements that sometimes don’t seem as clear until you have the work together.
the desk dry fit.
The next step was to make up the book matched veneer tops. For this I wanted to try something a little more difficult. I wanted to cut the veneers for the tops from 8/4 oak, and then have 4/4 left for drawer faces after cutting the oak needed for the top - thus allowing a cascading book match to occur over the front of the desk.
Trying to display the grain match here.
All the joinery cut!
With the parts mostly made up - I move to final shaping- which is my favorite part.
The legs are entirely shaped and smoothed by hand.
The look of the finish line.