Grain matching
As promised, i wanted to look at some of the techniques that we use within our work, and also the features of our finished handmade furniture that are extremely important when making a high quality piece of cabinetry.
I thought i would start with a personal favourite of mine which is Grain matching. If you choose a piece of handmade furniture with flat panelled veneered doors and draw fronts then these will be carefully grain matched.
As you can see, when a set of wardrobes doors is grain matched properly, it creates a seamless pattern that goes completely from the left to the right of the wardrobe.
handmade furniture bedford | 01525 753737 | info@davidhead.co.uk | CONTACT
The process can actually be very simple. Thanks to the lovely people at Eco Timber panels in Northampton who supply us with all of our veneered boards we are usually able to match the grain across a span of up to 3.6m.
For our veneered doors and draw fronts we use either a 19mm or 26mm thick veneered MDF board. To some people MDF may still be a dirty word but for this kind of use it is still the most stable material to use. Its is a ridiculous amount cheaper than having a completely solid timber, weighs a lot less than solid timber, therefore putting much less strain on hinges and also wont move or dry out as solid timber can do.
When you have seperate units placed next to each other, correctly matching grain can add a real sense of craftsmanship and care to a chest of drawers or dressing table.
Handmade Furniture Bedford
We take particular care to also make sure that the colours of veneers that we use throughout a job remain as uniform as we can. The colour of a timber like oak can range from a very light creamy brown all the way to even a pinkish red colour depending on the tree.
The process of matching the grain on draw fronts like the ones in the above photo is very simple. The main thing to do is to treat the draw fronts as if you are actually just putting a large door on the front of the unit, not 5 draw fronts.
If you cut a panel the same size as a door would be then that is step one. After this the next thing to do is to divide the height of the panel into 5 equal parts (remembering to include a 3mm saw cut between each draw front). If you set your saw to this measurement and cut the draw fronts one after the other without changing the direction the panel is facing at any time then you will end up with 5 perfectly equal sized draw fronts!
The reason that you cut the first panel to the size of a door should now become clear. The size of the saw blade is exactly the same size as the gaps will be when your draw fronts are fitted. You can make your life a lot easier by marking each draw front on the back to tell you which drawer it is going to end up on!
The high rush of blood buy viagra tablets increases the sensitivity in the female reproductive system region. viagra online for sale The herb is extremely helpful for dealing with menstrual problems, stress, acne, pimple, cramps, pain, blood pressure, cholesterol problems, skin and obesity issues. These career ‘derailers’, as they are named, are in effect instilled character traits which impact upon the person’s behaviour sildenafil 25mg and actions. Today, Urology hospitals in Bangalore have high-precision methods like laparoscopy and endoscopic examination that can be useful in your effort to cialis online find the best hair growth products go, this is another growth stimulant to put in your tool kit.
handmade furniture bedford | 01525 753737 | info@davidhead.co.uk | CONTACT
Our veneered boards typically come in sizes of 2440mm long by 1220mm wide and because of the nature of veneering it is normally possible to get 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 boards to match each other perfectly. If the unit to the left didn’t feature grain matching on the doors it would most likely look pretty rubbish!
Occasionally we get asked to make a unit with a mixture of doors and draw fronts that need to match. The main thing to remember when doing this is to take care to plan the order of your cuts carefully. For instance if you have a set of two wardrobe doors but the right hand side door was smaller to allow for three draws at the the bottom of the unit, you would want to cut the board down the centre first, mark which end of door will be the top and then measure all of your cuts from the top to ensure that the grains all remain at the same height.
handmade furniture bedford | 01525 753737 | info@davidhead.co.uk | CONTACT
Ultimately it is touches like this that really make the difference between a mass produced piece of furniture and a bespoke piece of handmade furniture. It can help a unit blend in better to its surroundings if that is what you are looking to do, if the grain all matches perfectly it can actually make a unit look less obvious within a room, make it less obtrusive.
On the flip side, if you want your unit to be the centre piece of a room then having the grain all match perfectly can be much more of a feature, the lines of the grain can be left unbroken if you use push catches and push catch draw runners instead of traditional draw runners and handles.
So there you have it, a relatively simple technique that can mark out a piece of handmade furniture as completely bespoke, unique and made with care and craft.
If you would like to speak to David about a bespoke (and grain matched!) piece of handmade furniture then you can reach him at david@davidhead.co.uk or on 01525 753737
Thank you for reading
Tom