I have a little (one drawer, 2 doors) serpentine front dresser or wash
stand in oak to refinish. I guess it was varnished and stained at the same
time, the finish is very dark. Looking at the drawer from the top it is
easy to see that the drawer face was cut (band saw?) from one piece of wood
and easy to see that the front face is a veneer as is the back face. I
hadn't thought of how this style must have been made but now wonder if this
veneering was necessary for just about every kind of wood or the stain
would make stripes depending of how the band saw hit the wood to make the
curves?

Checked the internet but couldn't find plans or construction for the
serpentine face. The drawer front is dovetailed and the back has slots
running perpendicular to the draw so the back of the drawer slides in -
1880-1900 construction?

Looks like it has had real utility use!

tia,
Josie



--
----------------------------------
"Once you know, you know"
The Unified Field of Know Theory

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 18:08:14 -0500, "firstjois"
wrote:

I have a little (one drawer, 2 doors) serpentine front dresser or wash
stand in oak to refinish. I guess it was varnished and stained at the same
time, the finish is very dark. Looking at the drawer from the top it is
easy to see that the drawer face was cut (band saw?) from one piece of wood
and easy to see that the front face is a veneer as is the back face. I
hadn't thought of how this style must have been made but now wonder if this
veneering was necessary for just about every kind of wood or the stain
would make stripes depending of how the band saw hit the wood to make the
curves?

Checked the internet but couldn't find plans or construction for the
serpentine face. The drawer front is dovetailed and the back has slots
running perpendicular to the draw so the back of the drawer slides in -
1880-1900 construction?

Looks like it has had real utility use!


HTH: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/features/mag.html

Scroll down the page.

Josie,

Even it if looks well-worn, you might want to have it appraised before you
do anything to it. Sometimes, in our enthusiasm to make it look fresh
again, we seriously reduce the value of a valuable or semi-valuable
antique.

Also, there is a "cleaner" that is actually a restorer that makes it look
almost new that only takes off the "grime" of the years and not the
finish. It's been so many years since I came across it that I have no
clue as to the name. Hopefully, someone here will know of it. Your local
museum might know of it.

I very foolishly stripped an oak chest of drawers decades ago without
realizing what it was. It was just an old chest of drawers someone gave my
mother when I was eight years old. It had turned almost black through the
years. It was just junk so my mother gave it to me when I was married,
felt sorry for us when we bought a house right away with no furniture. We
used it for years until we got something much nicer, then relegated it to
the basement. Later, I decided to refinish it. Because it was nothing of
any value (or so I thought!), I just lay it in the yard with the stripper
and the garden hose and went to work with the steel wool. In my ignorance,
I could have ruined it but was very lucky I didn't. I've still not had it
appraised but I've only seen one similar to it anywhere, and it was
missing most of two drawers. For that reason, I suspect it is more than
an old piece of junk. It is very well made. The curved drawer fronts and
door in the top portion are incredible. The dovetails in the drawers are
especially pretty. Three pieces of the original hardware (drawer pulls)
are gone but the rest is in great shape as well. I learned then to not
just jump into a project with old furniture without some serious review.

You might consider moving a little slowly on this one until you
investigate a bit. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Glenna

==========

writes:
I have a little (one drawer, 2 doors) serpentine front dresser or wash
stand in oak to refinish. I guess it was varnished and stained at the same
time, the finish is very dark. Looking at the drawer from the top it is
easy to see that the drawer face was cut (band saw?) from one piece of
wood
and easy to see that the front face is a veneer as is the back face. I
hadn't thought of how this style must have been made but now wonder if
this
veneering was necessary for just about every kind of wood or the stain
would make stripes depending of how the band saw hit the wood to make the
curves?

Checked the internet but couldn't find plans or construction for the
serpentine face. The drawer front is dovetailed and the back has slots
running perpendicular to the draw so the back of the drawer slides in -
1880-1900 construction?

Looks like it has had real utility use!

tia,
Josie



--
----------------------------------
"Once you know, you know"
The Unified Field of Know Theory

Glenna Rose wrote:
Josie,

Even it if looks well-worn, you might want to have it appraised
before you do anything to it. Sometimes, in our enthusiasm to make
it look fresh again, we seriously reduce the value of a valuable or
semi-valuable antique.

Also, there is a "cleaner" that is actually a restorer that makes it
look almost new that only takes off the "grime" of the years and not
the finish. It's been so many years since I came across it that I
have no clue as to the name. Hopefully, someone here will know of
it. Your local museum might know of it.

I very foolishly stripped an oak chest of drawers decades ago without
realizing what it was. It was just an old chest of drawers someone
gave my mother when I was eight years old. It had turned almost
black through the years. It was just junk so my mother gave it to
me when I was married, felt sorry for us when we bought a house
right away with no furniture. We used it for years until we got
something much nicer, then relegated it to the basement. Later, I
decided to refinish it. Because it was nothing of any value (or so
I thought!), I just lay it in the yard with the stripper and the
garden hose and went to work with the steel wool. In my ignorance, I
could have ruined it but was very lucky I didn't. I've still not had
it appraised but I've only seen one similar to it anywhere, and it
was missing most of two drawers. For that reason, I suspect it is
more than an old piece of junk. It is very well made. The curved
drawer fronts and door in the top portion are incredible. The
dovetails in the drawers are especially pretty. Three pieces of the
original hardware (drawer pulls) are gone but the rest is in great
shape as well. I learned then to not just jump into a project with
old furniture without some serious review.

You might consider moving a little slowly on this one until you
investigate a bit. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Glenna

==========
Thank you, have only checked with neighbors who are collectors of old oak
furniture, they said it was both common and late and not to worry about it.

Did you find a fireplace insert without electricity?

Josie

writes:

Thank you, have only checked with neighbors who are collectors of old oak
furniture, they said it was both common and late and not to worry about
it.

Glad you checked it out, though I'm not surprised. :-)


Did you find a fireplace insert without electricity?

Actually, I did find one from one of the web pages that was kindly posted
here; thank you for asking. Then . . . I found the photos of the one
across the street. Decided to go see Al to see if he could find someone
to make one and get some sort of estimate. Sadly, the result of that was
finding that he died about two years ago which means it was right after we
had spoken about this. I had been by his shop a few times on a Saturday
but figured he finally started taking off Saturdays. :-( His passing is
definitely a loss to our community, both as a good person lost and as a
good welder lost. When he cut my fireplace screen/door frame for the
electric exchanger I have, he told me I would not longer be able to
operate the door vents because of placement of the intake/outtake on the
exchanger. However, when it was complete, not only could a person not see
the cuts when all was in place, but the vents worked perfectly. He was so
good he was able to fine-tune the cuts and placement to avoid the rods.
That is real talent and not too common in today's shops.

That led me to call the muffler shop he had originally recommended, but
had then just burned and had not started rebuilding yet. Verifying the
date of their fire means that it was, indeed, almost two years since Al's
death. The owner there is so much like Al (the old-timers, both in
attitude and skill) that it's like I already knew him. He knew exactly
what I wanted, as Al had told me, and will construct it for me. He
prefaced that with it being done as time is available. So, instead of a
one-size-fits-all exchanger, I'll have one to fit this fireplace
specifically which is what I was hoping for. Prepared to pay as much as
the commercial one ($250 approx.), the price quoted made it even better,
about $70. I figure even $100 is a really good deal. Best of all is
supporting a local business.

I had a couple of other little projects going on for which I was going to
post the results and a thank-you to those who answered questions and sent
information as soon as the exchanger was "home."

Glenna

Glenna Rose wrote:
writes:

Thank you, have only checked with neighbors who are collectors of
old oak furniture, they said it was both common and late and not to
worry about it.

Glad you checked it out, though I'm not surprised. :-)


Did you find a fireplace insert without electricity?

Actually, I did find one from one of the web pages that was kindly
posted here; thank you for asking. Then . . . I found the photos
of the one across the street. Decided to go see Al to see if he
could find someone to make one and get some sort of estimate.
Sadly, the result of that was finding that he died about two years
ago which means it was right after we had spoken about this. I had
been by his shop a few times on a Saturday but figured he finally
started taking off Saturdays. :-( His passing is definitely a loss
to our community, both as a good person lost and as a good welder
lost. When he cut my fireplace screen/door frame for the electric
exchanger I have, he told me I would not longer be able to operate
the door vents because of placement of the intake/outtake on the
exchanger. However, when it was complete, not only could a person
not see the cuts when all was in place, but the vents worked
perfectly. He was so good he was able to fine-tune the cuts and
placement to avoid the rods. That is real talent and not too common
in today's shops.

That led me to call the muffler shop he had originally recommended,
but had then just burned and had not started rebuilding yet.
Verifying the date of their fire means that it was, indeed, almost
two years since Al's death. The owner there is so much like Al (the
old-timers, both in attitude and skill) that it's like I already
knew him. He knew exactly what I wanted, as Al had told me, and
will construct it for me. He prefaced that with it being done as
time is available. So, instead of a one-size-fits-all exchanger,
I'll have one to fit this fireplace specifically which is what I was
hoping for. Prepared to pay as much as the commercial one ($250
approx.), the price quoted made it even better, about $70. I figure
even $100 is a really good deal. Best of all is supporting a local
business.

I had a couple of other little projects going on for which I was
going to post the results and a thank-you to those who answered
questions and sent information as soon as the exchanger was "home."

Glenna

Yikes! Now I'm going to have to check up on my "old-timer" buddies. But
I'm happy to hear you are getting a exchanger.

Josie