Peter Smith, 19th Century Australian Red Cedar Cabinet (RECYCLED & RESCUED 2023)

Photos:

Peter Smith

Country:

Australia

I rescued this 19th Century Australian red cedar cabinet from a life of abuse at a trash and treasure market. The cabinet is beautifully made and probably started life as a place to store items of value belonging to someone of above average means. Then, it fell from grace and was painted white (to hide the many defects?). It has suffered many hard knocks that are evidenced by the splits, cracks, twisted hinges and deep dents. Then someone saw what was underneath the paint and started stripping it only to reveal the amount of work required to restore it to its former glory. It then sat weathering to the state in which I found it. The style and proportions led me to recycle the cabinet as a place to store my motley “collection” of hand planes. Like the cabinet my planes have history, character, and stories to tell. I was lucky enough to pick up some drawer sides of a similar age at yet another trash and treasure market. Most plane tills are functional but lack the character I was after. So, the ends of the gallery uprights are shaped like plane totes (end handles) and the drawer handle is a brass knob nut. After making essential repairs I took care to make changes with minimum impact on the cabinet e.g. using small nails instead of screws and glue. The final finish was achieved by: * Removing the remaining white paint with turps and a fine wire brush * Lightly sanding to 240 grit * Applying two coats of blond shellac * Lightly sanding at 320 grit between numerous coats of shellac * After the final coat of shellac, I applied and buffed cabinet makers wax. Who knows what the future holds for this beautiful cabinet – perhaps someday it will house a collection of antique game controllers or rocks from a galaxy far, far away.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.