Kathryn Mawson, Cabinet and Stand inspired by James Krenov (Student)

In the process of designing and constructing my HSC major project, I was greatly inspired by James Krenov's work and Japanese woodworking. I chose to use Victorian ash as both solid timber and veneer (specifically for the interior face of the back panel) and American black walnut, both of which proved to be a pleasure to work with. I also love the colours as they contrast with each other very well and the fairly straight grain in each, creates a flow throughout the project and does not distract from the other design features. My delicate cabinet required a lot of patience and care as I incorporated many intricate joints. The joint which I am most proud of is the mitred dovetails in the carcase of the cabinet. I used the Leigh D4R Pro jig to to set an aesthetically pleasing pattern, and then routed the dovetails, leaving the space for the mitred corners. The mitres required excellent precision and accuracy on the first cut, as the joint could not be dry fitted until after the mitres had been cut using a Japanese pull saw (and tidied with chisels). This process took majority of my time but I am very pleased with the results. The other intricate joints incorporated were in the joining of the hinges, the through mortise and tenons in the stand, and in the kumiko door front design. Kumiko is a delicate and sophisticated traditional Japanese style of woodworking, using really thin strips of timber to create patterns, in this case I designed my own unique pattern. This is typically done by hand, but as we are gaining more advanced CAD and CAM technologies I was able to use a laser cutter to send my digital designs to, and produce my kumiko components for the door front in minutes with perfectly fitting joints (the door handle was an authentic shaker peg which I chose to blend well with the Victorian Ash timber). I also incorporated multiple curved features including the lower rail in the front and back, which I sanded an extremely delicate curve into using the spindle sander. The other very subtle curve was a taper in the legs cut using a flush trim router bit against my laser cut jig. I am very pleased with the curves as they do not stand out too much but soften the overall look of my project. The final feature that was also added to soften my project is the slight floating affect of the cabinet as it is not attached to the legs directly, it is attached to the hidden rails which are attached to the top front and back rails of the stand. Overall, I am really proud of my project and am very pleased with all my joinery and my initial choice of timber species. Teacher: Dean Maddock, Jamison High School.

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