I am incredibly proud of this piece and would like to thank Darrell Peart for putting a picture of this piece in his book, since that’s where I first saw it. I would also like to thank Gary Hall (grand-nephew of John Hall) for giving me access to the frame. And I can’t forget to thank my buddy TreeFrog (Brad) for helping me take measurements and photos of the original, and also for exhibiting an enthusiasm equal to my own concerning this project.

This frame will be featured in a future issue of Popular Woodworking, and that’s why the details are a little sparse here on the blog. But I can assure you it will be worth the wait! Hope you guys like it!

Darrell Peart is a furniture-maker, author, and instructor living in the Pacific Northwest. His work is heavily influenced by the work of the Greene brothers and as you can see on his website, Darrell likes to put his own spin on it. This interview took place in March of 2009 at the William Ng School. I took Darrell’s Aurora End Table class and he was kind enough to sit and chat with me about all kinds of things: influences, design theories, copying other works, and Greene & Greene. Darrell also gives a few tips to help bring out that inner designer inside of all of us (if it isn’t coming out naturally).

If you are interested in learning more about Greene & Greene history and techniques, you have to check out Darrell’s book. You can pick it up directly on his website and he’ll even autograph it for you!

The rest of this series:
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Below you can see the handle for the drawer. Pretty simple really: just two mahogany blocks with a dowel running through them. You can also see the final glueup of the drawer. If you look closely at the drawer front, you’ll see how the downward curve continues through the drawer sides as well. A simple beveled rip at the table saw creates this nifty detail. Before I left for the evening, I put the top on the base and got a good glimpse of what this table is going to look like. I’m a happy woodworker!

The rest of this series:
6 Days to Aurora- Day 1
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6 Days to Aurora- Day 6

After licking my wounds, we turned our attention to the table top. This particular top has breadboard ends. The holes on the outside of the breadboard will be capped with ebony plugs, of course, and the breadboard is connected to the table core with a series of splines. Notice how only the center 4″ or so are actually glued in place? This will allow the outer edges to expand and contract with changes in humidity. Screws will secure the breadboard at the ends.

As some of you may know, I have expressed interest in building a very special frame I saw in Darrell’s book. This particular frame was not made by one of the Greenes, but instead was made by John Hall. John and his brother Peter were the ones responsible for actually building the designs that were thought up by the Greene brothers. When Darrell heard that Brad and I were interested in reproducing the frame, he made a few calls. And imagine my giddy school-girl delight when the frame showed up at the school today! Not a close reproduction, but THE frame. John’s name adorns the back and has the date 1909. Seems appropriate that I plan to reproduce this piece in 2009. As if having complete access to the frame for measurements and scrutinization wasn’t enough, the frame was delivered by its owner, Gary Hall (grandson of Peter Hall). We capped off the day with a great dinner with a bunch of Greene & Greene enthusiasts. Being a new “fan” myself, I didn’t have much to add but I sure did take it all in. I was honored to be sitting at the same table as these guys. Now, back in my hotel room, my brain is busy trying to process the day’s events while my fingers type out the blog post. Somehow, I need to sleep.

The rest of this series:
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We then set out to make the ebony plugs. They were cut from long ebony sticks of various thicknesses. To create the rounded “pillow” at the top of the peg, Darrell has this sweet jig which he explains how to build in his book. Once shaped, we refined the surface with increasing grits of sandpaper and finally a buffing at the low-speed grinder. The tip is then cut off by hand and the process is repeated. And if you are Brad, you can also use this saw to create a neat little droplet of red liquid on your finger!

I finished up today with a quick dry assembly and a glueup. Pictured below are all the separate parts. Everything was assembled using loose tenon joinery. Fortunately, the dry-fit looked perfect. So I proceeded with the first sub-assembly, and left it to set up overnight. I can’t wait to get back and finish gluing up the rest of base tomorrow.

Many of you emailed and commented about the big pattern bit. So here’s the story. William had it custom made. Its designed to work well on difficult grain. So if you do a lot of chairs or any other projects that require lots of template routing, this bit would be your best friend. William actually sells these bits at the school and they are available for $130. You can contact William directly to order one.

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We spent a good deal of time marking, rough cutting, and routing all the arched rail pieces. The front (under the drawer) receives a true independent arched rail, while the side and back aprons receive an applied arch.

I then spent some quality time with the Multi-Router making the remaining mortises in the aprons and rails. If you aren’t familiar with a Multi-Router, its basically a router mounted horizontally. The way the system is designed, its incredibly easy to make accurate and repeatable cuts.

And this final shot is for those who were asking about this monster pattern bit. I will ask William about it tomorrow.

Oh by the way. The book that really accelerated my interest in Greene & Greene furniture was written by the instructor himself, Darrell Peart. You can pick it up directly on his website and he’ll even autograph it for you.

The rest of this series:
6 Days to Aurora- Day 1
6 Days to Aurora- Day 2
6 Days to Aurora- Day 3
6 Days to Aurora- Day 4
6 Days to Aurora- Day 5
6 Days to Aurora- Day 6

Day 1 was very similar to day 1 of any class anywhere. That is, the first half of the day was spent selecting and milling stock. We picked some fine mahogany boards (gotta go with the classics), and started milling stock for the legs, aprons, and drawer parts. That’s Brad (aka TreeFrog), cutting some of our parts to size.

Once the stock was ready to go, we began working on some of the leg details. The legs of the table feature this beautiful stepped “waterfall” on the inside face (where you might normally see tapers). Darrell had this great little flush trimming jig that made the job pretty easy. The jig looks incredibly easy to build too. We also cut our the mortises (all loose tenon joinery) and the square holes for the ebony plugs.

So by the end of the day, I had some sexy legs with holes in them and I feel like I learned a lot. What you’ll find in these group classes is that you tend to learn just as much from side conversations with the instructor and your fellow students, as you do from the class itself. It was great meeting Darrell and all I can say is thank goodness I have 5 more days to pick his brain! So far, I am truly enjoying my experience at the William Ng School. Oh and if you look closely at those legs, there are several square holes along the edge, the smallest of which is 1/8″!! Now that’s a tiny peg!!

The rest of this series:
6 Days to Aurora- Day 1
6 Days to Aurora- Day 2
6 Days to Aurora- Day 3
6 Days to Aurora- Day 4
6 Days to Aurora- Day 5
6 Days to Aurora- Day 6