Gentleman’s Valet

Gentleman’s Valet

                          Problem:                                                           Solution:

File this project under the heading, “Because You Can”.

I grew weary of my personal grooming tools taking up a whole shelf in my medicine cabinet in a state of
disarray. Disarray is not my friend, and I am deeply grateful for the myriad ways in which I can bring order to chaos with my woodworking skills.

As for as I know, there is no name for a piece like this. Jewelry box is good, but for the fact it was never intended for jewelry. I’m calling it a Gentleman’s Valet. I fancy myself a gentleman and Webster says a valet is “a device for holding… personal effects”. With Webster on my side, I feel unassailable.

Here are the vitals: It’s made of walnut and pine and is about 7” tall, 9” wide and 5” deep. The construction and joinery are traditional and the finish is French Polish.

Design

There are a couple design details worth mentioning. Wood first- I had some walnut scrap in the bin with a little figure on one end. I wasn’t able to mill it to have consistent figure across my drawer fronts, but I was able to create an asymmetrical effect by carefully choosing and orienting the available figure to create the illusion that the drawers are from one board. Don’t look too close.

I stole an idea from Mike Pekovich’s “Small Cabinet Is Big on Details”  (Fine Woodworking #254), where he set the door and drawer of a shaker-inspired cabinet back from the stiles, rails and divider. It’s a subtle effect that creates great light lines without shouting about it. It also breaks the reveal so that inconsistencies between the moving bits and the case bits disappear. Brilliant. See the effect on my little valet. The case is about 1/16” proud of the drawer fronts when the drawers are closed.

Another subtle design feature is that the top two drawers are the same size and the bottom drawer is a bit deeper (or taller, or bigger… not sure how to say this… see photos). The larger bottom drawer gives the project a sense of being grounded and stable. Even on something this small.

I opted for finger holes instead of hardware pulls simply because there isn’t room between the valet and the cabinet door for a pull when the cabinet is closed. I was loath to drill out so much figured material, but alas, form follows function.

Materials

As I mentioned, this is made mostly from walnut scrap from the crap bin, which is one rung above the kindling box. Translation- I built this for free. The walnut case sides, top and bottom are about 5/16” thick, as are the drawer fronts. The dividers are about 1/8” thick (to be exact, they are equal in thickness to the width of a thin-kerf table saw blade, which made the dados into with the dividers are fit). The case back is also made from 1/8” thick walnut strips to keep milling to a minimum. Each horizontal back strip is roughly the width of the drawer behind which it is nailed.

The drawer sides and backs are ¼” clear pine. I love the pop in contrast between the nearly-white pine and the chocolate end grain of the walnut at the dovetailed drawer corners. The drawer bottoms are ¼” MDF, chosen because there was a small chunk in the bin and because I knew from the get-go I would be lining the drawer bottoms with felt. No need to put anything pretty down there, and no need to worry about wood movement.

Construction

Guilty. Of total overkill. Surely you are thinking that dovetailing the case of a box like this is ridiculous; the behavior of a hopeless show-off at best and a person of questionable character at worst. But it looks cool as hell, right? Truth be told, until I decided to display this project to the 14 people who might read this article, I didn’t think anyone else on earth would ever see it. It’s in my bathroom medicine cabinet, for Christ’s sake! The main reason I dovetailed the case was for practice. That’s a recurring theme in my shop. Practice the tricky bits on projects where mistakes matter little. While we’re on the subject, half-blind dovetails in ¼” material on a drawer that will never hold more than about 6 oz? Cuckoo’s nest. I know.

Actually, on the subject of dovetailing these drawers, I have wisdom to share. Chopping pin sockets in highly figured walnut is hard. Now I know, and so do you. The wood is unpredictable and brittle. True story- of the 6 dovetailed drawer corners on this project, I cut 5 of them without incident. It was on the 6^th and final joint that the wood started popping apart with every chisel tap. On the bright side, highly figured wood is great for hiding repairs. Multiple repairs. One night while glue was curing, it occurred to me to drill out all the socket material I could on the drill press. I was able to pare what remained instead of chopping. The wood (and glue) held together in the absence of mallet blows. Whew. Always on the last joint of a piece of wood you can’t replace, right?

The last note on construction is in regards to the case back. Fitting a miniature chest of drawers inside a cabinet is a game of millimeters. Setting a back panel into a groove cut ¼” from the case back would have had a dramatic impact on the depth of the drawers. To minimize loss of drawer depth, I milled a rabbet around the perimeter of the case and set in the thinnest possible strips of wood to constitute a case back. Also, because the back presents a cross-grain problem, I brad-nailed the back strips into the rabbet with the expectation that the brads will allow the wood to move without buckling the back panels. I used brad nails in predrilled holes with the heads nipped off for pins, which were eventually sanded down flush to the case back.

Finish

I have envied French Polish forever. This project was virtually screaming for it. I’ve tried it before… you can guess how it went. I took a deep breath and decided I couldn’t get too badly hurt. A project as small and simple as this can be sanded down to new wood in half an hour. It seemed like a perfect learning opportunity. Lots of Youtube videos were watched. The exact materials recommended by the experts were gathered. A test board was prepared. And the rubbing began.

I’m pleased, especially with the drawer fronts (where it matters most). I learned tons about French Polishing. I got some “roping” on the sides, but I challenge you to find them from where you’re sitting. All in all, it’s not too tough to do. It takes some skill and experience. I’m not saying I’m ready to French Polish a priceless museum piece, but I’m eager to try it again on another project where the stakes are fairly low.

I’m not going to try to teach the technique here, but I’ll tell you what I think I did that resulted in a fairly successful finish. Watch several videos. Different finishers have their own approaches and it is valuable to understand the underpinning constants and not get too hung up on one person’s technique. Use the right materials- linen wrapped around cotton or wool for the rubber. Shellac in a 2 lb cut (which is easy because Zinsser’s ubiquitous SealCoat is a 2 lb cut of dewaxed shellac). Denatured alcohol. Non-curing oil (I had flax oil on hand with no earthly need for it, so why not?). Be patient, keep moving, and build thin coats. Thin is good. My biggest challenge was charging the rubber without making it too wet. My second biggest challenge was never stopping with the rubber on the project. You can’t change direction without lifting- EVER. This gets trickier as the surface being polished gets smaller and as surface irregularities are introduced. I’m trying to figure out how one would do French Polish on something like a thin table leg with a carved surface. Shudder.

In Conclusion…

Nobody needs a doll-house-sized chest of drawers for their nail clippers. Projects like this are born in minds that cannot help looking at their surroundings through a lens of possible improvements. My little valet has been in use for a couple months now and I love it. I love taking a drawer out as a tool tote to perform a little grooming in front of the TV. I love not looking at a chaotic pile of stainless steel this-n-that in my medicine cabinet. I still pull the drawers out from time to time to look at the joinery. Need has nothing to do with this. I made this because I wanted it and because I could. If you have a better reason for any project, I’m all ears!