60 F I N E W O O D W O R K I N G Photos, except where noted: Tom Begnal; this page: Michael Pekovich

everal years ago, my sister Cicelywas looking for a bookcase thatwould be attractive, functional and

reasonably easy to move. The piece I de-signed and built for her is now one of thestock pieces in my furniture shop. I call it,appropriately, Cicely’s Bookshelf.

I wanted the bookcase to have a spareand elegant look, so I kept the frame partsto a minimum and elevated the piece offthe floor by extending the corner posts tocreate four short legs. All four edges of thetop, along with the front edge of eachshelf, were given a generously sized coveto create the illusion of thinner stock. As aresult, even when the piece is filled withbooks, it appears light and graceful.

Choose the wood with careFor me, the first and most important step inany furniture project is the process of se-lecting the wood. Consistent color andgrain are important, and I’m always on thelookout for something interesting. I espe-cially like to incorporate special grain or anatural defect. Not only does an odd grainor a small defect make each piece a bitmore unique, it also provides a strong vi-sual connection to the tree from which itevolved. For instance, the piece shownhere has a small, sound knot near the front

Cherry and Fir BookcaseSubtle details

add elegance

to a simple

frame-and-panel

design

B Y P E T E R Z U E R N E R

S

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 61Drawings: Bob La Pointe

C U T T H E J O I N E R Y F O R T H E P O S T S A N D R A I L S

The rails have stepped tenons that fit snuglyin both the panel groove and the mortise,adding strength to the joints.

Cut grooves to accept the fir panels. Tocut stopped grooves in the posts, first clampan extralong auxiliary fence to the rip fence of the tablesaw, then clamp a stop block tothe auxiliary fence. Use a dado head to cutthe grooves.

Square the cor-ners. The dadohead leaves arounded portionat the stoppedend of thegrooves. A chiselmakes themsquare in shortorder.

Two-step tenon. Use a dado head to cut thetenons. First clamp a stop block to the fenceto establish the tenon length. Then cut theportion of the tenon that fits into the groove.To create the step, reset the blade height andreposition the stop block as shown.

3⁄8 in.

3⁄8 in.

11⁄8 in.

6 in.

Grooves in rails,5⁄8 in. wide by 3⁄8 in. deep

Side rails, 11⁄4 in. thick by21⁄4 in. wide

11⁄2 in.

65⁄8 in.

3⁄8 in.

5⁄8 in. 3⁄8 in. 5⁄8 in.TENON DETAIL

End ofside rails

1⁄2 in.

3⁄8 in.

5⁄8 in.

Posts, 15⁄8 in. square Grooves in

posts, 5⁄8 in.wide by 3⁄8 in.deep

POST DETAILBack rails, 11⁄4 in. thick by21⁄4 in. wide

15⁄8 in.

3⁄8 in.

11⁄2 in.

Back panels,5⁄8 in. thick

62 F I N E W O O D W O R K I N G

441⁄2 in. 18 in.

91⁄2 in.

121⁄2 in.

12 in.

111⁄2 in.

11 in.

651⁄2 in.

Top, 13⁄8 in. thick by 18 in.wide by 441⁄2 in. long

Back rails, 11⁄4 in. thick by21⁄4 in. wide by 371⁄4 in.long, shoulder to shoulder

Posts, 15⁄8 in. squareby 641⁄8 in. long

Side panels, 5⁄8 in.thick by 113⁄8 in. wideby 541⁄16 in. long

Cleat, 1 in. square by371⁄4 in. long

Back panels,5⁄8 in. thick by18 in. wideby 541⁄16 in.long

Shelves, 1 in. thick by121⁄2 in. wide(including21⁄4-in.-widefront edging)by 381⁄8 in.long

Bottom shelfis screwedto the lowerfront railand thecleat.

Center divider, 11⁄4 in. thick by21⁄2 in. wide by533⁄8 in. long,shoulder toshoulder

Upper rail, 11⁄4 in. thick by 21⁄4 in. wide by371⁄4 in. long, shoulder to shoulder

Lower frontrail, 11⁄4 in.thick by 21⁄4 in. wideby 375⁄8 in.long,shoulder toshoulder

Side rails, 11⁄4 in. thickby 21⁄4 in. wide by 103⁄4 in. long, shoulderto shoulder

Wood buttonsecures top

Shelf pin

401⁄2 in. 14 in.

Zuerner incorporated frame-and-panel construction inhis bookcase, with the mortise and tenon accountingfor most of the joinery.

F R A M E - A N D - PA N E L B O O K C A S E

11⁄4 in.

1⁄4 in.

1 in.

5⁄16 in.

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 63

of the lower shelf, about midway acrossthe span.

In this piece, I liked the idea of blendingdarker cherry with the strong grain of quar-tersawn Douglas fir. So I used cherry forthe frame parts, the top and the front edg-ing on the shelves. The quartersawn fir isincorporated into the panels.

Sometimes, when wood is moved fromone location to another, the new condi-tions of temperature and humidity cancause it to warp a bit, often within a fewhours of the relocation. So once I have allof the oversize stock together in my shop,I like to give it a few weeks to acclimate toits new temporary home. Then, afterrough-milling the stock, I allow it to sit foranother day before cutting it to final size.Any last-minute twisting or cupping getsremoved at this stage.

Construction is straightforwardI began by gluing up blanks for the 5⁄8-in.-thick side and back panels. To dothat, I resawed 8/4 fir, book-matchingthe panels to add a balanced look.

All of the shelves were made fromcommercially available 5/4 by 12-in.-wide stair stock. However, the front ofeach shelf received an edging of 21⁄4-in.-wide cherry, so the bookcase ends upwith an all-cherry look when viewedfrom the front. The cherry edging hasanother plus. Because fir sometimes canbe splintery, the cherry almost eliminat-ed any splitting out when the coveswere cut.

Most of the frame was put togetherwith mortise-and-tenon joints. The oneexception is a sliding dovetail joint thatI used to connect each end of the lowerfront rail to the lower side rail.

To accept the panels, I cut 5⁄8-in.-widegrooves into the posts, the center di-vider, the side rails and the upper andlower back rails. The grooves in theposts were stopped about 7 in. short ofthe bottom. Then, at each stopped end, Iused a bench chisel to square up therounded portion.

After all of the joints had been cut and fit-ted, I cut the panels to final length andwidth. All of the panel surfaces were sand-ed through 220 grit. After that, I appliedfour coats of tung oil to each panel.

Oil finishes sometimes “bleed” from thewood pores while drying. When that hap-pens, the finish often ends up with tiny

A S S E M B LY B E G I N S AT T H E B A C K

Finish the panels. Before assembly, the panels are finished with four coats oftung oil.

Assemble the back. The two back panelsare slipped into the grooves in the frameparts and then clamped.

With all of the parts cut and fitted to his satisfaction, Zuerner is ready to begin assembly.First, though, he applies finish to all of the panels. Then he makes the back and adds theremaining parts.

Add the remaining frame-and-panel parts.Once the back glue-up has dried, the remainingframe-and-panel parts are added in one big glue-up. First, the lower front rail is assembled to thetwo lower side rails, and then all four of the siderails are added to the back posts. Following inquick succession are the side panels, front postsand the upper rail (above). An assortment ofclamps keeps the joints tight until the glue setsup (left).

While the clamped parts dried, I cut thetop and the shelves to final width andlength. Then I cut the coved profile. Al-though you can use a special shaper cutter,I cut the coves in two steps using a table-saw and a router table. For this technique, Iused a dado head in the tablesaw and

made several passes to remove most of thewaste stock. Then, using a 3⁄4-in.-radiuscove bit mounted in a router table, I madea series of additional passes. The cove biteasily conforms to the profile, so it’s moreefficient at removing waste stock than astraight-sided dado head is.

After the work with the cove bit had beencompleted, I was left with a wavy profilethat needed to be smoothed out. A curvedscraper came in handy here.

Once all of the coves had been cut andsmoothed, I used a chisel to cut a smallbevel, sometimes called a lamb’s tongue,where the coves meet at the corners.Granted, it’s a small detail, but it bringsthe corners to a crisp point. Also, to any-one looking at the bookcase, the bevelsends a subtle message that this isn’t aproduction piece.

At this point in the construction, all five ofthe shelves were just about complete. I

64 F I N E W O O D W O R K I N G Photo, this page (bottom): Kelly J. Dunton

beads of hardened oil, and that can givethe finish a slight roughness. So, once acoat had dried, I sanded it lightly with1,000-grit sandpaper wetted with mineraloil. The wet-sanding removed any beadsthat formed. Then, I wiped the sanded sur-faces with a clean, soft cloth and allowedthe mineral oil to dry. Once it was dry, Iadded the next coat of tung oil.

Assembly starts with the back sectionI started the assembly process by puttingtogether all of the parts that compose theback section—the two back posts, the up-per and lower back rails, the center dividerand the two back panels. Except for thepanels, all of the mating surfaces wereglued together. That way, the panels arefree to expand and contract in width astheir moisture content changes.

Once the back section was dry, I joinedmost of the remaining parts in one bigglue-up. I began by adding the lower frontrail to the two lower side rails. After that,the four side rails were assembled to themortises in the two back posts. Then I sim-ply slid the side panels into the grooves inthe side rails. Once the upper front rail wasmounted, I added the clamps and checkedthe frame for square.

Remove most of the waste. Make a series of increasingly deeper cuts with the dado head. A test block, with the cove profilemarked on the end, helps establish the locationof the cuts.

Applying a generous cove to the exposed edgesof the top and the shelves makes the parts lookthinner, giving this large bookcase a lighter feel.

Make a series of cuts using therouter table and a large cove bit. Use acurved scraper to smooth out any wavyedges left by the cove bit.

The lamb’s tongue. A small bevel at eachcorner of the top is cut with a chisel to helpsoften the hard right angle of the edges.

C U T T H E C O V E S I N T W O S T E P S

1

2

SHELF

TOP

2 in.

13⁄8 in.

1 in.

3⁄8 in.

3⁄8 in.

11⁄2 in.

J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 65Photo, this page (bottom right): Scott Phillips

simply had to notch the front and back cor-ners to fit around the inside corners of thefour posts.

I used a simple jig to drill the holes for thepins that support the shelf. And I had twooptions here. I could have drilled a seriesof holes, spaced evenly apart, to provideadjustability. Or, if the client didn’t want tosee all of those holes, I could have simplydrilled them where the shelves were goingto go.

To add strength to the bookcase, the bot-tom shelf was fixed in place. It rests on twoparts: the lower front rail and a cleat that’sscrewed to the inside face of the lowerback rail. Six screws hold the shelf inplace. The screws were driven up through

counterbored holes in the lower front railand the cleat.

Next, I sanded all exposed surfaces, ex-cept for the panels, with 220-grit paper.Then, again excepting the panels, I addedfour coats of tung oil, sanding betweeneach coat with 1,000-grit paper while theoil was still wet.

To allow the top to expand and contractin width as the humidity changes, I at-tached it to the frame using eight smallwood buttons. A final rubdown with a soft,dust-free cloth completed the project. �

Peter Zuerner, owner of Zuerner Design, buildsfurniture in Middletown, R.I., just a silver-spoon’sthrow from the historic mansions of Newport.

Add the top. After cutting several shallow slots in the upper rails, Zuerner slips a notchedwood button in each slot. Then the buttons arescrewed to the underside of the top.

Attach the bottom shelf. The bottom shelf issecured by driving screws up through the cleatand the lower front rail. To allow the shelf to ex-pand and contract with changes in humidity,Zuerner uses a rat-tail file to slot the portion ofthe hole that accepts the shank of the screw.

F I N I S H W I T H T H E S H E LV E S A N D T H E T O P

Straightforward construction.You won't need much more than aweekend or two to build this ele-gant bookcase.