Slaying Dragons, Part 5 Finishing Touches

Well, I had a busy weekend finishing up the Dragon Slayer Cabinet project. If you need to catch up on the project so far you can go to the projects section of my blog. This is the last installment and details the final assembly.

The rear tongue and groove panels are held in place with two french cleats which are screwed to the back of the cabinet. The french cleats needed to be low profile yet very sturdy to hold the weight of the cabinet so I used brass instead of the traditional wood. The mounting holes were drilled and countersunk and the cleats mounted with brass screws. (the steel ones in the photo were replaced with slotted brass.)

Moving on to the inside of the cabinet I needed to make a mount for the dagger. I cut the contour with a coping saw and refined the edges with chisels. The mount fit tightly into the rabbet shown in an earlier post.

 

 

 The book supports were also cut out with a coping saw, cleaned up with chisels and attached to the bottom with countersunk screws.

The glass was held into place using pieces of hand planed molding with mitered corners. The molding was held into place with brass brads. Pilot holes were drilled slightly undersized to keep the soft brass brads from bending but still hold tightly.

 And then the hinges were installed. I really like the hinges that John at Black Bear Forge custom made for me and they fit perfectly.

This project came together nicely and I am pleased with the results. Sure, there are some details that did not quite measure up to what my vision was but overall I am quite happy. I think it displays the dagger and antique book very well and will offer protection for years of enjoyment. My son was also quite pleased with it and called it the "ultimate man-cave accessory"! Here are some pictures of the finished cabinet.  Thank you for following along! Please share with me the projects that you are working on. I love to see what my customers and blog readers are  creating.

Dave

And the illustration that started the whole project!