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[Illustration: RED CEDAR, AUSTIN, TEXAS]
CEDAR CHESTS
_HOW TO MAKE THEM_
RALPH F. WINDOES
Formerly Instructor of Manual Training, Davenport High School,
Davenport, Iowa. Author of “Shop Sketching,” “Architectural
Drawing for Secondary Schools,” “Drafting Instruments
and How to Use Them,” Etc.
[Illustration: Decoration]
SECOND EDITION—ENLARGED.
MILWAUKEE
THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY
Copyright 1918-1921
by
The Bruce Publishing Company
PREFACE
Believing that the popularity of the cedar chest as a cabinet making
project has reached considerable proportions, the author has endeavored
to embody under one cover all information necessary to the design and
construction of a variety of chests. In addition to this mechanical
aspect of the work, he has presented some information of educational
character on red cedar as a wood, and something of interest concerning
the development of the chest.
As information of this character has been lacking in the past, he hopes
that the book will meet with the approval of teachers who will use it
in their work.
Acknowledgment is due to the Forest Service for the use of the
illustrations in Chapter I, to two of the author’s students, Otto J.
Teegen and James A. Kelly, for the great assistance rendered by them
in the preparation of the drawings, and to the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York City, for permission to reproduce photographs of historic
chests in its collections.
R. F. W.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Red Cedar 9
II Cedar Chests 15
III How to Build a Simple Chest 17
IV Cedar Chest Designs 31
V The Finishing of Cedar 78
VI Copper Trimmings 82
VII Matting Boxes 90
[Illustration: This chest came over on the “Mayflower.”]
CHAPTER I
Red Cedar
The botanical name for red cedar suitable for chest construction is
=Juniperus Virginiana=, or =Southern Juniper=, as it is familiarly
known. Commercially, it is sold as “Tennessee Red Cedar.” There are
other cedar woods but none of them should be used in chests if the
great advantages of cedar are to be derived, and especially should the
“western cedar” be avoided, as it is very common and easy to purchase,
yet it has no value as a wood for cedar chest construction. Southern
Juniper may aptly be called the “wood imperishable,” since, under
ordinary conditions, it will never decay. Placed as shingles with
copper nails, there is little doubt but that it will last for ages, or
until the attacks of rain and wind have weathered it away. Until recent
years one of its greatest uses has been in telegraph poles, fence
posts, greenhouses, etc., where constant contact with damp earth would
soon rot away a less durable wood. Now, since the rapid rise in the
value of red cedar has almost prohibited its use, cypress, “the wood
eternal,” has largely succeeded it.
LOG HOUSES OF RED CEDAR
When America was settled, one of its most valued natural resources
was found in the red cedar belt of the South. Settlers migrating to
this region found the straight cedar logs perfectly suited to cabin
construction, consequently the best trees were felled and utilized
in the building of America’s first homes. As times went on and the
settlers prospered, the logs were taken from the houses, and assembled
into barns, frame construction taking their place in the homes. Today,
these old logs, perfectly preserved, are purchased by lumber men, as
some of the most select red cedar lumber is manufactured from them. A
great many of these old logs have been cut up into lead pencil slabs,
as cedar is the best wood that has ever been found for lead pencils.
It is straight grained and easily cut with a knife, the two necessary
characteristics. Another source for pencil supply has been found in
the rail fences, so common in the South, practically all of which were
constructed of split cedar rails. This wood is so highly prized by
pencil makers that many fences have been bought up at such prices that
modern fences have taken their places, leaving a comfortable profit for
the owner.
WHERE RED CEDAR ABOUNDS
The geographical range of red cedar is very wide and hard to define.
Roughly speaking, it can be found westward to Minnesota, south
to Florida, and southwest through Texas. The finest forests were
originally found in middle Tennessee, in Davidson, Rutherford, Bedford,
Marshall, and Warren Counties, with a considerable quantity in the
breaks of the Cumberland plateau and in Eastern Tennessee. There was
considerable red cedar also in Southern Virginia, North Alabama and in
Georgia, while some is found in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Red Cedar and Loblolly Pine; Occasional Scrub
Pine in the Background. Southern Maryland]
These belts are still the most reliable source of supply, some of
them having been cut over a great many times. Second growth, although
it is stunted, more knotty, and contains more sapwood than first
growth, finds a market in fence posts and a very little in furniture
construction.
DEPLETION OF THE CEDAR SUPPLY
The supply of Southern Juniper in this country, both first and second
growth, is rapidly being depleted. There is no reason why this
condition should exist. The early settlers, anxious to clear their
lands, destroyed it ruthlessly, it is true, yet it lends itself so
readily to reforestation that it is difficult to surmise why steps to
maintain its constant supply were not taken long ago. About two hundred
years ago, a Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, after traveling over the
settled portion of the country, wrote at some length upon the splendid
qualities of red cedar, and prophesied its early extinction unless
steps were taken to replenish the supply.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Red Cedar. Longitudinal Section, Magnified 76
times.]
In Poor Richard’s Almanac for 1749, Benjamin Franklin urged the people
to plant and foster the growth of red cedar. He was of the opinion that
the rapid clearing of the land, the constant need of wood for fuel
would soon destroy the slow-growing oaks and other hardwoods, and that
“it would be to our advantage to endeavor to raise some other kind of
timber that will grow faster or come sooner.”
“The red cedar (a species of juniper) I take to be the most profitable
tree for fencing and several other uses that we can raise in our
country, considering how easily it may be raised from seeds, its
readiness to grow on most kinds of soil, its quick growth, the profits
it will afford while it is arriving at maturity, and the long duration
of the wood when grown to a proper size for the materials we want for
our several occasions in husbandry and building. I know of no other
tree that will grow so well on such different soils as this will, for
upon our sandy beaches, which are nothing but beds of sand, they grow
as thick as possible, from whence many thousand posts for fencing are
brought into Pennsylvania and York governments, and I have seen, in
a great many swamps upon a branch of the Susquehannah, great trees
growing, near 18 inches diameter, 70 feet high, and very straight.
And the inhabitants near the mountains, upon Hudson Bay, make a
great use of them for making large hovels or barracks to put their
corn in before it is threshed. They will grow well in high gravely
or clay soil, in rich or poor, or even upon a rock, if there be but
half a foot of land or earth upon it. It is much to be valued for its
quick growth from seed, the little sap and much durable heart, which
is acquired sooner than any tree that we can raise on common land.
Indeed, the mulberry and locust are of quick growth in very rich land,
but not upon poor.”
[Illustration: Fig. 3 Fifty Year Old Cedar, Job’s Swamp, Ocean County,
New Jersey]
That the predictions of Kalm and Franklin have been substantiated is
a well known fact since the cedar of commercial size grown in the
Eastern and New England States—of which they spoke—has long since been
exhausted. Neither knew of the extensive cedar growths in the South and
West, yet the original growth of these regions is very near exhaustion.
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Mature Cedar Brake Along Road. No Underbrush,
but the Young Cedar Seedlings Fill all Gaps. Marble Falls, Burnet
County, Texas]
Luckily, our efficient Forest Service is at this time doing everything
in its power to encourage reforestation of the cedar tracts, and the
future of the red cedar tree looks more promising than the present.
CHARACTERISTICS OF RED CEDAR
As has been intimated, red cedar is a very durable wood. It is also
light, straight grained, does not warp readily, will dry out rapidly,
takes a beautiful finish, and has a most pleasant aroma, but one which
is moth and insect repelling. Moths shun the red cedar, as other
insects shun the pennyroyal herb.
These favorable characteristics all combine to make red cedar the
ideal wood for chest construction. Chests must be light, yet strong;
good to look upon when finished; of such flat stock that the finish
on one side alone will not cause the wood to warp; and they must be
moth proof. Southern Juniper furnishes all of these desirable points,
and in addition its pleasant aroma permits the immediate wearing of
apparel taken from the cedar chest without airing, as must be done with
garments protected by moth balls.
[Illustration: Small Carved Wood Chest of Venetian Make (Sixteenth
Century)]