Walnut · Glass · Mahogany, Reborn
The Copy
• On the bench
The Commission
She Painted It Blue
Katherine is a pianist. For years her scores have lived in an old mahogany cabinet with glass doors. A few years back she painted it blue, and it was alright back then. Then the blue got old.
She asked me to scrape it and bring the mahogany back. I looked at it closely: every surface, every rail, every corner of heavy paint over a wood that doesn’t forgive stripping. That’s a lot of labor for a result I couldn’t promise would look even.
So I proposed a different route. I would build an exact replica in walnut, save the glass, and give the mahogany a second life in smaller pieces. Cheaper, and more beautiful.
Underneath, where the brush never reached, the mahogany is still there.
The Design
An Exact Copy, in Walnut
The design already exists. It has held her scores for years, so my job is to copy it faithfully: the same proportions, the same rails and stiles, the same doors, rebuilt in solid walnut around Katherine’s original glass.
It starts with the tape. Height, width, depth, every rail, every stile, the shelf-pin spacing, the overhang of the top. If the copy is exact, the scores won’t notice they moved.
And it will still be the same cabinet. The permanence of an object as the same object implies the idea of sameness, which is an abstraction that only lives in our heads anyhow.
I didn’t tell her that last part. We talked about Thelonious Monk instead.
Status
On the Bench
Measured and drawn from the original. Next: the model, then walnut.
- Site visit: measure the blue cabinet
- Refinish vs. rebuild: rebuild chosen
- → Model the copy in Fusion
- Source and mill the walnut
- Case, shelves and doors
- Finish
- Fit the original glass
- Delivery
- Mahogany: a second life in smaller pieces
Specifications
The Details
