The Long's Peak Gun Cabinet

The latest Expression in Wood by The Knotty Woodworker is The Long's Peak Gun Cabinet. It is 53" wide and 74" tall and will hold 12 long arms. It features raised panel sides and lower doors, Glass panel upper doors, handmade pulls and knobs, and a tongue and groove paneled back.
A pure pleasure to create and build, I was allowed a lot of creative control to do a "Knotty Job." As has become the norm, my client was very satisfied, not just with the overall appearance, but with the quality of craftsmanship.



I made the pulls and knobs from a limb that was killed by the Mountain Pine Beetle. The burrow tracks are the texture and beauty of each one and each is as unique as a finger print. The door pulls and knobs are doweled into place through the face of the door and a set of smaller dowels are glued into those dowels from the edge of the door. Quality. Uniqueness.








Some folks might would consider the steps I take a waste of time. However, The Knotty Woodworker guarantees all of his furniture for a full 5 years in materials and craftsmanship. Five years! A brand new house is only guaranteed for 1 year.
It is not my intent to ever have to do any warranty work. The only way to avoid this is to build it right the first go around. My pieces are tomorrow's antiques, so I build them to be an heirloom your great grand kids will enjoy. I beg you to find such a guaranty elsewhere and at no additional cost.
The Beetle kill pine has a most unique beauty. Each piece is so unique and different than the next board. The result is not only extreme beauty, but knotty uniqueness. If you are not familiar with Colorado's Beetle Kill Pine, please see my blog entry located at Environmentally Responsible Furniture Making
When this wood is crafted into furniture by The Knotty Woodworker, each aspect of the grain is significantly highlighted through grain selection and board placement.






Here is a close up of the base of the Long's Peak Gun cabinet that shows the incredibly catastrophic beauty of this wood. The moulding used here is a piece 1/4" thick. The other half of the board, the "book matched" slice, is used as the molding on the top of the cabinet. Just one of many little steps taken by The Knotty Woodworker to display the elegance of this wood and to have your furniture exclaim "Colorado" to all who takes in it's beauty.


Here are a few more pictures of the Long's Peak Gun Cabinet.




























Please consider how a piece of furniture made from Beetle Kill Pine would fit into your home and how to get the best quality for your money by having The Knotty Woodworker be your furniture maker. A decision that you will never regret. The money you spend with The Knotty Woodworker today will continually spend itself into the future. 303.246.4766

FBI - CAPTURED

FBI - Furniture Built Intelligently.

CAPTURED - The backs on all of my pieces.

Let me pry for a minute. Have you ever had a piece of furniture, say a dresser or entertainment center, that had a back nailed on? Chances are it was a heavy duty cardboard material. And on this piece, did you experience the back coming off often?

My cabinet backs are made of, at the minimum, a piece of 1/4" thick MDF core material. When feasible through aesthetic needs and budget allocations, I prefer to use a solid wood back.

The Knotty Woodworker uses a building method I call a "captured back." I run a groove on the inside back edge of all sides and bottoms of my cabinets. If my back is 1/4", the groove will be 1/4" wide and 1/4" deep. If I am using a solid wood back, the width of the groove corresponds with backs thickness and is set in from the back edges enough to leave a 3/4" space on the back of the sides and bottoms.





As you see in the picture above, I have a 1/4" groove in the side and bottom. A 1/4 back will go in that slot that encloses the back of the cabinet. It will "float" in the grooves and only be attached to the top back brace of the cabinet (the brace also serves as a mounting bracket for the top above the cabinet).in the 3/4" are behind the back, I will put in a horizontal piece of material that is 3" wide.





In this picture, a back to a gun cabinet, you can see that the back itself is 3/4" solid wood. It sits in a 1/2"deep groove on the side. You can see how it is set in 3/4" leaving room for a solid wood brace.





Here is the back of the gun cabinet. See the solid wood braces helping to keep the back and the whole cabinet secure? No fear in moving it around, it will stay together.
Extra material, extra steps, extra time. The result? Extra lifespan for your furniture. Outside of a disaster like fire or or falling off a truck, that back will never come off. It is captured. Quality, and nothing short of that is what is built into every piece of furniture by The Knotty Woodworker.
When you invest in tomorrow's antiques with The Knotty Woodworker, your dollar today spends well into the future. All of my pieces carry a 5 year warranty on material and craftsmanship at no extra cost. The guaranty is captured in your furniture.

Getting In My Groove

When it comes to the joining of cabinet sides, Many methods may be employed. Since my furniture is usually solid wood construction, I often fined myself unable to use screws for fastening because of aesthetics. My typical method is putting a corresponding groove on a piece in which a perpendicular component will sit in. In it's simplest terms, it is a dado joint. This is perhaps the best joint, in my opinion for a standard cabinet bottom to be joined to a side. I took some pictures of my current project to show you what you can expect when you allow The Knotty Woodworker to build your handmade furniture. The picture below shows a cabinet bottom and a cabinet side. The dado is in the side and is almost 1/2" deep. Furniture manufacturers will use this same joint, but theirs is calibrated and machined on a CNC.









As you can see in this picture, once assembled with glue, this bottom will be very secure for many many years. Stay tuned as I will be posting more pictures of this gun cabinet and sharing my methods so you can see why your best value is handmade furniture created by hand in The Knotty Wood Shop. October marks three years in business and I am running some awesome sales on furniture, particularly My COlorado Expressions style made with native Colorado Beetle Kill Pine. Let's discuss that special gift for that special someone this fall. 303. 246.4766