Vacation Post

     Since we're currently visiting New York City the work in the shop is on hold, needless to say!  Having quite the time here and today we spent much of today at the Metropolitan Museum.  WOW is all I can say. This has to be like the grand daddy of all museums and collections of art.  From Egyptian tombs and wood that has survived since hundreds of years before Christ to furniture pieces that have been here in the United States since the European's first began settling the colonies.
     There was one huge section that was in the American Studies area where they had items that had been acquired by the museum but where not on display yet.  Many of these were donated/acquired years ago.  I was drawn to the furniture section and here are a few shots of a "de-constructed" chest of drawers showing how it was put together:

From Top 

    Here you can see how the drawer runners, top stretcher, and carcass was dovetailed together, Diane pointed out that there were some nails used in the construction but mainly to attach the moldings.

Opposite Side

     It's a little hard to see through the glass case all of the pieces were in, no doubt climate and humidity controlled.
     One of the things that we lose sight these days is that the original intent of dovetails was to create a strong joint, not necessarily for visual impact or proof of our skills as we do today.  Here is the bracket foot for this "de-constructed" chest of drawers.  It's mitered and has hidden dovetails for strength, imagine the skill it took to cut and assemble this piece.  This isn't apparent if you're just looking at the chest -- all you'd see is a clean, mitered corner.  Don't know about you but this would take me some serious time to cut and assemble.

Bracket Foot with Hidden Dovetail

     Well, time to go see the musical Chicago.  We're pretty centrally located which is good so we're within fairly easy walking distance.  The traffic is something else again, no way would I want to drive the streets of New York City!  Even taking the shuttle from the airport was quite and experience.  So many people on the streets it's quite a change from Las Vegas -- I really am a small town boy at heart!