The High Carpathian Chest

The chest with some naughty ankle skin for scale.

Most days I am quietly panicking that I haven’t finished building the projects for “The American Peasant” book. I am behind schedule. But then I remind myself that while there are five more projects ahead that I need to build, I’ve made progress elsewhere.

I have figured out how to make the engravings, and we’ve brought our engraving tool to market (it’s just $27 – check it out here). We’ve developed a peasant-friendly glue using three ingredients you can buy at the grocery store and we’ve brought that to market (we’re sold out today, but I am cooking gallons more tonight).

Oh, and I’ve figured out how best to use linseed oil paint. All three of these things were obstacles I had to climb to finish the book.

So now I will dive into the building phase. Next up is a full-size High Carpathian chest, which is based on examples I’ve collected photos of through the years.

The joinery is simple: mortise-and-tenon joints with lots of tongue-and-groo…