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-groove joints. Then paint. Then engraving the spells, prayers or wards on its exterior surface.

Today I went to the lumberyard to buy wood for a chair class I’m teaching next week (a scholarship class for The Chairmakers Toolbox), and I scoped out the wood available for this chest. It looks like Eastern white pine is going to be my best bet. The yard has a nice selection of 8/4 and 4/4 boards in the rough with random widths.

Now I have to pick out a paint color. I’m thinking Old Red.

I am also thinking about the symbols I’ll engrave. Lately I’ve been reading Wendell Berry (not unusual) and Hugh Howey’s “Silo” series. So I’ve been thinking a lot about agriculture while I’m sitting deep in Covington’s urban core.

I see some pregnant farmers in my future.