Chiaroscuro by Nick Falzone

Maple

Originally, the maple portion of the project was not part of the plan. In fact, the whole bottom section was a huge question mark. After buying so much ebony, I really did not feel like getting more of it so once I realised a bottom section was necessary I decided to use maple instead.

The maple seemed like the natural choice, as I’ve always liked the combination of these two woods and curly maple is a very pretty wood in its own right.

Here is the wood in question and fast forwarding a bit (the whole maple part was completed in three long days) here are the strips cut to width and rough cut to length. Just like the ebony cube, the inner pieces are thinner while the outer pieces are thicker.


To construct this, I needed to make another rabbet joint at the top which would accept a maple frame. Here, all the pieces have been cut to length and the first cut in the rabbet joint has been made. On the right, the maple is once again in the tenoning jig with the second cut in progress.


Once the cuts were done, it was time to make the maple frame. This started out with a piece that connected the two sides. Once this was cut, it was time to cut the piece that would connect all of the strips. To do this, I would have to make another cut into the first cross pieces.


The cut is complete and the full base is mocked up.