The Armour Archive

Just complete.

Cherry wood, wood glue, Finished with Boiled Linseed & beeswax.



Source:



With Henry, our experimental test baby in proper cradlewear. (what better reason to heve kids than as experimental subjects?) He'd also be strapped down with bands threaded through the side slots:

Jeff J wrote: Finished with Boiled Linseed & beeswax.

That kid looks pretty good for having been finished with boiled linseed & beeswax!

Oh, and nice crib too.

Maria A.S.

Jeff,

That is an amazing and lovely piece. I cannot wait to see it in person this weekend.

MariaAgrissa wrote: That kid looks pretty good for having been finished with boiled linseed & beeswax!

He's finished with "Boudreaux's Butt Paste". Best stuff ever for diaper rash!

Jeff, did you build that?

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

VERY NICE! The bondage baby is kinda creepy but nice none the less.

Why so much bedding?

Yup, I built it.

The swaddling and the amount of bedding are what you see in period baby and cradle artwork. Char has piles of swaddled baby pics and I've a dozen or so of cradles. A lot of the babies are wrapped, and all of the cradles are mounded with bedding.

In practice, it actually keeps them calm - like being in the womb. I also makes them more manageable transportable for a busy mom, and kept them safe in a dangerous household. There are period writings on the subject that discuss the bebefits keeping the baby swaddled for the entire first year of life.

How do you have the end and side panels into the posts? Sliding dovetails? short tenons? Full length tenons? I thought I saw a pin in the one picture, but I wasn't sure.

I want to make one for the next child.. (my daugther was way too huge from day one for a cradle to be even vaguely useful).

Maeryk

3/4" deep full length tenons, glued & pinned with dowels.

[img]http://www.mathildegirlgenius.com/galle ... .sized.jpg[/img]

The key to making it structurally sound with the angled end posts is to slot the posts into the rocker and that prevents the posts from spreading, holding the end panels tight between them. I don't think I really needed to peg the end panels in.

[img]http://www.mathildegirlgenius.com/galle ... .sized.jpg[/img]

It looks like you glued it full-length between the tenons and the post (or that is just a finish line.. hard to tell).. don't be surprised if it cracks along the length of the side at some point. I learned that one the hard way too.. unless you used elongated holes for the pegs, and only glued it in the center.

Cherry is a BEAR like that sometimes.. but nowhere near red oak!

But it is an absolutely GORGEOUS piece!

Maeryk

Thanks Maeryk, Glad to have complements from someone who knows a lot about wood. I'm hoping you're wrong about the cracking, and will do as you suggest the next time I do a similar joint. It's similar what I do for my chests.

You really can't but love cherry. I just can't wait for it to age. Cherry is supposed to darken with time and even faster with exposure to sunlight, so it's going to sit in a sunny spot. Hmmm... that might promote drying that leads to cracking though. I'll have to keep up on the finishing to help keep that at bay.

Have you heard the axiom about finishing with Linseed? "Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, once a year for life."

Yup.. thats the rule with linseed.

Remember.. Linseed does NOT waterproof.. it slows it down a bit, but it wont waterproof it. Having it in a "sunny spot" won't dry it out as fast as a very dry house will.

Cherry isn't the worst for movement, but it sure as heck isnt the best either.

And yes.. it will age BEAUTIFULLY. You should see my daughters high chair, 2.5 years later!

Did you turn the posts? or are those add-on finials?

Maeryk

Jeff J wrote:Have you heard the axiom about finishing with Linseed? "Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, once a year for life."

Yep, when I finish with linseed or Tung oil that is how I do it. Slather it on, wipe off excess, walk away. Comeback tomorrow repeat.

Also with linseed and tung oil, buffing will yeild a beautifull satin sheen on the wood.

How did you do the morteses?

Maeryk wrote:
Did you turn the posts? or are those add-on finials?

They are turned. I wish I had a lathe and that kind of skill - the balls are almost perfectly round. The guy who did them is a retired Navy Captain and does the most fantastic bowls I'd ever seen. He asked $50 for the job, but he just had his first grandchild a couple of days before Charlotte & I picked them up last June. He took one look at Char, 8-months pregnant, and just gave them to me.

Which reminds me - I have to send him photos.

InsaneIrish wrote:How did you do the morteses?

Cheated. Routed them rough and chiseled the edges.

One teeny tiny "criticism" if you will..

In the future, if you are going to "cheat" on mortises, cut em 1/2 inch sort on either end.. then use the same router to round the tenons out to match (fairl easy to do with a jig) but set them 1/2 inch down and up from top and bottom.

I have yet to see a piece that shows the end of the mortise.. they cut them down a bit so the end of the board covered the "sloppy" (and they almost always are) mortises cut with a chisel.

you can just save yourself a step.. do it all with the router, and you can even round the ends with a simple couple of chisel cuts.. as long as it fits in, it doesnt have to fit well, as the sides bearing in the slot are what do the work. (and leaving that space at either end gives it a place to expand and contract)

Then, you "solidly" pin the center of the tenon, and just cut a slightly elongated "slot" for the pins in the outer two edges of the tenon, but a right-sized hole in the post.

but, as I said.. it looks farkin amazing! I am inspired to build one!

(out of quartersawn honey oak. Muhahahahah!)

Maeryk

Gotcha about the mortises. I do that on the chests so the front panels' tenons don't show at the top of the legs. Didn't think of it in this application, but it would have made it simpler to give a clean fit on the joint.

Look forward to seeing yours when it's done.

Now, what's MY next project? Hmmm...

Not to derail the post (no pun intended and GOD that crib is beautiful), but, Maeryk, do you have a page up showing some of your wood work?

Not to derail the post (no pun intended and GOD that crib is beautiful), but, Maeryk, do you have a page up showing some of your wood work?

Well, i started it about a year ago.. so... no.

One of these days, when I get photos I am happy with...

Theres a couple of the quick-n-dirty pine boxes I built posted in the yahoo medieval woodworking group folders, or at least there were, last time I checked. But none of my turning or "furniture" stuff is up there.

Maeryk

That is a really, really nice job! But will it float?


I built a colonial-style one of cherry for my firstborn, then used it for the next three, plus loaned it out to the sisters-in-law. When yours has run the circuit, you can store magazines in it and save it for the grandchildren. A well built cradle never goes away. Tell your wif that she'll just have to keep it full, or keep trying!

Cap'n Atli wrote: Tell your wif that she'll just have to keep it full, or keep trying!

It'll get it's second occupant in September - then it'll be an "Heirloom".

That's a lovely piece. My compliments on a job well done!
That will be joy to behold for generations.

I'll second Maeryk's comments about less glue as well. Plan to let the joints move, there is little you can do to about it anyway.

I am so building one when I get back from Iraq. Do you mind me copying the general design?

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

Jehan de Pelham wrote:I am so building one when I get back from Iraq. Do you mind me copying the general design?

No problems here. I can also send you other cradle images if you'd like.

VERY NICE! The bondage baby is kinda creepy

there you go Jeff... you can re-cap the expense and time of building/ designing by making an adult sized one out of plyboard, painting it black, attaching some eyebolts and selling it on the internet as a "Bondage torture crib"

LOL

Seriously, Nice work.

-+G

Heh. One of the ladies in the Compagniye du Chalis is with child, and she's due later this year. I sent her some photos of the recent MTA that Char posted, and she was like "Hey, cool crib!"

Medieval baby furniture. It's catching!

We're all of us likely to get some kidlets in the next couple of years, so this is good stuff.

Now I have to look around for a late 14th century/early 15th century example.

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

Jehan de Pelham wrote:Now I have to look around for a late 14th century/early 15th century example.

Anne rocks Mary's cradle in a book of hours (The Hague, KB, 76 F 21, fol. 13r), c. 1400-1410

Karen, you're the master!

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

John,

You make that and you will be the MAN!
Leo

Pshaw. It's just a fart in the wind for me right now...Jeff J's the MAN, he done built it!

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

Jehan de Pelham wrote:Jeff J's the MAN, he done built it!

Jeff J's the MAN cause he done FILLED it...

If you make that one, you're going to get really good at wood turning...

I'm only seeing broken links except for the source image.

apolloniavoss wrote:I'm only seeing broken links except for the source image.

I rearranged my photo albums, and actually gave that album a descriptive name, which it lacked before.

All of the cradle (and swaddling) pictures can be found at:

http://www.mathildegirlgenius.com/gallery/Cradle