by Daniel Diehl
Hardware and Hanging the Doors
The hinges on this piece are obviously nineteenth-century replacements. This gives you the option of using commercially available reproductions of nineteenth- century hinges or making your own more historically appropriate hinges according to the instructions on page 10. In either case, the hinges should be common butt hinges that correspond in size and location to those currently on the bookcase. The hinges are 3 inches in height, and the arms are each ¾ inch in width. They are mounted 2 inches down from the top of the door and 2 inches above the bottom edge. The arm of the hinge mounted to the door has been set into a recess cut into the wood.
Lay the hinge in the proper location on the edge of the door. Note that the center and right-hand doors will open to the left, and the door on the left side of the cabinet will open to the right. Make sure the spine of the hinge will be raised above the front face of the door. When the hinge is in place mark its width and height with a pencil. Remove the hinge and use a hammer and sharp chisel to incise a line around the edge of the markings. Be careful not to make the recess larger than absolutely necessary; the hinge should fit snugly into the recess. Carefully chip away just enough wood to make a channel deep enough for the thickness of the hinge. Curiously, only the arm of the hinge attached to the door has been recessed; the side attached to the cabinet is mounted on the surface of the wood.
When the hinge has been mounted to the door, align the door with the cabinet frame, making sure it is perfectly vertical and plumb. Place a tiny shim of wood under the bottom of the door to keep it raised slightly above the floor of the cabinet and prevent it from binding when opened and closed. When the door is in the proper location, mark the position of the holes in the hinge onto the stile. Remove the door, drill pilot holes, and attach the hinge to the side of the cabinet. When mounted, only the spine of the hinge should be visible from the outside of the cabinet.
Finish
Thanks to centuries of use and polishing, this bookcase has become an intense dark brown. This deep hue is not the result of any applied stain, but an accumulation of layers of wax and polish mingled with dust and dirt. This gives you the option of reproducing the existing tone or using a slightly lighter finish that will better highlight the rich detail in the carvings. See page 7 for detailed instructions on various finishing options.
PROJECT 31
Oxford Chained Library Shelves
Oxford Chained Library Shelves, English, 1623. Oak, 78½ x 90½ x 18 inches. Private collection. Photo by Daniel Diehl.
Throughout much of the Middle Ages, books were so rare that the idea of needing special shelves to house a large collection was inconceivable. Monasteries, schools (usually run by monasteries), record halls, and even the king’s record keepers simply piled their books on tables and in trunks. The invention of the printing press in the late 1440s rapidly changed things, and within a century and a half, even private libraries grew to impressive proportions.
Universities, schools, and churches, eager to organize and display their growing collections of books, built shelves on which to arrange the books by subject, thereby making them easier to access. To protect these valuable books from theft, school governors ordered that books be chained in place. A book could be taken off the shelf and placed on a reading ledge in front of the stack—and moved no farther. Chains were attached to each book by means of a small metal plate on the bottom corner of the front cover. When the books were replaced on the shelves, the chain and attachment plate were left exposed. Since the books were shelved backward, their spines, bearing the title and author’s name, faced the inside of the shelf and were invisible to the reader. Often, in those books still remaining in chained collections, we find shelf numbers, titles, and authors’ names written on the edges of the bindings just above the chain plates, allowing researchers to find their books without pulling every volume off the shelf.
These wonderful shelves were built of fine English oak in 1623—as the Renaissance helped spread learning throughout Europe and the British Isles. The iron chains and rods were in use until 1792, when they were removed. Of the dozens of similar shelves in this library at Oxford University, this shelf unit remains the closest to its original form. The column that can be seen at the left edge of the picture was a late addition and therefore does not appear in our plans.
Construction Notes
The basic construction of this piece is amazingly simple; only the complexity of the molding patterns and sheer monumental size of the unit make this project a bit of a challenge. When cutting the shelves and divider panels, allow enough extra length to provide for the rabbet joints where the shelves fit into the end panels and where the divider panels fit into the shelves. The shelves are blind-pegged into the end panels; the exact number and locations of the pegs are only guesswork.
Although the original piece has only two shelves, you may want more. Allow for any additional shelves from the beginning of the project by adapting the number of shelves, the rabbet joints, and the lengths of the divider panels to the desired number of shelves. Because of this unit’s size, it may be difficult to move from your workshop to its final location, and thus you may need to construct it in the room where it will be installed.
Materials
Made entirely of oak, this unit has only one board that is extraordinarily oversize—the 25/8-inch-thick-end panel, shown at the right side of the front view drawing. It would be unlikely that reducing this panel to the same thickness as the left end panel would compromise the structure of the bookcase, but doing so would require shortening the width of the triangular pediment at the top of the unit by 1¼ inches. Whatever your decision, buy all the wood for the project in advance. Once you begin construction, you will be amazed at how rapidly the shelf unit takes shape. If you decide that cutting the moldings as shown in the drawings is too complicated to tackle, allow time for a local mill or cabinet shop to make them before you begin construction work.
Frame Preparation
Trim the end panels to length. Note that the end panels do not mortise into the bottom rails the way the seat does (see the end view drawing). Cut the top panel, shelves, and divider panels to length, allowing for the rabbet joints where the shelves intersect with the end panels and where the dividers intersect the shelves. Note that the top panel does not fit into the end panels with a rabbet joint; it lies across the top of the end panels, making it the same length as the outside width of the shelf unit, 90¼ inches.
Mark the positions of the shelves on the inner face of each end panel. The best way to ensure that they are located at the same height is to lay the end panels on a level work surface, with their back edges touching and their inner faces up. Align the panels at top and bottom. Using a carpenter’s square, mark a centerline for each shelf across the faces of both panels. Move the square 3/8 inch on either side of the centerline to locate the top and bottom lines of the rabbet.
In the same way, lay the two shelves next to each other on your work surface, with the underside of the center shelf and the top surface of the bottom shelf facing upward. With the carpenter’s square, mark the centerlines of the two divider panels. Move the square 5/32 inch to either side of the centerline to locate the width of the bottom (the narrowest part) of the rabbet (see the detail D drawing). Repeat this process to locate the positions of the divider panels on the top of the center shelf and the underside of the top shelf. Ensure that the upper and lower divider panels are in alignment by simply continuing the lines from the underside of the center shelf around the edge and across the top face of the shelf, and then continuing this line onto the underside of the top panel. Note that the top panel is longer than either of the two shelves. To ensure that the divider panels sit vertically when the unit is assembled, be sure that the left end of the top panel extends ¾ inch beyond the left end of the center shelf before you mark the locations of the divider panels.
Using a table saw or a radial arm saw guided by a fence, cut the rabbets in the end panels
and shelves to the depth shown in the drawings of details D and E. Flare the rabbets on the shelves to a 45-degree angle (as shown in the detail D drawing) with a chisel, molding plane, or router. Using a table saw, molding plane, or router, chamfer the top and bottom ends of the divider panels to fit into the rabbets in the shelves.
Next, cut and install the lower shelf supports. These are identical to the center shelf support shown in the section A drawing, except that they are only 1½ inches thick. Cut two of these supports, with a 1-by-2-inch notch in the top of each support. Drill pilot holes for three dowels, approximately equally spaced, completely through the supports. Clamp them to the end panels directly beneath the rabbet for the lower shelf. To ensure that they are even with the rabbet, put a board in the rabbet and butt the shelf support gently against the board.
When the supports are in place, mark the locations of the pilot holes by inserting the pilot drill bit through the holes in the shelf supports and drilling just enough to mark their locations on the end panels. Remove the shelf supports and drill ½-inch-deep pilot holes into the end panels. After coating the insides of the pilot holes on the shelf supports with glue, tap dowels through the holes until they extend slightly less than ½ inch through the face that fits against the end panel. Temporarily position the shelf support over the pilot holes to ensure that the dowels line up with the holes in the end panels. Lightly coat the surface of the shelf support and the interior of the pilot holes in the end panel with glue, and tap the shelf support into position. Clamp the support to the end panel until the glue is dry to ensure good adhesion.
Frame Assembly
The shelves are almost certainly doweled into the end panels. Unfortunately, since the dowels do not come through the outer face of the panels, we know neither where the dowels are located nor how many there are. We suggest that three 3/8-inch dowels be used in each end of a shelf. Aligning the pilot holes will be tricky because you cannot mark directly across the boards you are joining. Instead, we recommend that you use doweling centers. Available from better tool and cabinetmakers’ shops, doweling centers allow you to drill pilot holes in one board, insert the dowel centers, position the board in the rabbet, and with the tap of a hammer, punch a small hole in the end panel at the exact center of the dowel. If you cannot find doweling centers, be careful to locate the dowels at the exact position on the end of the shelf and in the end panel. In either case, the dowels should not be sunk into the end panel more than ½ inch. Check to ensure the depth of the holes.
Before you glue the dowels into place, it is a good idea to dry-fit the dowels and shelves together to ensure the alignment of the pilot holes. When you are satisfied that everything fits, glue and tap the dowels into the end of one of the shelves. After the glue has dried, check the length of the exposed dowels; it should be slightly under ½ inch. Then place a little glue in the pilot holes and in the rabbet in the end panel, and tap the shelf into place. Install the 1-by-2-inch rail that supports the front edge of the bottom shelf into the shelf supports before you attach the shelf itself. Repeat the process with the other shelf and the opposite end panel. Be sure that the assembled unit is square and plumb while the glue is drying. For extra stability, run two dowels down through each end of the lower shelves into the shelf supports. The original piece seems to have small dents along the lower shelf’s front edge, indicating points where small nails were driven through the shelf and into the support rail.
When the glue is dry, gently move the unit to a location where the bottom of the end panels can be placed against a wall. You will need this extra bit of support to nail the top onto the end panels without the danger of breaking the fragile joints that hold the shelves in place. With the bottom of the end panels firmly against a support, stand the top in position against the end panels, drill pilot holes for five nails on each end, and nail the top into position. Be aware that the top panel is 2¼ inches wider than the end panels. This extra width extends beyond the front face of the unit.
Back Assembly
While the frame is drying, cut the back panels and baseboard, which runs along the bottom of the back, to length. Be sure to allow 1½ inches for the lap joints that connect the back panels into the baseboard. Cut the lap joints on one end of each back panel and along one edge of the baseboard. Although the boards shown in the drawing are all 8 and 9 inches in width, it is certain that at least one board will be a slightly odd width to match the exact width of the case. If anything, allow this odd-width board to be slightly wider than needed. You can plane it to the exact width when the back has been attached to the case.
Lay the back panels and baseboard on a work surface as they will appear when attached to the back of the bookcase. Drill and dowel the back panels to the baseboard, being sure that the boards are tightly butted against each other before they are pegged into place. Do not worry about trimming the ends of the dowels flush with the surface of the baseboard. The back is joined together only at the bottom; the tops are loose, making it very fragile at this stage. Any rough movement can cause the dowels to break. If you must move the back, slide a board under the loose ends of the panels so they can be lifted together. It will require three people to move the back—one on the baseboard and one on each end of the board supporting the loose ends of the back panels.
When the glue on the shelf unit is completely dry, turn the unit over so it is lying facedown. Raise the end panels off the floor with 2½-inch-thick blocks so that the weight is not resting on the top panel’s front edge. Gently lift the back unit into place on the frame, and arrange it so that it is aligned squarely on the bookcase. Clamp the back panels to the end panels, and drill 1-inch-deep pilot holes for dowels along the top and sides of the unit as shown in the back view. You may want to lift the back off the case and apply a line of glue around the edge of the case before inserting the dowels. Gently realign the back on the case, being careful not to smear the glue onto the back panels. Tap the dowels into the holes and saw them off about ¼ inch above the back’s surface. When the glue has dried, cut or sand the dowels flush with the back’s surface and plane off any extra width on the back panel. Now stand the case upright and insert the divider panels between the shelves.
Bottom Rails
On the original shelves, the bottom rails, which support the bench seat and attach it to the shelf unit, connect a row of eight shelf units along a wall of the library building. Assuming you are putting up only a single bookcase, you will probably want to end the rail 4 or 5 inches beyond the seat support’s rear edge. This is the length of the rail given on the materials list. For decorative purposes, we suggest ornamenting the rail’s end with either a simple chamfer to match the one on the rail’s side or a decorative cut to match the shelf support’s end.
When you have determined the length of the bottom rails, cut them to the size and shape shown in the front and end views. Next, notch the ends of the rails that connect with the shelf unit so that the end panels fall in line with the center of the rail. When in place, the rails should touch the shelf unit’s rear wall. In the center of each rail, locate the position of the mortise hole that will receive the seat support. With a chisel, cut a 1-inch-wide mortise to the length shown in the end view. Note that the mortise goes completely through the rail. When the mortises have been cut, clamp the rails to the end panels and drill pilot holes through the side panels and rails. Remove the rails, coat the inner surfaces lightly with glue, reclamp them to the end panels, and tap dowels through both pieces. When the glue is dry, trim the ends of the dowels flush with the surrounding wood. The shelves should now be relatively stable and freestanding.
Center Support and Bookrest Installation
Cut the center leg as shown in the section A drawing. Note that the foot is the same 2½-inch width as the support but is made from a separate piece of wood. Since there are no visible dowels, we assume that the dowels run up through the foot and into the leg. Cut the tenon on top of the leg. We do not know the exact width of the tenon, but logic di
ctates that it is between ¾ and 1 inch.
The center shelf support is the same as the two supports at the outer edges of the shelf, except that it is 2 inches in width rather than 1½ inches. Cut this support and chisel out the tenon to fit snugly over the mortise on the leg’s end. Clamp the shelf support in place on the leg, and drill pilot holes as shown in section A. Remove the shelf support and set it aside until later. There is no apparent point of attachment to connect the center leg to the shelf unit’s back, but we assume that they are connected in some way. Our suggestion is to simply dowel through the back panel and into the center leg. To do this, locate the leg beneath the lower shelf at its proper position, as shown in the front view drawing. Lightly mark the position of the leg on the back panel, remove the leg, and drill pilot holes for three dowels through the back panel along the length of the leg. Replace the leg. While an assistant holds the leg in place, replace the drill through the holes in the back panel and mark the dowel locations on the back of the leg. Remove the leg and sink the pilot holes to a depth of 1½ inches.
Lightly glue the inside of the mortise and the top of the leg. Replace the shelf support on top of the leg, clamp it in position, and tap in the dowels. When the glue has dried, cut the dowels flush with the shelf support. Now lightly glue the insides of the pilot holes, the entire rear of the leg, and the top of the shelf support. Tilt the shelf unit backward and set the leg unit in place, then return the shelf unit to the upright position. It will be a bit tricky to keep the leg from shifting while you are doing this, so we suggest realigning the dowel holes with a small screwdriver. While an assistant braces the leg, tap three dowels into place through the back panel and into the leg. You may also want to put one or two dowels through the shelf into the top of the shelf support to ensure that it remains square.
