Thomas Jefferson'sWriting Desk

Build the Revolutionary War relic used to writethe Declaration of Independence

B Y L O N S C H L E I N I N G

I n the spring of 1776, 33-year-oldThomas Jefferson had an idea. His fre-quent 200-mile coach rides from his

home near Charlottesville, Va., to the Con-tinental Congress in Philadelphia, Pa.,could be more productive, he thought, ifhe could do some reading and writing onthe way. After sketching his idea for aportable lap desk that would hold his sup-plies, he gave the drawing to BenjaminRandolph, a Philadelphia cabinetmaker. InJuly 1776, when the desk was brand new,Jefferson used it to write the Declaration ofIndependence.

This tiny writing desk, weighing only5 lbs., is the result of Jefferson's ability toinvent the obvious; a portable desk wherehe could keep all of his reading suppliesand write comfortably. Jefferson used thedesk for 50 years. The desk accompaniedhim wherever he went. In 1825, just a fewmonths before his death, Jefferson gavethe desk to his grandson Joseph Coolidge.Soon after Coolidge's death in 1880, hischildren gave the desk to the federal gov-ernment for safekeeping.

The moment I saw Jefferson's little lapdesk in the Smithsonian National Museumof American History, I knew I had to buildone. On numerous visits to Washington,D.C., I peered endlessly at the original, tak-ing several rolls of photos and filling anotebook with sketches. Crafted out of ma-hogany, the desk has exquisitely smalldovetails in the drawer, tiny screws fasten-ing the hinges and a small satinwood inlayfor decoration. When opened, the deskoffers a comfortably slanted, baize-covered writing surface. (Baize is afeltlike fabric used to cover billiard ta-bles.) The lid's support stand fits into dif-ferent notches so that Jefferson couldchange the angle of the top when hewished. Folded halfway, it becomes a

book rest. A mortise in the underside of thelid houses the arms and allows the lid toclose completely. The single drawer has

compartments for an ink well, writingquills, nibs, pen knife and paper.

I finally found rough dimensionsfor the piece in an out-of-print bookabout the desk, Declaration of Inde-

pendence Desk: Relic of Revolution bySilvio Bedini (Smithsonian InstitutionPress). Using rough dimensions and pho-tos I found in the book, I was able to re-produce the drawings for the desk, thenbuild a replica of the desk itself. Though itlooks very simple, the desk turned out tobe one of the most interesting and chal-lenging woodworking projects I've built. Itis deceptively intricate with lots of tinyparts—just my kind of project.

Drawings reproduced from photosThe first task in building the desk was to re-produce the working drawings. I began bydrawing the perimeter of the piece full size.Then, using photos—both my own andfrom the book—I slowly filled in the de-tails. I made an enlarged copy of a photo-graph and then transferred the knowndimensions—such as the width of thedesk—to the copy. Using dividers and aninch scale, I was able to figure out other di-mensions. Though the result is not 100%accurate, it's pretty close.

When scaling from pho-tographs, you have totake distortion into ac-count. The cameraforeshortens theobject, making itlarger in the

front and smaller as it becomes more dis-tant, so a little bit of guesswork is involved.One other useful trick with photos is tophotocopy them. Enlarging the photos alittle at a time, I was able to get full-scalecopies, which made measuring details likethe dovetail spacing much easier,

Shopmade plywood-core panelsprovide stabilityThe original desk is made of mahogany,except for a small satinwood inlay aroundthe drawer front and a matching inlayon the back of the case. Most of the mater-ial is in. thick, but the drawer parts aremuch more delicate, as thin as 1/8 in.

I could have slavishly duplicated thechest, imperfections and all, but I decidedinstead to incorporate modern materials,tools and techniques—such as using ply-wood-core veneered panels.

Countless changes in humidity causedthe original desk's solid flatsawn ma-hogany panels to cup so badly that thescrews holding the hinges appear to havebeen torn loose and repaired numeroustimes. It would be much easier to makethese panels out of solid wood, as Ran-dolph did—and it's an option you maywant to consider—but I decided to dealwith wood movement by making built-uppanels consisting of a plywood core andbandsawn mahogany veneer. I figured theplywood core would stabilize the panels.

It's simple enough to buy slicedveneer, but I

Revolutionary laptop. Thomas Jef-ferson wrote much of the Declaration of

Independence on this small mahoganydesk. The original (at left) is in the Smith-

sonian Institution. The closed version at thetop of the page is the author's replica.

INTRICATE JOINERY IN A SMALL PACKAGE

wanted more control over the thicknessand grain pattern. To make your own ve-neer, you need a bandsaw and a benchtopsurface planer. I cut the veneer a littlethicker than in. on a 14-in. bandsaw witha riser block, which allowed a full 10-in.-wide cut. If your bandsaw won't support acut this wide, simply cut two 5-in. piecesand glue them together. When setting upthe bandsaw, be sure to take drift angle in-

to account (for more on making shopmadeveneers, see FWW#145, pp. 44-49).

Joint or plane one face of the mahogany,make the bandsaw cut, then surface theface of the board once more. The veneerswill be smooth on one side but rough onthe other. The veneer is too thin and flexi-ble to run through the planer on its own, sotape the veneer—smooth side down—ontoa piece of melamine, using double-faced

tape. The whole assembly can be runthrough the planer, which will give you aclean surface on both sides.

Gluing the veneer to the core—The firstjob of gluing up the panels is to cap theplywood edges and inlay areas that will bemortised out for the desk support standand the notches in the top of the carcasepanel. I ran all of the grain in the same di-

rection so that it would look like a single,solid piece of mahogany, end grain and all.First mill some mahogany to the thicknessof the Baltic birch plywood core. For thelong edges, rip strips about in. wide.Carefully cut some pieces of end-grainedging about in. wide. This edging—quite fragile when first cut—gets reinforcedwhen the veneer is glued in place. By cut-ting the banding out of the same piece ofwood you use for the veneer, the color andgrain pattern should be pretty close.

Rout out the areas where the mortiseswill go and glue in mahogany pieces, care-fully outlining the backing areas on theoutside of the veneer so you'll know whatgoes where after the veneer has beenglued on. Glue the mahogany into themortise, then use a cabinet scraper to flushit to the plywood core.

The plywood is sandwiched betweenlayers of veneer, and all of the panels areglued up at once. To save time, use a rollerto apply glue to both the plywood and theveneer. With one layer of melamine be-tween the panels, stack more layers ofmelamine, sandwiching the panels to helpdistribute clamp pressure evenly. Once theglue has set, the veneer can be trimmedflush with the edges.

Straightforward carcase constructionThe carcase for the original desk consistsof five boards joined with rabbet joints anda few brads. The grain orientation of thetop and bottom panels is across the widthof the desk. The end is mitered and has sat-inwood stringing matching that of thedrawer front on the opposite end of thedesk. The miter joints in the original prob-ably have hidden dovetails, but I usedsplined miter joints instead.

Again, I opted to glue up veneered pan-els for the top and bottom of the carcase,although in the original these solid ma-hogany panels are nailed to rabbets in thesides of the desk and seem to have stayedflat just fine. If you glue up plywood-corepanels, you must inlay mahogany wherethe notches are in the top panel. Becauseonly one edge on each of the panelsshows, only that edge needs banding.

Inlay the satinwood detail—At aboutin. wide, the stringing on the end piece

looks like it was set into a slot in the origi-nal. But I approached it as a marquetryproject. Using a razor knife and straight-

Edge-banding is the key to seamless veneering

Making veneer on thebandsaw. Slicing veneerisn't hard as long as yourbandsaw is tuned up andworking well. A new blade,a riser block, an auxiliaryfence set to the drift angleand a nice, easy feed pres-sure will help you achieve avery satisfying cut.

Cutting the plywoodband. For a seamless edgethat will look like solidwood, cut banding from theend grain of the same ma-hogany board you used tocut the veneer.

Gluing the banding inplace. The perimeter of theplywood is banded with ma-hogany prior to gluing theveneer. The end grain isfragile at this point, but theglued-on veneer will providereinforcement.

PLYWOOD CORE STABILIZES HINGED WRITING SURFACES

A stand thatfolds away.The top of thedesk is mor-tised to acceptthe supportstand, which ishinged to thelower writingsurface.

edge to cut the pieces, glue up the veneerwith the stringing in place. Then glue theveneer back on to the substrate, in my casea piece of solid mahogany.

Rabbets and hidden splines hold thecase together—The spline cuts are easilymade using a tablesaw sled. Place the car-case parts flat on the sled and angle theblade at 45°. Use a stop block to register

the cut, and make sure that the cut is en-tirely hidden in the rabbet. I cut solid ma-hogany spline material so that the grainruns the same direction as the sides of thecarcase, allowing for expansion and con-traction all in the same direction and at thesame rate.

Assembling the carcase—Because theplywood-core panels minimize wood

movement, you can glue the top andbottom to the sides of the carcase. If you'reusing solid wood panels, I would suggestthat you use just small brads without glue;this will allow the wood to move just a bitand should keep the desk from tearingitself apart.

Glue up the carcase first, then fit thedrawer to the opening. Be sure the carcaseis flat when you glue it up. Either set it on a

Solid wood is inlaid in areas to be mortised

Inlay the plywood core. Because the top of the carcase and the writing surfaces will be mor-tised to accommodate the support stand, the plywood is mortised and inlaid with solid wood. Af-

nate trimmer to clean up the edges.

Roll on the glue. Usea roller to apply glueto both the veneerand the plywood core,making sure thatthere is 100% cover-age on both.

Mortising for the

lower writing surfaceof the desk is mor-tised to accept thesupport stand. Aftermaterial has beenhogged out with arouter, a chisel isused to square upthe corners.

flat surface or use winding sticks on thesurface to sight along the top surfaces.

It's a challenge to buildand fit the drawerThe drawer in the original is a traditional,dovetailed box with a solid wood bottom.It's an especially challenging job, just as itmust have been then, because the sides

and partitions are so thin— in. for thesides and in. for the partitions.

Start by fitting the drawer sides and frontinto the carcase, allowing for a bit of ex-pansion over time. The dovetails in thisdrawer are so small that even an -in. chis-el is too large. (I ground an old chisel downto a little less than in. for the job.) Layout and cut the dovetails, fit the bottom of

the drawer into a groove and tackle thepartitions last (for more on making draw-ers, see FWW #117, pp. 45-49).

The thin drawer partitions are held inplace with V-grooves and mitered points,which act as tenons. These are easier to cutthan you might think. Mitered points canbe cut on a miter saw, and the grooves areeasily made on the tablesaw with a cross-cut sled and the blade set at 45°.

A delicate touch is requiredto make and install the support standMade of -in.-thick material, the supportstand is a very delicate assembly. Cut outthe pieces and run the half-lap joints andhinge mortises on the tablesaw crosscutsled, then smooth the cuts with a scraper.

The support stand is housed in the lidwhen the writing surfaces are closed. Care-fully position the support stand in the spotit will occupy in the panel recess, thentrace around it with a sharp pencil. I used alaminate trimmer with a -in. straight bitto cut the mortise, but a router would workas well.

To help guide the laminate trimmer, usea simple jig consisting of a small piece ofplywood with a straightedge glued alongone face. With the small straight bit in thelaminate trimmer, trim the jig so that itsedge is at the edge of the cut. With this jig,the bit cuts exactly along the edge of theplywood. It's easy to clamp the jig alongthe pencil line, starting and stopping thecut as needed. The round corners of themortise can be squared up with a chisel.

This small desk takes a lot of hardwareFor such a small piece, there is a consider-able amount of hardware to mount—sixhinges, a mortised lock and the handle.You can mortise for all of the hinges at onetime, using the same straight router bit youused to cut mortises for the support stand.Then square up the corners and trim theedges with a knife and chisel.

To find the depth for the hinge mortisesfastening the bottom writing surface to thecarcase, hold the hinge leaves closed butparallel. Half of this measurement, not thethickness of the leaf, is the right depth forthis hinge mortise. For the other hinges-fastening the support stand and holdingthe upper writing surface to the lowerone—only mortise to the depth of thehinge-leaf thickness itself.

The hinges used in this project need very

support stand. The

ter using a Forstner bit to remove the bulk of the material, a straightedge jig helps guide a lami-

DELICATE DOVETAILS AND MORE

small screws. But wood screws, even smallones, have a smooth shank, then taperfrom there to the end of the screw. Thismeans that there are only very shallowthreads for the lower in. To make mattersworse, the support stand is only in., soit's impossible to use conventional woodscrews to mount the hinges. Though un-conventional, I used solid-brass, slottedmachine screws (#2 by 56 tpi by in.long). First drill -in. pilot holes, then usean awl to enlarge the holes slightly. Themachine screws have a remarkableamount of holding power, even in the thinsupport stand. I shortened the screws for

the support stand by holding them withpliers against the grinding wheel of abench grinder.

The lock mortise is pretty straightforwardto cut with a router and chisels. Just makesure that you cut the mortise for the lockand drill for the drawer pull before you as-semble the drawer.

Antiquing the hardware—The drawerpull came polished, the hinges came plain,and the mortise lock was brushed. I want-ed it all to look the same, so I decided toantique all of the brass. I soaked the hard-ware in lacquer thinner to take off the lac-

quer, then used Brass Darkening Solutionfrom Crown City Hardware (626-794-1188)to make everything the same color. It tookonly about 30 minutes and worked amaz-ingly well, leaving everything a uniformdark brown. By polishing slightly with0000 or synthetic steel wool, you can bringthe surface finish back up to whatever pol-ish you like.

After all of the hardware is in place andadjusted, remove it to sand and finish theentire project.

Hand-rubbed varnishis an ideal finish for the laptopThough you can just as easily scrape, planeor sand the surfaces of this laptop for fin-ishing, I sanded by machine during thebuilding process with a belt sander and120-grit paper, then sanded by hand usinga felt block with 120 grit and then with 150and 220 grit.

The finish for the desk should have asatin sheen—not too glossy and not toodull. All you need to get a nice, durable,hand-rubbed finish is high-gloss spar var-nish, thinner (I used turpentine), 400-gritwet-or-dry sandpaper, some rags and a lit-tle elbow grease. Simply rubbing gloss var-nish onto the raw wood, then wiping offthe excess with a rag will provide the pro-tection and sheen that closely match the225-year-old original, not the glossy sheenyou'd expect from a high-gloss varnish.Gloss works best as a wipe-on finish be-cause it has greater clarity and will not hidethe wood grain as a semigloss or eggshellfinish would.

Wearing gloves and using the wet-or-drysandpaper, rub all of the surfaces with var-

Satinwood stringing mimics drawer banding

Detailing thedrawer. Satin-wood banding isapplied to a smallrabbet on thedrawer front. Tapeholds the bandingin place until theglue dries.

Slice and rejoinveneer. On theback carcase pan-el, instead of inlay-ing the satinwoodstringing, ap-proach it as a mar-quetry project. Usea small knife tocut the veneer intosections.

nish thinned by one-third. Cover the entiresurface and sand until you produce a slur-ry, which acts as a pore filler.

With the varnish still wet, wipe the sur-face with a soft cotton rag and buff until thesurface is slick and smooth. Polish againwith a clean, dry cloth after a few minutesto make sure no wet spots remain. Thenext day, lightly sand it dry with 320-gritpaper. Repeat the process with unthinnedvarnish each day until you build up threeor four coats. Each coat will produce slight-ly more luster. Rubbing gloss varnish thisway produces a lovely hand-rubbed sheenthat's hard to beat.

Applying the baize can be trickyThe cloth used on the writing surface looksa lot like felt, but it's actually a woven fab-ric. It's called baize and is available in awide range of colors from billiard supplyhouses. Make sure you mark the back ofthe cloth.

Apply the cloth to the writing surface af-ter the finish has been applied and thehinges are in place but before mountingthe book stop. This way the top and bot-tom writing surfaces can be laid out flat onthe bench.

Using blue masking tape, carefully maskoff a wood border of about in. aroundthe cloth, then cut out a piece of clothabout 1 in. oversized, I used 3M Super 77spray adhesive in an aerosol can, applyingthe adhesive to both the writing surfaceand the back of the cloth. Use only a lightcoat on the fabric so that the adhesivedoesn't bleed through. After about 30 sec-onds of drying time, begin laying the clothonto the working surface, smoothing outthe wrinkles as you go.

Now comes the tricky part. Using a razor-sharp utility knife and a straightedge, care-fully trim the cloth to size, trying not to cuttoo deeply into the wood but making sureyou cut all the way through the fabric. Asthe cuts are made, pull up the extra fabricand masking tape.

Only about the size of a stack of legalpads, this project combines traditional join-ery with modern tools, materials and tech-niques, resulting in a replica of the lovelylittle writing desk that played such a largepart in U.S. political history—a "Relic ofRevolution," indeed.

Miters and rabbets join the carcase

Splined miter cuts. The carcase is assembled with miters and reinforced with splines. With theends of the stock cut to 45°, the spline slots can be cut on the crosscut sled at the tablesaw. Toallow for uniform expansion, cut spline material to fit with the grain going the same direction asthe sides of the carcase.

ends with glue.

Lon Schleining sells full-sized plans of thisproject on his web site: www.woodbender.com.

Assembling thecarcase. Once glueis applied to all thejoints, tape helpshold the carcase as-sembly in place.Once the assemblyis clamped up, usewinding sticks tocheck the flatness.

on. After applying tape to the outside of the mitered joints, flip the assembly and coat the miteredTape up the mitered carcase joinery. Tape helps hold the joints in place before the clamps go