Flag and Certificate case in walnut

 

While the majority of the items I make are pieces of period furniture, not all are and this flag/certificate case is an example of one. It is also an example of why I should stick to copying period furniture; design is not my strong suit. This is the first such case I made incorporating a certificate, but I have made many cases to hold burial flags with a shadow box below to house decorations and other insignia. The idea for this came from a traveling display of the memorabilia of Major Francis Gray Powers at the United States Air Force Museum, nearly 20 years ago. I haven’t made a burial flag case to sell in many years, because the inexpensive and readily available commercial ones, make them unprofitable, but I have made a few in recent years to give away to veteran organizations. Even when I did make them to sell, the profit margin was minuscule, and I resorted to using scrounged materials; I once built about 10 using red oak casings from a demolished McDonalds.

Like most projects this one, started with a (quick) full size drawing. I originally intended to have the certificate surrounded by an equal sized border, but the drawing quickly revealed this would overwhelm the flag. Being obsessed with symmetry, the thought of having an unequal border around the certificate wasn’t appealing, and I didn’t know what to do. In the end, I turned to the classics and used the golden section to size the frame for the certificate. The results aren’t what I envisioned but at least I can say there was a rationale for the choice.

I chose walnut for the case; I have used oak and cherry, but walnut has a richness that can’t be beat. I always have the temptation to use highly figured wood, but in this case straight grain is best; because the focus should be on the flag, and the molded edge adds some visual interest. After accurately preparing stock for flatness and thickness, it was ripped to 1 ¾” wide, but if I had to do it over again, I would have went with 2” (more about this later). You can click on any of the following photos to see a larger version.

 

I ran the molding with the shaper, using a stack of three 1930’s “miniature” cutters I have. These are very versatile cutters that I use often. When used in sets, the cutters seem to perform better if the cutting edges are not aligned; similar to the concept of helical cutterheads. As the molded edge comes from the shaper, it has a slight ridge where two of the cutters come together. Despite this ridge being small, it is somewhat difficult sand away, so I made a profiled scraper that makes short work of removing it.

 

 

 

 

 

I like to have the grain lines continuous at the joint between the vertical sides and the pitched sections of the case, so this requires a little extra work. At first, all the pieces are treated alike and run through the table saw to create a groove for the glass in the pitched pieces and the start of a rabbet on the certificate case. Then the vertical side pieces are mitered and the resulting pieces marked so they can be kept in the proper orientation. Now the rabbet on the certificate case can be finished. I will admit this operation scares me; this is a fairly deep cut on a somewhat short piece, and the table saw is not my favorite tool. The certificate case is now mitered and glued together, using both band and bar type clamps. Normally I would have reinforced the joints with a biscuit, but the narrow width made this a less than attractive option, due to even the number 0 biscuit being too big and the fence on my joiner not offering proper support on such a narrow piece( I think Ryobi  and Porter-Cable make reduced size biscuits that would have worked well in this application). I could have used a router to cut a stop groove, but that would have involved making a jig, a task I despise, so I decided to reinforce the miter in a rather unconventional method, using a ¼” mortising chisel in the drill press to create a mortise for a spline. Typically a spline would have its grain running at right angles to its length, but in this instance I just made it with its grain running with the length; made this way it still provides some long grain glue surface and the case will not see any stress.

 

 

 

 

 

The flag portion of the case is mitered to conform to the plan, finding the angle of the peak miter with a angle divider and a sliding T bevel for the bottom miter. I dry fitted the pieces together and checked the fit to certificate case. I had to make a minor adjustment to the miter that sits atop the certificate case, with a block plane. When satisfied with the fit, the pieces were glued together using the band clamp and one bar clamp; the bar clamp keeps the long points of the miter flush at the intersection with the certificate case ( I put in some clamping pads to protect the wood). When dry the miter was splined as above.

 

 

 

A 1/8” stopped groove is run in the top of the certificate case to receive the glass, and then the flag portion can be temporarily screwed on. I used 1 ¼” drywall screws to assemble the two sections, but they were dangerously close to poking through, so broke the tips off the screws (for once I benefited from the brittleness of a drywall screw). Here again, the bar clamp is used to keep the miters flush, but this time a band clamp is run over the peak of the flag portion of the case, to firmly hold it in place as the screws are set, Neither of these clamps are exerting any significant pressure; they are just there to keep things aligned. At this point, the case was planed and sanded paying close attention to having the miters come out perfect, especially the ones where two sections join. The molded profiles matched nearly perfectly, but a few areas needed some attention with small gouges and a very careful sanding.

The case was finished as detailed elsewhere on this blog-see the walnut finishing post of September 5, 2008. After the finish was rubbed out, the two sections were joined together for a final time, this time with the glass in place.

 

By far the most difficult aspect of the whole process was folding the flag to have the stars in a symmetrical pattern; I spent at least 2 hours folding and re-folding the flag in an effort to have the stars look pleasing (I’m still not completely satisfied with the results). In the end, the flag is not folded in the normal fashion, which resulted in it being thicker than a flag folded in the proper way. This is why I would have liked to have gone with a 2” deep case; it was quite difficult to stuff the flag in that 1 3/8” deep section of the case.  The flag is held in place with a piece of 1/8” plywood ( I would have used ¼” if there would have been more space). I fabricated and rather crudely I might add, two steel clips, with threaded holes. These were mortised and screwed in place, and the back is held in place with two low profile truss head machine screws. An upside down keyhole shaped hole at was cut at the apex of the backing board, by which the case can be hung on the wall, by slipping it over a single screw.

 

Although I didn’t enjoy making it, I’m fairly happy with the results; those off kilter stars bug me.

 

 

Comments

[Roderick Drumgoole]

Rob,

I am often bouncing over here to your blog, reading and re-reading articles that you are sharing. Although I have purchased a few dvd's from you, I thoroughly enjoy reading just about anything that you write, even if you didn't like building it and even if you think that you don't design well. I think your design skills are great as I recall from the dvd's and here on the blog, your obsession with symmetry. I just picked up a dvd from L-N Toolworks on design where the author uses a lot of the verbiage that you reference, i.e. symmetry, classical design, etc. I just really wanted to say thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with all who read as your passion for the craft exudes in your writing/teaching. I absolutely learn something different or feel inspired to achieve better after reading.

Best regards,

Roderick

[Scott F]

Hi Rob, nice job. I think that frame would look really nice with a water gilt gold on it. What do you think?? Perhaps you will do one