Woodworker's Journal 2010-34-2, страница 44

The Role of Reveals

By Sandor Nagyszalanczy

Rabbet

This simple little shadow line can add a lot to the look of your project. Our author takes you through the basics of creating reveals on your furniture and cabinetry.

The same 1/8"-wide shadow line on each of the samples at right creates a different reveal depending on how it's shaped. In the author's table below, the radiused edge on the breadboard ends adds a lovely reveal — similar to those surrounding and accenting the inset drawer face.

surfaces; say, for example, the sides of two cabinets that are butted together or between the extension leaves on an expandable dining table top.

Making a reveal is as simple as shaping a shallow rabbet, chamfer, bead or cove on a part's ends or edges. You can cut a reveal with hand tools (planes, scrapers, etc.), with a bit/cutter in a router or shaper, with a dado or molding head in a table saw; or shape it with abrasives using sanding blocks, a powered disc or drum sander, etc.

lieveals are commonly used in traditional millwork and cabinet assemblies, to not only conceal slight fit irregularities, but also to give large surfaces a look of greater depth and make them more visually interesting. For example, say you have flush-front drawers in a desk, table, entertainment center or kitchen cabinet counter. By shaping a small reveal on the edges of the solid-w^rood drawerfronts using a piloted bit in the router, the resulting edge recesses add a nice little shadow line where the drawers meet the face

What the heck is a reveal anyway? Think of the dark lines in between the doors, hood and trunk, fenders and other inter-fitting parts on your car's body. Imagine how difficult it would he lo make the body if all those parts had to fit snugly together, leaving no gaps where the doors or trunk lid closed. The tolerances would be very tight and incredibly difficult lo maintain. The litlle gap, known as a reveal, offers automakers a bit of a "fudge factor" (and these days, they need all the help they can get), while creating a clean look in their final products.

Where can woodworkers put this little detail to use in their work? Pretty much anywhere two parts or surfaces meet. Just as with an auto body, the simple shadow line created by a reveal hides irregularities in the fit between adjacent