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Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 9am - 5pm

Rvp~1875

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I've always believed that to make furniture from a certain era, you have to use the same tools, dyes and finishes as they had in that time.

Power tools are faster and easier (sometimes), but give off a completely different look. Our dyes and finishes are historical recipes of boiled ingredients such as walnut hulls, berries, linseed, and beeswax.

10/15/2026

Thanks for coming in and being such inquisitive learners!

Rvp-1875 is a wonderful field trip opportunity for schools, Boy Scouts, car clubs, senior groups, etc. Give us a call to schedule!

10/10/2026

Don’t forget to sign up for RVP-1875’s new 5 day class! You’ll build a bigger piece and get all kinds of hands-on learning from Master Furniture Builder, Robby Pedersen! Call for more details!

09/23/2026

There’s still time to sign up for RVP-1875’s September Carcass Dovetail class! There are a few spots left! September 25, 26 & 27!

09/15/2026

RVP-1875, The World’s Leading Historical Furniture Shop & Museum is announcing our 2026-2027 class schedule! Including a new 5- day class!

06/09/2026

Without further ado…Here are the final results of our huge 8ft, double step-back, butternut and walnut wardrobe builds!

What you didn’t get to see is that we also built a partners desk, a filing cabinet and a sewing box to go with these beautiful wardrobes! As always, these are triple jointed, and you can count the number of people on earth who can do that on one finger!

They went to a lovely home in Arkansas and we know that these heirlooms will be cherished for generations to come!

Thank you Scott and Jackie!

05/07/2026

Day 10 - Doors

Sorry it took a few extra days for this post, but the four doors took a minute!

The door frames started with prepping: straight edge, rip, cut to length, flatten and smooth. Next, the tops and bottoms (rails) get those big through tenons. It’s alot of extra work making mortise and tenon joints 4 inches long, but again, with the hundreds of years, size and weight, this will get the strongest joints at RVP~1875.

Next, drilling and chiseling the matching holes, (mortises). Then we custom plane the tenons till they sit square and have the right fit. We then put 60 feet of interior grooves on these boards to get ready for the panels.

The walnut panels are the most labor intensive part of the whole thing. Robby said on day 8 he stopped counting at 5000 strokes with a plane. You’ll see in the pics the raised panels are a 4 step process. Then the panels go in the frames, get pegged forever and fit. Hinges, k***s and a little final cleanup, and these cabinets are ready for dye and finish!!!

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05/01/2026

Day 7 - Drawers go to their homes

We took the dovetailed drawers out of clamps and employed our trade secret secondary locks before planing the corners flush, (see video in the comments), a final smooth planing and then the step it really takes years to get good at- finding and planing every little high spot in the drawers, (and their homes), until they glide straight and easy.

* Note how the backs of the drawers are taller than the rest. This is one of the extinct techniques you would find 150 years ago on the really good furniture. The tall backs run along the bottom of the shelf above it, keeping it from tipping and also catching the back of the face so it can’t fall out easily.

We also started prepping boards for door frames today. The next two days will be all about those big frame and panel doors.

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04/30/2026

Day 6 - Drawers

This morning we prepped the 16 boards for these 4 huge drawers. The customer asked for walnut fronts, so that takes three times the saw and plane strokes as the rest of them.

Next we tongue and grooved drawer bottoms and got them in clamps so as to be ready for assembly in a few hours.

Then we’re ready to dovetail the drawers- pins on the front and tails on the sides. See video for explanation.

Once all 32 corners fit with their mates, (54 ft of grooves on the drawer pieces, and 54 ft of rabbets on the drawer bottoms), then we assemble. They will sit in clamps overnight then get custom fit into their spots and prettied up.

Tomorrow- we fit drawers and start door frames.

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04/29/2026

Day 5 - cutouts, battens & moulding

OK, so we took a couple of days to catch up the second cabinet and have them both at the same step.

Today we cut out the feet, added battens, with the grain running the opposite direction to reinforce those feet for the hundreds of pounds they will be holding for the next thousand years or so. We also shaped and added 32 feet of moulding to break the line, make it pretty, and naturally keep the eyes focused on the piece. This is Robby‘s signature shape, which is a reverse ogee with a bead. See the video in the comments to see how that’s done. Tomorrow is drawer day!

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04/25/2026

Day 4 - Back and face

So now that the carcass is together, we can put the back in. The backboard‘s rabbet and groove into the sides and the top and then tongue and groove to each other. There was 200 feet of groove work on these two backs. The back holds the piece square and adds stiffness to the shelves so they can’t warp with time. We also dovetailed the step backs and mortise & tenoned the face today.

Check out the video in the comments and be sure to like and share!

Address

115 S Wilson Avenue
Jefferson, IA
50129

Opening Hours

Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15159753083

Website

http://www.rvp1875.com/

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