Crafting Replica Moulding

[chooseopen]

Hello,
Some of you may know that I am working on a complete kitchen remodel for the 1896 Eastlake Queenanne pictures below. Nothing in the old kitchen was original including the door/window trim, baseboards, crown, etc. My goal is to make this kitchen feel like it flows with the rest of the house. One of my major projects will be replicating all of this old woodwork. I am not a master craftsmen by any means, but it gives me an excuse to buy all sorts of new tools
My question is what type of wood stock I should start with? From what i can tell, most of the trim in the house is 120 year old pine. Everything is painted right now, but we plan to strip it all eventually (even if it was originally meant to be painted, I think that the pine will look fine stained by today's standards). The two staircases in the house are walnut...
With all this in mind, should I be trying to find antique reclaimed lumber to mill my trim from or should I just do the kitchen in new white oak, etc?

Picture of the door/window trim: *EDIT - New images since wletson was making fun of my photography skills *

[wletson]

That's a picture of the trim?
Sorry, couldn't resist!

Personally, I would avoid using pine. Too soft of a wood for my taste. Something with a more similar grain than Oak might be better though. I like working with Ash, but others may have other ideas.

You've got a lot of work set in front of you.

[Don M]

My goodness that's some spectacular ornate woodwork. I would guess that the original kitchen woodwork would not have been that ornate (who cared what the servants saw ) I agree; ash is probably a good choice & is easier to work with than oak (won't dull your blades as fast)!

[wletson]

EDIT - New images since wletson was making fun of my photography skills

Aw, now I'm sounding like a bully.

Much better photos however!

[Sashguy]

http://www.wood-carver.com
If you get one, can I borrow it?

[chooseopen]

Holy cow thats cool! I kinda surprised that the price isnt higher. Looking at the picture on the homepage, I was thinking "$10,000 machine".
I'm kinda a cheapskate though so I will probably try learning the art of spoon carving/chip carving (whatever they call it)

[wletson]

Holy cow! If you buy it, I'll chip in $5.

[sooth]

Holy cow. Ooooookay. I'm a professional woodworker and even *I* would find this a bit daunting. Those are NOT simple to replicate. The carved centre panel especially (since any kind of sloppy carving will show).

If you still think you can manage it, I'd suggest that you have a good quality router on hand, with various bits*, and you may also need a band saw to cut some of those deep profiled top/bottom pieces. You'd also benefit from a nice set of carving chisels to do the centre panel, as well as the bottom square appliqué pieces.

Oak might not be the best wood to work with, since it tends to splinter fairly easily (if you're not used to working with it), and it can also be a bit difficult to sand. I would suggest Poplar, which can be stained easily, and can even look quite a bit like walnut with a dark brown stain. It also tends to be knot (and sap) free, which makes finishing easier.

Other options would be Fir, Pine (not my first choice unless you buy some select stuff - which is nearly the same cost as red oak), or even Basswood (though it doesn't usually look too good stained).

* From the profiles I can see, you would need a good sized chamfer bit (45 degree angle bit), some sort of beading bit to do the fluted designs in the vertical sides, a round bottom bit to do the round holes in the upper scallops, etc.

[oldsch]

That is pretty impressive. I like the way the carving forms the outline of a keystone above the door.

As far as materials, I'd hold off on deciding until you have a better idea of the kitchen as a whole. Will the door trim match the baseboard and window trim? I personally would stay away from plain-sawn oak. Looks too modern and well... plain. Quartersawn oak might work if you are dead set on oak but then you are approaching the cost of walnut anyway and, as mentioned, it would be harder to carve. Nothing wrong with pine but millwork of this quality was probably done in a "better" wood. (Unless it was faux grained).

I'd start by breaking the trim down to its basic components to see how it was made.
It looks like 7 basic pieces to me (I’ll give them names just to make it easier) and what looks like some applied(probably nailed on) details.

2 plinth blocks, 2 columns, 2 rosettes (for lack of a better term), 1 cornice (horizontal above door)

The real hold-up for DIY that I see are the Plinths/"Rosettes", they appear to be thicker and would probably require a large shaper to cut the profile. My guess is that the grain is running horizontal and that the profile was cut along the length of a board that was the chopped into blocks. Hard to say... you'd have to take it apart to see. A shaper is pretty advanced both in operation and $$$. You could have these pieces made.

The columns are easy enough. As 'sooth' said, a 45 deg. chamfer bit for the edges. You would want to run the 45 a bit short with the router and hand cut the ends, The router will leave a scalloped profile at the beginning and end of the cut but you want flat.

Is there a scaled down design that was used in other parts of the house? bedrooms etc..?

[junkout]

i agree with sooth i would use poplar ash or oak are a pain in the ass to work with and they will never look anything like the pine trim they are both very open grained while pine is close grained