Mitered Door & Drawer Pulls

We’ve been slowly working on a kitchen for our burgeoning showroom. As we finished up the cabinetry, we needed to design some pulls that would be in keeping with the modern craftsman vibe of the place. We pride ourselves on making our own wooden pulls on all of our furniture. In the case of a kitchen, we didn’t want to go over the top with design work. There are a lot of pulls, so for the sake of keeping things visually calm and making them efficient to make in a batch run, we wanted to keep the design simple. We had to make 30-40 of these little guys and managed to do it in about two days. While simplicity was a goal, we also were looking for something that had a little spark of exposed joinery to tell a story. Much of the detail in our work comes from highlighting the craftsmanship in even the simplest of joints.

The Process

We began by milling straight sections of walnut to the desired dimension. Before cutting the miters, I ran an offset sharpie line down the length of the best looking edge to keep track of the continuous grain on each pull. Having several sharpie colors on hand is nice to keep track of different pulls. Each pull was cut to length with a stop block to keep the horizontal portion exactly the same throughout. The legs that will mount to the doors and drawers were left slightly long, to be trimmed after glue up. We landed on two different sizes for the doors and drawers.

The inner edge of each pull was then pattern routed with a gentle curve. It would be much more difficult to shape this piece after it was glued up. A jig allows the tiny piece to be locked in while a hand held router and pattern cutting bit shapes each pull. The inner edge is then sanded on a spindle sander.

Each pull is then glued up using a simple rub joint. This is the most effective way to get a tight miter and crank out a bunch in short order. We played around with wedged clamping jigs, but it turned out that the rub joint worked best both in terms of quality and expediency.

After the glue had some time to set, each piece was loaded into a table saw jig to cut a kerf for the splines. A sharp 24 tooth rip blade with a flat top tooth grind provides a clean cut with a square termination point. The jig rides on a lip of our fence and a clamp holds the pull firmly in place. We made the splines from walnut by re-sawing thin pieces at the band saw, then sanding them to a easy friction fit at the drum sander. Each spline is glued in and allowed to set, after which they are trimmed away at the band saw, then sanded flush at our disc sander.

The pulls are then loaded into another table saw jig where they are clamped down and cut to their finished length. The pull should project just enough to reach your fingers through - too tall, and they look awkward. While the pulls are still square on the outside, we take them to a drill press jig to drill pilot holes for mounting. We’ll be improving our mounting strategy in the weeks to come with threaded inserts instead of pilot holes into the end grain. Those pilot holes will likely only last for a couple mountings before the screw doesn’t catch anymore.

Using a template, the outer shape is traced onto each pull, then cut out on the band saw. A disc sander helps to refine the curve and take it right to the line. The inside and outside edges are shaped with a 1/8” radius round over bit on our router table. (read: on our poor little excuse for a router table - a piece of plywood double face taped to a trim router base that’s clamped in a vice.)

Each pull is hand sanded to remove machine marks, then taken to a flap sander to give a nice softness and burnished finish. The flap sander is such a unique shaping tool and really excels at making perfect soft, eroded edges.

Finishing

We finished these pulls with Osmo, applying 2-3 coats until a light sheen developed. After the finish cured, a light coating of paste wax was applied with 0000 steel wool, then buffed out with a bristle brush in the drill press. This brings the sheen up and gives a nice tactile softness to the touch.

Thanks for reading!

-Rob & Larissa