A Krenov-inspired Cabinet for the Shop

James Krenov was renowned for his elegant cabinet work, and he used mostly knife hinges (custom-made by a small shop) for hanging cabinet doors. In The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, he notes that such hinges “are easy to fit neatly, and give me a wide choice in the way I fit and hang my doors — which in turn allows me more freedom in composing cabinets and the like.” When I build heirloom quality cabinets, I follow his knife-hinged approach, but I only use double-offset knife hinges because I prefer inset doors, a hallmark of fine cabinetry. The trick to mastering the knife hinge installation is to use a pair of marking gauges, as you will see.

Here is a Krenov-style cabinet I recently made using mostly hand tools