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In addition to staircases I also do the occasional piece of furniture, I was in charge of the interior finish for a custom office project, my shop produced 5 sets of stairs, mantels, raised panel wainscotting and several pieces of furniture. The single biggest project I ever worked on.
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I guess a picture would be in order.
*another shot
*a close up pic
*me and the happy client, I'm the one with the thinning hair.
*Wow Armin; beautifulbake
*Armin, that is a beautiful desk. What did you use for a finish on the cherry? The reason I ask is that I'm wondering if they want to preserve the current color of the cherry or are they looking for that deep red color as it gets older. Either way, I think the contrast with the birdseye will be striking.Roger
*I am so glad you share pictures of what you do. I'm a major fan! Do you have any pix of the raised panel wainscotting?Signed, Your fan club president, Paula :-)
*PDF, Thanks for the compliments, at the moment I do not have any pics of the wainscotting. The deadline was so tight that I was cleaning up 2 hours before the open house party and the photographer didn't have time to set up. I'm planning on going back as soon as I get a digital camera and take more shots of the wainscotting and the fireplace mantel. The company gave me a $3000 curly maple log to build a solid mantel. More on this in a month or so.
*Armin,That is a damn nice desk.Gary
*Rodger,Thank's for the compliments guys, The finish is as follows: base coat of Watco Natural oil rubbed in with 600 grit wet & dry paper. One week to dry then top coat with Sherwin-Williams Kem-Var conversion varnish. The oil deepens the color some right away and enhances the figure and grain. Eventually it will darken to the deep cherry red. It's been my experience that the oil base coat really makes the birds eye shine.
*Armin: Beautiful! That is a nice piece of work.
*Armin: I can see you have a nice curve in your front rails...are your raised panels curved also?Again, that looks nice. I love curly maple.
*Armin, Great stuff as usual. Keep it comin'I've never heard of rubbing in the oil with the wet/dry. Always just rub it on with a cloth. Does this help lift the grain and let the oil penetrate better?
*Stan, yes the raised panels are curved. I glued boards up in staves, cut a template out of plywood the radius of rails and routed a rabbit on the ends of the panel. Then I built a carriage that conformed to the radius of the panel rabbit. My shaper has a sliding table, and takes a 1/2 in router collet. I chucked in a 1 1/2 in straight bit and bolted the carriage to the sliding table. The panel rested in the carriage face down and I could slide the table back an forth milling a cut lengthwise down the panel. After each cut I would index the panel on the carriage and push the sliding table for another pass creating the arc of the panel. The panel raising was done in the same general manor. My old wide belt sander opened up to 9 inches so I was able to make another curved carriage and run the panel face up under the drum. The carriage was clamped to the table, power feed off, by taking several light passes I was able to push the panel over the curved jig producing a perfect sanded arc. Since then I have done several more but used a friends proformax drum sander. The cabinet is much smaller and you can see what you are doing. The photo below is not the best but it shows the shaper carriage
*photo for above
*Stray, Thanks for the compliment, Rubbing the oil with wet and dry paper produces a super fine slurry, filling the pores of the wood. The friction of sanding also warms the oil and the surface of the wood forcing it to penetrate deeper. The resulting finish just glows.
*Armin..... I like your curved panel setup. Well thought out.
*Just picked my jaw up off the ground. That picture of you and your client is great. She looks so pleased. Was the design your idea or hers. I also like how you applied the finish. Do you use the same process with other woods.
*Dale, My client specified the overall foot print, the rest was my baby. The bowed raised panel front was something I did on my own, it was a surprise to her. This lady went all out and had a major impact on my career, complete with newspaper and tv coverage. I owe these people alot, they had a lot of faith in one eccentric out from under the stump woodworker. I use this method of finishing on most of my birdseye, curly and figured woods.
*Looks like her confidence in you is well placed. Beautiful work.Mary