Last Project

[ssmith]

Just joined and thought I'd post a picture of my last project. It's a keepsake box for the wife.

It's made of solid 4/4-ish Bubinga and finished with a french polish. Both were a first for me. We do like to change up wood species - the plant stand I'm working on now is Purpleheart but I've used pine, oak, mahogany, and poplar too. The french polish was new too - you folks probably do that kind of thing all the time but I usually take the easy way out and use polyurethane. Maybe an oil finish is on the list for the future? We'll see.

 

[Mike Davis]

Beautiful

 

[JNCarr]

Welcome - very nice work!

 

[waitup]

Looks great! I love the contrast between the woodgrain and the dyed cutout.

 

[Bill_L]

Saw the title and wondered if someone was done with woodworking. What finish do you use? It’s gorgeous.

 

[Mark Johnson]

Looks great to me.

 

[ssmith]

Thanks!

By the way, I see what you mean about the title - bad choice on my part - "previous" would've been better!

The finish is shellac and was applied using the french polish method. Since I'd never done that before YouTube was a lot of help;

"It takes a while" is an understatement, but we were happy with the outcome.

 

[Hmerkle]

For those of you who have experience with French polish (and you too Scott)

How do you french polish in the "corners"?
I would think the shellac would either build-up in the corners or not get into them at all as you are padding / burnishing?

 

[ScottM]

Very nice.

 

[ssmith]

For those of you who have experience with French polish (and you too Scott)

How do you french polish in the "corners"?
I would think the shellac would either build-up in the corners or not get into them at all as you are padding / burnishing?

The corners on the top were a challenge. Build-up wasn't a problem but getting shellac into them was. To solve it, I used a small brush to apply a thin coat where the pad couldn't get, then went over the panel with the pad, getting into the corners as far as possible. Each pass with the pad partly dissolves the previous layer, so that allowed me to blend in the transition between the brushed/polished sections pretty well.

If anyone has other ways of handling that issue it'd be great to hear about it. Thanks.

 

[Hmerkle]

The corners on the top were a challenge. Build-up wasn't a problem but getting shellac into them was. To solve it, I used a small brush to apply a thin coat where the pad couldn't get, then went over the panel with the pad, getting into the corners as far as possible. Each pass with the pad partly dissolves the previous layer, so that allowed me to blend in the transition between the brushed/polished sections pretty well.

If anyone has other ways of handling that issue it'd be great to hear about it. Thanks.

Thanks Scott,
I am curious if anyone has suggestions...
I searched on YT, but all I saw were videos with instructions on a flat surface...