Secretary Project and finishing question
All,
Since March of last year I’ve been working away as time permits on my
latest, and by far most ambitious project. It’s based on Lonnie Bird’s
Secretary in FWW #154. The end is finally within sight!
The 11 drawers all have half blind dovetails in front and through dovetails
in back. They were quite time consuming, but I’m glad I did it that way.
The large drawers have cherry fronts with poplar sides. The smaller ones are
pine. The biggest thing I learned from the drawers is that the squarer the
carcass is, the easier it is to fit the drawers.
The drawers have curly cherry veneer and cherry cock beading. Hand planing the veneer after gluing (with hide glue of course) was a rather harrowing experience.
The hardware is from Horton Brasses, all large drawers have fully mortised
locks and 2 smaller ones have half mortise locks.
The last major task (before finishing) is the base molding. The feet are
already made and need only to be attached.
My question concerns surface preparation of the carcass before finishing.
The finish will be orange shellac, with a few streaks of sapwood dyed with a
water based dye beforehand. Before the carcass was assembled, which was
roughly last May, the surfaces were handplaned smooth. I’ve kept handling
to a minimum, but of course it’s been handled a lot to reposition it as
needed in my tiny shop (12′ x 12′). Is any further surface needed before I
start wiping on the shellac? I don’t want to have any adhesion problems and
I’m wondering if the carcass should be sanded before the first coat. It’s been recommended to wipe down the piece with mineral spirits or alcohol before I start shellacking the piece.
http://home.comcast.net/~matt_mulka/drawerdovetails.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~matt_mulka/gallery.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~matt_mulka/veneering8.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~matt_mulka/completedrawers2.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~matt_mulka/completedrawers3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~matt_mulka/carving2.jpg (I’m going to have to add 2006 to this carving)
Overall I’m thrilled with how it’s turning out. My main regret is that I
didn’t track how many hours I worked on it. It would nice to have that for
future info, and I would guess I’ve worked about 400 hours on it so far.
Matt Mulka
Replies
Well worth the effort and a lovely job so far. Good to see that you are prepared to splash your name that prodly on the piece,
Dave
Matt
You should be very proud!
Nice looking piece, beautifu wood.
Make sure we get to see the finish results.
Doug
Matt,
Really nice work. Cool idea doing the letter carving on the sub-bottom of the case for your signature, if I attempted that on my secretary project the year would need to be crossed out a few times :-). Actually I am kind of glad I didn't track the amout of hours, because the project would either cost out at 25K or I would have only earned a penny an hour
Best of luck
It is a good idea to wipe down with mineral spirits or naptha, just to remove stray dust, dirt and oils. This is purely for esthetic reasons. Shellac will stick to just about anything. Sanding would impact the darkening that the cherry has already begun to undergo, which would be good if there is unevenness you want to correct, or bad if it is well on the way to the elegant cherry patina.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I've heard a lot of recommendations to wipe it down prior to finishing. The cherry does already have a nice patina, so I really don't want to sand it if I can avoid it.
I'll be sure to post more pictures when I'm dont with the project.
Matt
Depending on how much water you use you may run the risk of raising the grain on the sapwood if you already did not do that prior staining. It may not be a big deal since you can sand down any rough patches with 400 or 600 grit paper after you get a couple of coats of shellac on. However if the grain is too fuzzy then you may end up with a dark blotchy streak if you are unable to get the spot smooth enough.
You could tint the shellac and use that after you put on a couple of coats to help color in the sap.
I would pad on a couple of coats of shellac then see how different the sap is and go from there using tinted shellac.
There are also other techniques using japan colors and varnish as a binder to help add color, or gel stains used as a toner.
J.P.
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