I was busy in the shop this past weekend putting the wraps to a blanket chest thats part of our August 2009 issue. I am making the chests out of walnut (so it’s two blanket chests). You’ll find something in this issue when it arrives in your mailbox, or at a newsstand. There is indeed a secret compartment inside the chests. If you are an expert on antique blanket chests, especially Pennsylvania blanket chests, then you will likely know where it is located. This can be a bit of extra work but it is always fun to have secret compartments for your projects.
While I worked through the project, I turned my attention to finishing. I like to coat walnut with boiled linseed oils and then wet sand the piece with #400-grit dry/wet silicon carbide sandpaper. The action brings up slurry that acts as grain filler. This time, however, I decided to forgo the oil and move directly to amber shellac.
I sprayed two coats of amber shellac to warm the walnut, then I sanded the piece smooth. The color was good, but older walnut has a red cast about it, so I wanted to darken the color and get that red hue involved. I used a few drops of Transtint aniline dye in my shellac to achieve this effect. A second coat registered the reddish tint and removed some of its warming effects. I was happy with the result and moved on to the finishing part. Pre-catalyzed lacquer, dull-rubbed lacquer, eliminates the need to rub out the shiny shellac byhand. The chests will look flat and dull after one coat. It prevents imperfections from shining in the reflected light.
Everything was moving along great until I reached the hardware stage. It was then that I remembered why I like to stain furniture with aniline dye, or add a coat of boiled linseed oil if I choose not to stain. Heres why. As with most mass-manufactured furniture, my finish was all lying on top of the wood. Any small scratch, such as the one I added when I hit a still-spinning drill bit, cuts through the finish and shows a distinctive unstained wood below. This is how scratches stand out.
Any light scratches that I made would have been darker if I had applied oil to the wood before applying my shellac. I just need to build an extra 48 hours of oil drying time into any project that doesnt call for aniline dye.
At the time I reached the decision on the exact finish I would use, I was working on the mouldings. I find it difficult to remove small amounts of glue from my mouldings when building furniture. It is very difficult to get rid of glue in these areas. Many of you may be thinking that glue can be removed by simply wiping it with a damp cloth. That philosophy doesn’t work for me. Ive done just that a number of times only to find smeared glue areas when I stain , the water dilutes the glue, then spreads the mixture without actually removing the mess.
I prefer to use small recesses or channels to capture excess glue when installing my moulding. Once the mouldings have been cut and trimmed to size, I use the table saw blade to make a recess. (See the above photo). After the mouldings are cut to fit, I apply the glue. Any squeeze-outs are caught in the trough so that no glue peeks from behind. Problem solved.
Im always looking for finishing tips that make the job easier. One of my favorites is to use a permanent marker to mask blemishes. When we used to sell Windsor chairs at furniture fairs, there would be a tiny scratch on the black-painted chairs. A quick touch with a marker and the scratch would disappear. What tips can you add?
