Suggestion for a finish???

[Al Launier]

I'm building a couple of non-typical "necklace" boxes (7"L x 5"W x 2 1/2"H elongated octagon in shape) that my wife & daughter would like (I hope) - the necklaces will lay down, not hang in the box. The sides & base are to be made of hard maple & the lid is to be made of black walnut and the interior floor will be lined with velvet (black?). I've not done any finishing in the past & wonder what would be good finish to use to highlight the wood color & grain.

I'm planning on using MDF as the floor, leaving it unglued to float, but don't know if this is necessaray. Since the corners of the box & base will be mitered, gluing the floor will strengthen the box as gluing just the mitered faces isn't the strongest. Using miter splices would be a bit tricky on 22 1/2 ° corners. Do you feel a floating floor is necessary for his application, or would a glued floor hold up to expansion/contraction?

Also, I was thinking of finishing the components before the glue-up as it probably would allow me to apply the finish more uniformly, especially in the inside corners, but wonder how well the glue will adhere with the finish already done.

As usual, your comments are appreciated.

[Jim Finn]

I would glue the bottom in place. the miter joints are apt to fail if you do not. I make a lot of boxes like this of cedar and I put a finish of wipe on poly over sanded shellac.

[Stan Calow]

I have made a couple of boxes in this combination of wood. I used shellac, no stain or dyes. The color of walnut is enhanced (warmed up) by using a amber or orange shellac finish. Maple may look too yellow with shellac for your taste, but I found acceptable. Unless the maple is figured, I would focus on the top.

[Julie Moriarty]

If you want to make the wood pop, boiled linseed oil (BLO) does a great job but over time it yellows a bit. If you went the BLO route, you'd have to wait for it to completely gas out, then apply shellac over that before the final finish. With BLO, you wipe it on, wait until almost dry then wipe off the excess.

If you want the white look of the maple to stay white, stay away from anything that may yellow - BLO, varnish and other oil based coatings. Usually, waterborne (WB) products don't yellow over time but they don't do a lot for bringing out the wood grain. Lacquer does a nice job in that area but it's not as durable as varnish or poly.

I used Endurovar on walnut top with a maple edge, not stained or dyed, and it turned out fairly well. Dyes can help make wood pop and look great under a WB finish. Maple is a difficult wood to stain. My experience has been if you don't use a pre-stain, the wood can look blotchy. I use Trans Tint dyes for all dyeing projects. It mixes in either water or alcohol and really makes the grain pop.

[Shawn Pixley]

I like Jim's suggestion - shellac. I might go with a super blonde shellac for the maple and an orange shellac for the walnut.

I like the color shellac imparts to plain hard maple. I would also use Tung oil or BLO below the shellac.

[Lee Schierer]

I would not use mdf for the floor. Instead I would use a thin plywood. 1/4" thick ply will make the boxes lighter in weight. You can and should glue the sides to the plywood for added strength. You can also glue the sides to the MDF if you are really set on using it.

As far as finish goes. I use Deft clear brushing lacquer. Here is a jewelry box I made for my Granddaughter out of cherry with maple inserts.
emilyjewel1.jpg
emilyjewel2.jpg
emilyjewel3.jpg

By the way, this box was made from cherry crown molding. I've also made octagonal boxes from the same material.


This maple box was also finished with Deft clear brushing lacquer

maplebox.jpg

If you want the maple to remain very white an not yellow at all, use a waterborne finish such as Minwax Polyacrylic. It will not yellow with time.

[Al Launier]

Beautiful boxes Lee. I really like the finish. Will have to look into the lacquer option.

[Mike Schuch]

For walnut - 1/3 tung oil or boiled linseed oil, 1/3 spar varnish, 1/3 turpentine.

For maple - lacquer

oil finishes yellow and really bring out the grain in dark woods like walnut. But oil finishes turn maple too yellow for my tastes. That is why I prefer lacquer on maple.

When I mix maple with walnut I usually try to finish the two woods separately before assembly.

[Al Launier]

Disaster! After a couple rehearsals I attempted, with some confidence, to glue-up the firsrt box using Titebond II Extend.

I had previously applied the TBE to a couple of scrap pieces, unclamped & then to another couple pieces clamped, to see what the open time would be in each case. Good to go! However, after gluing up all the joints & assembly the (9) pieces (including the floor) things went south from there - fast. I couldn't get the joints tight, as they were in the dry fit, plus it was difficult to insert the foor into the grooves in the sides. After 15 minutes and concluding that I probably made the groove fit too tight (not allowing enough for the glue film), I decided I couldn't leave the box like that, so I tore everything apart even though it was hard to separate the pieces.

The parts are in good condition, but will require a lot of sanding cleanup & opening up the grooves. Oh well, lesson learned!

[Al Launier]

Well, this "simple" project has worked it's problems on me. However, opening up the slot for the floor certainly helped as the parts have been glued together with Titebond II Extend. The timing was very close to clamp everything together before(?) the glue setup, at least that's my feeling. I let the boxes set over night & will be removing the strap clamps things this morning hoping it doesn't fall apart.

I'm also concerned about how "fail safe" the glued mitered faces are as there was very little squeeze-out despite apply glue to all surfaces. Perhaps the glue was partially setup. So, I was thinking of using miter splines to reinforce the 45° glued joints, but it doesn't appear that would be a good visual fit. So, I was thinking of drilling from the top of the box down through the actual glue line lengthwise & then gluing a 1/4"-5/16" dowel in each joint. That would increase the area of glued surface by about 3 times around the dowel surcumference for the full length of the dowel. The dowels wouldn't be seen except when raising the lid. Have any of you done this before and if so what was your experience with the results?

Thanks for your comments.

[Jim Finn]

If possible, consider gluing, in place, gussets on the inside of the miters. That will strengthen this joint a lot.

[Al Launier]

Thanks for the suggestio Jim, although the gussets would add a lot of strength to the joint, they wouldn't pas my wife's eye test.