Poineer chest christmass present

[Bob Oehler]

Hi All:
Getting cought up on my posting. Here are some pic's of a pioneer chest I made for my brother for christmass. All jointery was hand cut. I used a moving fillester plane for the shiplapped top. The only electrons burned were on the inital jointing and planing of the boards. After glue up all boards were hand planed to thickness and jointed. On the inside of the lid I put a little detail on the shiplapped joints in the form of a beading made with is 3/8 beading plane. Hide glue throughout. The finish is classic cherry stain with several coats of shelack in a 1.5# cut, with a last coating of a 3# cut. I need to work on my shelack finishing as it is a little bumpy. Steel wooled between coats, tack clothed it etc.
Any comments on what I could do better and how to do it would be app. as this is my 1st neader (mostly) project and except for a sample piece, my 1st dovetail project.

Take care
Bob Oehler

[Dan Moening]

Very nice work, Bob.

I'll bet those pictures don't do the Cherry color much justice. Wonderful color there.

I've been using Shellac for just over a year now and have many trials to learn from. In my experience {and opinion } a 3# cut is too thick for any practical purpose. Better to layer up with several 1 - 1½ # cuts.

Anyway, as for the bumpiness...load a ball of steel wool with wax and buff it out. You'll be amazed at the luster this creates; the smoothness just has to be felt.

One of the beautiful things about working with Shellac is that it is easily repairable.

[harry strasil]

I liked your chest Bob, but I wanted to see more detail, so I scavenged the pictures and ran them thru my photo program, they were so nice I thought I would post the enhanced ones for all to see, but decided not to post them without your permission.

Very nice work

[Bruce Haugen]

Really nice work, Bob!

I've used shellac on a couple things and have learned to like it a lot. What I did between coats is take a sharp card scraper and level it out. BTW, I use a scraper between coats of varnish, too. It really works wonders and makes very quick work of leveling and taking those nibs down. The scraper must be good and sharp, and then just lightly drag it across the surface. You'll get the cutest curls of shellac

Bruce

[Jerry Palmer]

Don't remember if I got this from Jewitt or Flexner but, . . . I do a bit of a cheating sort of French Polish. Brush on a couple thin coats to get the build started, sand away blemishes and any dust nibs and the like, and finish up to desired depth with the French Polish regimen.

[Bob Oehler]

Harry
By all means post away and thanks in advance.

I was kinda proud to get this done and I wanted to tell the neaders about it. An I did not want the picture police on my back

Take care
Bob Oehler

[harry strasil]

These are the altered pictures of Bob's Chest.

box01A.jpg

box02A.jpg

box03A.jpg

box05A.jpg

[harry strasil]

And the others.

box06A.jpg

box08A.jpg

box09A.jpg

Hope these are good enough Bob, glad to help.

[Bob Oehler]

Thanks all for your comments and many thanks to Harry for the inproved pic's

Like I said this was my 1st shellack job. I will try the card scraper route as I think that is would be less likely to get into the stain. I have one realy thing scraper that would probably be just what the doctor ordered.

Well thanks again for the kind words and suggestions.

Take care
Bob Oehler

[harry strasil]

Bob, the first pic was awful dark, not sure what the true color is.

But a couple of tips when taking pics of your work use a blanket or something to set them on and for a back drop, and not white it will glare. and stand at an angle to the piece to avoid flash glare in the photo, I do a lot of pics for a blacksmithing site and I stand back aways and use the zoom to get close, this gives more light on the subject and will give a better picture.

If you look at the flash reflection on the first pic, there is a lot at the top and much less at the bottom and both surfaces at almost the same angle to the camera.


respectfully Jr.

[Bob Noles]

Bob,

Very nice job. The dovetails add a really nice touch to the piece.

Thanks for sharing.