Walnut table finish stages

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
I installed the brass handles today and worked on a couple things nearing completion in the shop. I will rub out the finish in a week or so and put the pins in the tenons to complete the job before delivery.

This journey started under the making mortises for a table title a couple weeks back. I built a table similar to this one last year in cherry with a maple top. This time I tried making the entire piece in figured walnut.

Building this small table includes many of the basic building skills: turning the legs, chopping mortises, fitting tenons, cutting veneers for the top and drawer fronts, cutting dovetailed drawers, fitting cockbead around the drawer fronts and adding colors before finishing the surface.

Summer time can be slow on woodworking for others but it is a busy time for me here in Durham. I don't have air in my shop so I tend to get started early in the day and quit for a while around 2 when its hot.



186043

The finish on the top was 6 layers of Garnetlac and a varnish solution that I make up and thinned down with Turpentine to allow a nice flow. It does have an odor and it can be slow but it makes buffing it easier down the road. The top is attraction on this piece. I thought the walnut would be nice but I did have to bleach it back a little so it would not be black. It worked.
186042

The top measures 18 x 24 in a book-matched of crotch walnut.

186044

Many here on the site know I don't like to have multiple non-matching boards to make up a surface.

186045



186046


Now to finish a couple chairs and finish up on a rifle that's been sitting.

later

Note the build is further explained in the Resources section. Mike Davis gave me a spot and I am trying fill in any steps I missed here.

Dan's Table Build
 
Last edited:

FredP

Fred
Corporate Member
I installed the brass handles today and worked on a couple things nearing completion in the shop. I will rub out the finish in a week or so and put the pins in the tenons to complete the job before delivery.

This journey started under the making mortises for a table title a couple weeks back. I built a table similar to this one last year in cherry with a maple top. This time I tried making the entire piece in figured walnut.

Building this small table includes many of the basic building skills: turning the legs, chopping mortises, fitting tenons, cutting veneers for the top and drawer fronts, cutting dovetailed drawers, fitting cockbead around the drawer fronts and adding colors before finishing the surface.

Summer time can be slow on woodworking for others but it is a busy time for me here in Durham. I don't have air in my shop so I tend to get started early in the day and quite for a while around 2 when its hot.



View attachment 186043
The finish on the top was 6 layers of Garnetlac and a varnish solution that I make up and thinned down with Turpentine to allow a nice flow. It does have an odor and it can be slow but it makes buffing it easier down the road. The top is attraction on this piece. I thought the walnut would be nice but I did have to bleach it back a little so it would not be black. It worked.
View attachment 186042
The top measures 18 x 24 in a book-matched of crotch walnut.

View attachment 186044
Many here on the site know I don't like to have multiple non-matching boards to make up a surface.

View attachment 186045


View attachment 186046

Now to finish a couple chairs and finish up on a rifle that's been sitting.

later
Beautiful work
 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
Thank you for continuing to show your work and your work in progress and the steps you take to get there!
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Very nice wood and very nice workmanship. Thanks for sharing.

Where do you generally get your wood?
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
As a rule I buy figured walnut, cherry and maple when ever it goes across my view. All of the wood I use in my projects is air dried stock that has dried at least 4-5 years.

Many times when I have had over stock piles I have offered to sell at my purchase price plus 15 percent.

Most of the folks who contact me from the site want 4/4 stock and not thick veneer for their projects.

Currently, I have over 1000' of thick veneer in walnut and curly maple. This is the highest quality thick veneer that you work with hand tools not like the commercial stuff at 1/40" in most cases.

If you look in my albums for a desk you will find a solid lid piece. I am looking to sell this in the near future.
If you can not find it send word if you are interested.

Where: mostly from western Penn and western Virginia for the most part. All of the maple is sugar maple and a little red maple from New England.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
I've been looking for suppliers in Western Virginia - can you share any of your sources either publicly or privately?
 

danmart77

Dan
Corporate Member
Ken I went up to Virginia back in the late 1990's and bought logs. They sat idle for a while and then I found a guy from Penn with a Woodmizer.

186083

This was a solid piece of crotch walnut. I paid around 150 for each of the pieces. I have one left.

186084


I still have some boards that are dry I could look thru. Again, figured wood does not just fall in your lap-- you have to look. To get good wood you have to find a good sawyer like Scott Smith or Ricky Pope. Apologies to other sawyers here I have not worked with in the past.

You might take a ride to Christiansburg and talk with the timber framers there. They will know about local bandsaw guys.
 

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
Ken I went up to Virginia back in the late 1990's and bought logs. They sat idle for a while and then I found a guy from Penn with a Woodmizer.

View attachment 186083
This was a solid piece of crotch walnut. I paid around 150 for each of the pieces. I have one left.

View attachment 186084

I still have some boards that are dry I could look thru. Again, figured wood does not just fall in your lap-- you have to look. To get good wood you have to find a good sawyer like Scott Smith or Ricky Pope. Apologies to other sawyers here I have not worked with in the past.

You might take a ride to Christiansburg and talk with the timber framers there. They will know about local bandsaw guys.
Dan,
Is that the desk you want to sell or is it another one?
 

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