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Joe Laviolette
17 posts
and
7 followers
in over 10 years
in over 10 years
When good enough isn't good enough
I am working on a valet box and it’s just about finished. The last step is installing the open tray top. The top will have some leather and the center is hammer veneered with some shop sawn walnut. I finished the rest of the piece with my custom blended wiping varnish (tung oil, spirits, and pehenolic resin) and my plan was to just do the same on this. However after some scraping it’s just too pretty. I decided to add a few days to the project and french polish it. I almost forgot how miserable pore filling walnut was, but I think it will be worth it.
3 Replies
Put some good music on and drop into a zen state Joe. The pore filling will whiz by and you’ll be done by Christmas. …. :-)
I feel your pain but the finish will be worth it.
Hang in there.
The early bird gets the worm but its the second mouse that gets the cheese.
You guys are discouraging me from trying French polishing. Rubbing a piece of wood for hours doesn’t sound too appealing and I find music in my shop distracting. I do have all the French polishing supplies though, so I will probably give it a whirl in the near future. Good luck with your walnut Joe, I hope you don’t fall asleep in the middle of the job. I admire your willingness to go the extra mile.
Mike, an American living in Norway
I’ll admit since this is a proof of concept piece I got a tad lazy, but the pore filling overall was “acceptable”. As usual the corners could have used more work. Someday I will remember that for some odd reason, corners take 4 times longer to pore fill than the rest of the piece.
Mike, it’s not an easy process, but it’s well worth it. It came out nice and this is a fairly mediocre job (even for me). It could have used another padding session, but instead I chose to just rub it out with Tripoli grade rottenstone.
