I finally had a day to work on our stuff. With a little urging from my girlfriend to finish the fumed table sitting in our dining room, I bit the bullet and gave it a good shellacing. This was my first time using shellac. It’s pretty difficult to work with, as it dries fast and leave a build-up. I cut the Zinser Amber in half with denatured alcohol, and grabbed a beer for myself (I thought it only fair), and went to town on it. It gave it a nice, rich look. When that dried, I busted out all of my dark gel stains and did a test swatch on the underside of the top. I really liked the authentic, antique look that General Finishes “Antique Walnut” gave it, so I gave the whole thing one coat. I’m pretty satisfied with the look. The gel stain gave it a very rick, old look. I’ll wait for the gel to polymerize and then put three coats of Arm-R-Seal Satin on it. When that’s done, some dark brown furniture wax. After that, it’s ready for large salad bowls and trivets. Trivets, hmmm…
I’m resisting the urge to load it up into the truck and run over to Craftsman Home in Berkeley for a comparison to the real thing. I think this blog is done. Thanks for watching.
I’m going to have to seriously resist building the accompanying piece, the Limber Fern Stand #244:
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails
5 comments so far
3fingerpat
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905 posts in 560 days
posted 27 days ago
Beautiful finish to an excellent blog series, love the table, well done and congratulations.
-- "You get what you inspect, not what you expect"
a1Jim
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16577 posts in 469 days
posted 27 days ago
Thanks Skully super blog and project,very well done
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
Vincent Nocito
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146 posts in 256 days
posted 27 days ago
The finish is very good and I like the whole blog. Keep it up. Gotta make the fern table.
Greg Salata
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81 posts in 654 days
posted 26 days ago
Great work.
I have always liked Limbert pieces.
That is a piece I would like to build in the not so distant future.
Really enjoyed the blog.
CaptainSkully
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468 posts in 450 days
posted 26 days ago
Thanks guys! Vincent, don’t tempt me. Greg, make sure you make the jigs, and make them long enough. It’s a very rewarding project and is very authentic looking. Making the stretchers half-lap like (Brad) TreeFrog suggests adds structural integrity, but is pretty difficult to make accurately. I might make the angled dadoes first, then worry about the half laps and end profiles. My stretcher assembly pushes the top a bit out of alignment, but not enough to be noticeable by anyone other than myself.
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails