Cherry Sideboard for my Sister...

Another great Stickley! – You did a wonderful thing for your sister and many generations to come!

-- The Gnarly Wood Shoppe

Beautiful finish!....I’m sure she loved it.

-- Can't never could do anything, to try is to advance.

This is a really nice piece of furniture. Cherry is my favorite wood with which to work. The finish is outstanding.
I am glad to see that you are an ardent believer that good craftmanship can’t be rushed. I am sure that your sister appreciated the gift.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Very nice Steve, I really like the different sizes of dovetails.

-- Les, Wichita, Ks. (I'd rather be covered in saw dust!)

Well done

-- Thos. Angle

Beautiful finsh – congratulations.

-- "No Board Left Behind"

oh my this is LOVELY

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Wow, very professional looking, gorgeous piece, great finish!

-- Bob A in NJ

Great piece! As others have said, the finish is particularly outstanding.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. Since many of you like the finish, I’ll mention that I’m working in a very dusty basement shop, and so have to use a finishing technique that dries quickly. Jeff Jewett tells about a time he moved his shop and had to reopen for business before construction was finished, and so he developed a technique for wipe-on varnish with paper towels! The finish dries in a few minutes so there’s less chance of capturing a dust particle (or a brush bristle) in your work. The downside is that you’ve got to use lots of coats and after the first two or so, you need about a day of drying time before you can scuff sand the previous coat. I now use the same technique with shellac (thinned to about 1/2 or even 1/4 lb cut).

FW has included his article on this method in their book Traditional Finishing Techniques (available from Taunton Press) or you can search the FW online site for his articles. That said, I preceded the wipe-on varnish with linseed oil (and the stain) and allowed that to soak in a cure for about 10 days. Since I do most of the finishing before assembly, that wasn’t too much of a problem since I could work on other parts as soon as the finished parts were dry to the touch. Those of you with spray booths can shoot and run, but I rather enjoy the traditional process, especially if I can use traditional oil / shellac / wax finishes. Again thanks for your encouragement!

-- SteveL

This piece is awesome. I really like the design of the legs. Is the inside of the leg straight?

-- Marge, Colorado

The finish looks wonderful, as does the entire piece. Great job.

An exceptionally fine piece. Love the color and the finish. Definitely a piece to be very proud of.

-- Jim Hallada, Chesterfield, VA

Marge, yes the inside of the legs are straight, but the outside is tapered from partway down the side toward both the top and the bottom. The leg cross-section is square at top and bottom, so the middle is a bit wider than it is deep. I don’t have the print here, but I think I started with 2-1/2×1-3/4 and ran all the upper tapers on a taper jig through my table saw, reset the jig and flipped all the legs and did the lower taper. Got 8 nice wide cherry wedges for door stops!

-- SteveL

Isn’t it nice to finally finish that project that has been kicking around the shop for so long. Great looking table I love the design.

-- Kevin -- (http://www.furniturebykevin.com)

I just love it!! Great finish!!

-- Matt, Houston Texas

I was just browsing the LJ site and saw this photo – and it turns out I’m in the middle of building the same Stickley Sideboard! – though I’m building it out of maple, and following the plans in the Summer 09 issue of Woodworking magazine.

Yours looks great… I hope mine turns out half as well.

-- -- Kevin in Mentor, Ohio

wonderful great work Steve

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com