Reply by Nicholas Hall

Gfadvm: You make some truly stunning boxes. I love the maple and granadillo box. The quartersawn grain does seem much more pronounced with lacquer or shellac than it does with danish oil. A nice thing about shellac is that I can try to pop the quartersawn grain with the shellac, but I can also build a few coats of wiping varnish like waterlox over the shellac as well for protection. I’m curious to try a nice dark garnet dewaxed shellac, sand it off, and see if this pops the quartersawn grain similar to the dye method mentioned earlier. Thanks for the suggestion!

-- “Congratulations. You’ve just figured out the most complicated way to hold a board 30 inches off the floor." Tage Frid