Finally finished up a couple projects that have been sitting around for awhile--a box for my wife and a clock for my dad. The clock is an old A-11 cockpit clock from a WWII aircraft. I cased it up in canarywood and bloodwood.
The box has a lot that I'm unhappy with that I'll learn from the next time. It's a mix of wenge, maple, and padauk. I don't like the padauk keys on the bottom. If i could do it again, I would have done a single maple key, 1/8 wide to match the three at the top. The box also isn't perfectly square, which resulted in some of the keys at the top being a different length. Not a lot, but noticeable and bothersome (to me).
I am most proud of the top. This was my first attempt at segmenting and inlay. The checkerboard pattern came out extremely well, given this was the first time I'd attempted something like this. I also love the quilted maple piece in the center. I can't claim credit for the beautiful grain pattern--God gets the recognition there--but man does it look nice.
But getting the checkerboard pattern was actually the easiest part. I had a hell of a time sanding and smoothing the top. I couldn't sand, actually. The red padauk dust contaminated the maple. So I used a hand plane to get everything pretty close to flush and finished it off with a hand scraper. On to the finish. I used Osmo UV Protection Oil, hoping to maintain the red-orange color of the padauk as long as possible. Well, the oils in the padauk prevented the Osmo from curing. So I wiped it all off with lacquer thinner, which in turn picked up the pigment of the padauk and carried it into the maple. You can see that some of the maple ornamentation is reddish-pink. So I need to go back outside and hit it with the scraper again and see if I can bring back the white from the maple. Then, I'll be more careful with the lacquer thinner wipe-down and try the Osmo again. Hopefully, it'll cure that time around. If it doesn't, I may just go with shellac or a spray-on spar varnish that I've used with padauk in the past.
The box has a lot that I'm unhappy with that I'll learn from the next time. It's a mix of wenge, maple, and padauk. I don't like the padauk keys on the bottom. If i could do it again, I would have done a single maple key, 1/8 wide to match the three at the top. The box also isn't perfectly square, which resulted in some of the keys at the top being a different length. Not a lot, but noticeable and bothersome (to me).
I am most proud of the top. This was my first attempt at segmenting and inlay. The checkerboard pattern came out extremely well, given this was the first time I'd attempted something like this. I also love the quilted maple piece in the center. I can't claim credit for the beautiful grain pattern--God gets the recognition there--but man does it look nice.
But getting the checkerboard pattern was actually the easiest part. I had a hell of a time sanding and smoothing the top. I couldn't sand, actually. The red padauk dust contaminated the maple. So I used a hand plane to get everything pretty close to flush and finished it off with a hand scraper. On to the finish. I used Osmo UV Protection Oil, hoping to maintain the red-orange color of the padauk as long as possible. Well, the oils in the padauk prevented the Osmo from curing. So I wiped it all off with lacquer thinner, which in turn picked up the pigment of the padauk and carried it into the maple. You can see that some of the maple ornamentation is reddish-pink. So I need to go back outside and hit it with the scraper again and see if I can bring back the white from the maple. Then, I'll be more careful with the lacquer thinner wipe-down and try the Osmo again. Hopefully, it'll cure that time around. If it doesn't, I may just go with shellac or a spray-on spar varnish that I've used with padauk in the past.
