Cherry Bedside table

Bob Gibson

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Messages
11,472
Location
Merrimack, New Hampshire
My wife wanted a new table for beside the bed and was getting a touch annoyed that everything I was making I was giving away to the kids. We both are really into early American, colonial and shaker style.
I've never worked with cherry before but I was real happy with how easy the wood was to work with. I really love working with hardwoods.
Kind of disappointed in the finish. The top looks blotchy and I don't know why. It is finished with 3 coats of BLO and 3 coats of rub on poly. Any ideas on how I screwed it up is greatly appreciated.
Next is a hope chest for my oldest daughter then a slant front desk for my 3rd oldest daughter.
I'm thinking of mahogany for the desk. I found a place locally today that has clear 1x6 s4s 12' planks for $3.50 bf. Gotta check around to see if that's a good deal or not.
As usual comments and suggestions greatly appreciated.

P4050333 (600 x 450).jpg

P4050334 (600 x 450).jpg

P4050335 (600 x 450).jpg
 
Bob Cherry is my favorite wood. You have soft and hard grain on the top piece. The soft will take the finish different from the hard. If you take it back down and apply 2 thinned coats of shellac mixed 50/50 with alcohol this will allot a even color tone when you apply the BLO. You did go natural right ?
 
Thanks guys.
Yes Dave, 2 parts mineral spirits and 1 part BLO. Each coat dried for 2-3 days then wipe on poly.

I found the mahogany at a discout flooring and decking place in Merrimack, NH. about 20 minutes from my house.
It's called Uncle Herbies (or something like that). One of my kids said they drove by and saw lumber sticking out the door and the word discount on the sign a called me right away :rofl:
I've never worked with mahogany before either. I think I'll buy 6-8 pieces and give it a try.
 
Bob great looking table very neat legs:thumb: The wood seems cheap to me. Hardwood like that at 3.50bf aint at all bad in my books. Its already plained as well and you say 12 feet pieces, I would grab them.

Mark i think what Dave is refering to is the fact that the top is from flatsawn cherry. So one is cutting through the early and late wood rings to end up with more dense and harder wood where the cathedral patterns occur. I guess that area is a slice cross section of the late wood ring and therefore more dense in cell structure than the early wood which is the wood between the cathedral patter. Thats my guess and i hop i am correct, if not i dont understand at all.:D:) Dave help.
 
Bob, the table looks great! If you will put the table in the sun for a few hours it will give the cherry a sun tan and even out the color.

I've worked with mahogany a few times. It works very well. It an cherry are my two favorite woods.
 
Mark for the top , which I think is awesome as it is, soft grain will shook up more finish plus the fact that the grain is changing direction all over the top reflecting light and color tones depending on the angle viewed. You can do something about that but it will take a good bit of practice.

You know how many of my customers can not get it into there heads that wood has charactor like that and that it takes a lot of time to work a finish to get that to change. Anywhere from pre stain application then water stain application to light toning with glazes. I tell customers wood has character why change it , it's beautiful !

BTW the 1# problem {customer do not understand} with refinishing is; when a piece comes in the shop and you can not make it look 100% as it was. Educating them that each time you strip or sand a piece you are compromising the character of the wood.

Bob main thing with mahogany will be dealing with fish-eyes. If they are really bad I will apply 2-3 coats [spray] sealer in piss coats. Supper light. Then take lacquer thinner on a rag and wip or rub the lacquer into the grain. This will fill the grain and seal in the areas that are giving off the fish-eye. Most finishers will use Fish-eye reducer, I never liked the stuff, after I have sanded the areas I wiped I apply 2-3 coats [ piss coats] then a few straight coats. 99% of the time the fish-eyes have been eliminated.

You can also seal the mahogany with a few coats of 50/50 shellac/alcohol, sand down then seal with the product you are using, oil sealer oil finish lacquer sealer lacquer finish and so on.
 
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The photo I took with the flash didn't show the finish too well. I was once told by a guy at a camera store that was developing my pictures that the quality of my shots didn't qualify to be called photos. They were just snapshots:(

I'm going to stick in in the sun today and see what develops. The top wasn't too bad just some spots here and there that looked shinier and darker than the rest.

Thanks for the kind and helpful comments.:thumb:
 
A lot of times if I want a picture to look better, I ditch the flash, put the camera on a tripod and use some other 'ambient' lighting.

I find that if I use the self timer on a tripod, the pictures come out better looking than using the flash. The flash sure works to brighten things up, but it can give things sort of a deer in the headlights look.

I'm no accomplished photo joe, by any means, just offering something else to try.
 
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