Dream Forest Studios

This is the continuing saga of the Woodworking Chemist. Last week, our hero was on a project that could have spelled certain doom. At the last minute, the caped client wanted joinery that would have been extraordinarily easy with power tools after all of the power tool work was done. Unfortunately, this studio has no boy wonder to dig him out of this mischief. Glue ups done, on a 16 foot piece of lumber. This time, our hero relied on his tool belt, and pulled out his trusty chisel.

After this was completed, I went into formulating the color match on a larger scale.  The original match was done weeks earlier before the client went away to Paris. It was now up to me to make a batch of dye that would work. This portion of the project, for some strange reason is always what I enjoy the best. I guess since I mix chemicals for a living? Oh well, I put on the first coat of dye and I was really amazed at how well the material worked. Since I was working with a medium like oak, I wanted to make sure the pores were leveled so that my client would not look at his shelf and see a cheap rounded over look on the wood. I leveled the wood with 3 coats of shellac. Each coat was meticulously rubbed out with fine sandpaper. Then, after that was completed, I began the polyurethane. Five coats of hand rubbed beauty later, 5 coats of tinted wax was applied and rubbed out.

The whole reason I have begun this venture of mine is that I really enjoy the feeling I get when someone admires a piece of work, whether it be furniture, a bowl, pen, or custom woodwork, and knowing that from start to finish a portion of myself goes into crafting each piece. Interacting with my clients, using my hands in balance with my mind and other senses, as well as seeing their satisfaction and appreciation for something that, if properly cared for, will last generations is a wonderful gift.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.