Thread: Entertainment unit / TV cabinet

A follow up question for anyone following is:

Any tips on a wood finish that will preserve as much as possible the lightness / natural colour of the timber?

My early feedback from family, who were able to see a piece of Qld Maple with a standard hardwax oil, was they thought it would be a shame for it to darken into the copper colour and not stay pale. This is particularly for a sunny, light area.

A product I have noted is the Whittles Wax natural stains which is supposed to go on before the hardwax oil and claim to preserve something like the natural, unfinished, colour. The other option would seem to be white, dewaxed shellac products - but they still go to the wet colour of the wood.

Evolution Stains - Raw Stain Natural – Whittle Waxes

Anyone have any experience with this product, or other thoughts on trying to preserve the pale?

Chris

Originally Posted by Cgcc

My thoughts on the dovetails were that they were pretty gappy and disappointing. I am still working on straighter saw cuts that I think is my major issue. However something I have noticed for me is that standard tidying up techniques (epoxy or wood glue + sawdust, shims into end grain gaps etc for larger gaps etc)... even very mediocre dovetails off the saw usually end up both as sturdy as you could ever need and looking good. When I see dovetails on furniture or items I've made have been rough to begin with I've still been very pleased with them in a finished product. I wonder if it shouldn't be said more that for hobbyists and difficult joints we should just do it and not beat ourselves up over a lack of perfection.

That is not to say one should not always be striving to analyse, critique, improve of course - but just a strong feeling that it would be a shame if people weren't getting on with making something they want just because the joints might be other than perfect to a trained eye.

Nicely done. I'm never going to be as good as some of the other folks here but I'm not going to let it stop me trying.

Gappy dovetail joints can be fixed with slivers of wood hammered in, glued and pared flush. I've patched up some that even I cannot tell where the patches were made and I made them. Fake it until you make it!

As for finish, all of the hardwax oils I've used have a slight tint. Probably the least tinted I've used is Livos.

I made something similar to this project using beech finger jointed panels and used Livos on it. See photo below.

IMG_0063.jpeg

An update

Before glue-up, I did a simple groove throughout (this time, actually remembering not to groove all the way through the pins and inserted a sheet of 6mm marina ply from a sheet lying around as a backing board.

PXL_20230424_091206001.jpg

On a large piece I'd like to avoid that technique again, and rebate the back so that the backing can go on later. The simple reason is that it made the glue-up very stressful indeed! I only glued the dovetails and not the backing board so that it can accommodate any wood movement.

I used the Whittles Wax Raw Stain Light product. It goes on as a milky finish, certainly not clear. After about 6 hours it felt quite dry so I put a coat of hardwax oil on.

The results? In my eye somewhat appalling at first:

PXL_20230425_204203986.jpg

PXL_20230425_204159471.jpg

The stain shows up every defect including a bit of tearout I hadn't noticed in the top. The stain also noticeably is chalky (the sides were carefully sanded back to 120 grit). It also showed up some glue on the pins where it had been planed/sanded flush but some must have soaked in.

I was on the verge of deciding it all needed complete re-sanding and re-finishing. However when I put it in the place to get a sense, my wife came out and said she really liked the effect as a sort of a 'beach house' look, and didn't want me to re-do it. So there you go. I will have to chase more traditional quality in a later project.

What is left is some feet (which I will likely turn), and an insert for drawer dividers/runners and some drawers.

Chris