Thread: Cedar Bedside Tables

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on some northern Toona ciliata (was called Toona australis - Australian Cedar) from a tree cutter in Far North Queensland which he had acquired as a result of the devastation caused by a cyclone. I also had some very old cedar that was a mantle piece in its day in a home built in the mid 1800s in South Australia. This is much darker than the northern form and the growth rings are much closer perhaps suggesting slower growth and/or an older tree when it was felled. This timber forms the lower shelf of the tables.

I had never made curved fronts for drawers so wanted to make them for this project and selecting the correct grain pattern before cutting the curves was going to be a bit hit and miss and I've subsequently learned that selecting the grain pattern then cutting and attaching a veneer of this would have been a more reliable alternative. However, I've convinced myself that the different patterns on the drawer fronts suggests more of a 'home made' rather than a factory production endeavour.

I had a testing time with the finish. I had planned to apply several coats of Chinese wood oil (Constantia) and then to finish off with my variation of a Maloof mixture (tung oil; turps and poly) but used Feast & Watsons Floorseal oil which is a tung oil/poly mixture - or so they say but I don't see tung oil listed on their MSDS - with added turps. I've used this combination in the past but added my own tung oil and the finish was most pleasant. However, on this occasion although the top turned out well with the finish looking like it was 'in the wood' opposed to being 'on the wood', the cabinet itself looked awful with the finish definitely appearing 'on the wood'. Why this happened, I don't know. Anyway, many hours were spent trying to remove that finish and it was really a PITA what with all those angles and edges being as careful as possible not to get right down to the raw timber (there were several coats of wood oil under the final finish). After having removed the 'Estapol shine' I applied a single coat of the 'Maloof mix' then waxed with Traditional Wax.



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