Huntboard (FWW 187) - WIP

**Des.K.** · 10th May 2007, 10:26 PM

After admiring some of the brilliant work on display here, I finally built up the courage to show one of my efforts. The design is from Garrett Hack's huntboard in FWW 187. I'm making it for daughter's new apartment (recently left home to begin work).

All that's left to do is work out what handles to put on the drawers and doors, attach them, then attach the top (buttons).

The case, drawers and legs are Qld maple, and the door panels are silky oak.
The finish is shellac (U-Beaut naturally). Drawer fronts and panels are fully French polished (practise for the top), and the case is padded shellac finish. The top is French polished. Reasonably happy with the top's finish (first go at French polishing) - but very time consuming and labour-intensive.

Thanks for looking.

Des

**BobR** · 10th May 2007, 10:47 PM

Nice work. You should be proud of it. No doubt your daughter will

**Wongo** · 10th May 2007, 10:48 PM

Brilliant work! You should show us your work more often.

**m2c1Iw** · 10th May 2007, 11:10 PM

Des, really nice hierloom to be proud of I recon. If its not rude question approx how many hours? I'm with Wongo more please

**Des.K.** · 10th May 2007, 11:47 PM

Thanks for the kind words guys.

So far it's taken probably about 100 hours or so, and a good part of those were spent thicknessing and squaring the stock by hand (no jointer or thicknesser - just well-loved Stanley and Japanese planes), and about 15 hours or so on French polishing. Virtually everything was done by hand (except ripping - Triton).

I do have a pretty lame sort of a website with some of the other stuff I've made (http://web.mac.com/dmking1/iWeb/Site/Home.html), but compared to some of the other examples of people on this forum, probably the kindest thing I could say about it is that it's amateurish.

Des

**Harry72** · 11th May 2007, 01:23 AM

Nice work Des, looks like you like Mexican Maple!

**Des.K.** · 11th May 2007, 01:39 AM

Thanks Harry.
I managed to pick up a cubic metre of Qld maple about 18 months ago quite cheaply, and I've probably got about one more major project left - a TV cabinet for daughter. After that, it's a gajillion boxes and other bits and pieces to use up all the off-cuts and scrap.

Des

**underused** · 11th May 2007, 02:14 AM

Des,
Thats an excellent piece of work! Agree with the others about seeing more of your work

It seems I always have trouble with shellac

, and when I get to the end of a making, I want to use it, but bottle out

You on the other hand have done a very nice job of it

thumbs up mate!

**Des.K.** · 11th May 2007, 09:03 AM

Thanks Mate.

I had tried shellac before but with only fairly limited success. I was originally going to use Minwax for the finish (I quite like the finish it gives and it's so easy to apply), but I was following (not contributing, just following) a fairly heated discussion on Knots forum at FWW on applying shellac, and it stirred up my interest in it again.

Initially I tried brushing it on the back of the door panels, but my brush skills suck big time and all I got was a series of streaks. So instead of the brush, I tried padding the shellac (ubeaut hard shellac cut to 50% with metho) on with a French polishing rubber - just long strokes with the occasional circle and figure 8. This seemed to work fine for the case. For the French polished top, I followed the Bible (Neil's Polishers Handbook) to the letter. The more coats I applied, the more I got a feel for how it was going on.

How available is shellac (and the denatured alcohol) up in Japan? Wife and I are heading up there for a few years from January next year, and unfortunately I won't have any access to the ubeaut stuff. What finish are you going to use for your hall table?

Des

**m2c1Iw** · 11th May 2007, 10:14 AM

Hey Des,
A peep at your web site shows skills we all aspire to. Should be an interesting time in Japan I'm sure we all look forward to some WIP's and desciption of your experiences. Have a great time.
Cheers
Mike

**Rocker** · 11th May 2007, 10:22 AM

Beautiful piece, Des. Which silky oak is that? Is it Cardwellia or Grevillea?

Rocker

**zenwood** · 11th May 2007, 10:25 AM

This and the other works shown on your website look absolutely top quality.

Best wishes with the woodworking expedition to Japan. Wish I could fit in your suitcase!

Thanks for posting, and hope to see more of your contributions on this forum.

**Des.K.** · 11th May 2007, 10:34 AM

Thanks Mike, Zenwood and Rocker.

We're both looking forward to the move - a new phase of life and all that. Wife's family in Japan also looking forward to us being up there. The only down side is leaving daughter here, but she has a good job and a bright future, so it's not so bad. She has a lot of friends in Japan so she'll be a regular visitor (as long as Mum and Dad pay all or part of the airfare).

Rocker, not sure which variety of silky oak. From a discussion on a different thread, it has a not particularly pleasant smell when planing, so it might be the grevillea (but wouldn't bet any money on it).

Thanks all for the kind words

Regards
Des

**silentC** · 11th May 2007, 10:42 AM

Top notch. Got me stuffed why you needed to build up courage to post that. If I'd built it, I'd never shut up about it! Nice one.

**Wongo** · 11th May 2007, 10:47 AM

Des, I love the step stool. I think I will copy yours

and make one for my wife and MIL.

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