Thread: First Box

Hi Adhmad,

what a great little box! Congratulations! Are you hooked on boxmaking yet?

Finishing - you could oil it for a lustre and sheen type of finish. You could paint it and hide the lovely grain. You could varnish it. The choice is yours.

I'd suggest an oil for finishing. As to which oil, it depends on what is available where you are.

Very generally, wipe or brush the oil on, wait a bit for it to soak in, wipe the excess off with a rag and then give it a rub with fine steel wool or some fine sandpaper if you do not have any steel wool.

Others may have better suggestions to offer.

cheers
Wendy

That is a really sweet box, and I like your 'jump in' attitude. The well made butt joints look nice, and contrast well with the strong visual grain of the pine.

I'd suggest a light reddish/brown stain to warm up the colour a tad, then take your pick of ruffly's suggestions --- except the paint! One suggestion in addition would be to try some shellac. Apply with a brush, and sand gently at about 300 grit between each of two or three coats. Advantage of shellac is that it dries much quicker than oil.

Congrats on your first box. Looks great!

Corey

Very nice first go - welcome to the addiction.
As a finish, try coat of thinned shellac as a sanding sealer, re-sand lightly, then oil. Start as Ruffly said - you can use extra coats to improve the gloss depending on the type of oil you use.

Nice looking little box. How about starting with a subtle stain and finishing with a wipe-on poly? No muss, very little fuss. As you have already read, there are a whole lot of ways to make and finish boxes. Keep up the good work!

Great job on that first box and now you have the fever Your jointery is tight as should be and the fit looks to be perfecft.

I am with Ruffy on using oil to finish with. I think it will make it look and feel just the way you want it.

I think I heard the little bell ringing that announces the arrival of another addict .... yep, I hear it ringing!
welcome and great first box, Fletty

All good finishing jobs start with surface prep. Give it a good sanding at 220 grit. Then apply your finish. Someone mentioned the wood was pine. If it is then be careful with stain. Dark stain will reverse the grain of pine and not look to good. You could use "poly shades". It is a tinted wipe on poly. It works ok with pine. Don't recommend it for much else though.

Of course it is hard to go wrong with WATCO danish oil. Wet the surface, wipe off the excess, wait 24 hours, sand lightly with 220 or steel wool and repeat. 4 to 6 coats is best.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the kind words - yes I am addicted (and that is with just one partially finished box). Now its time for the shellac, oil, stain, wire wool etc. - decisions, decisions!

"Next problem is how to finish - there appears to be an encyclopaedia of information on finishing in the forum - but where do I start?"

First of all. Nice one.

To answer that question of yours. I think you had the right idea when you made the box: Just jump right in there and do it. A simple varnish or stain would do. Then once it's done you look at how it turned out and figure out from there what you might do different next time based on how you feel about your results.

Experience is the greatest teacher. And a lot of fun to boot.

if you have some scrap of the wood left over, use it to try the different methods suggested. As you can tell, everyone has their favorite finish. You might as well try to discover yours before you apply something else to the entire box.

Excellent for first box. Looks really great. more pics when its finished please