Thread: Hornbeam Box

Nice box, as usual, Paul. Is there any finish on the box? It looks like bare timber in the pic's.

Hi and thanks Dave, Interesting comment. Possibly looks that way as that timber is so hard. I always sand down to 3000 grit now (used to be 2000), there are two coats of my own Danish Oil on the box, then two more coats of buffed wax.

Paul

Right, sometimes the camera just can't capture what is obvious to the naked eye.

Very nicely made box Paul. I have to agree with aldav in that it looks like bare timber but it must be what the camera is doing to it. Are the photos taken under photographic lights or is it natural light?
How much difference is the 3000 grit giving compared to the 2000?
How did the Gifkin's Jig handle the hard timber?

Hey there Dallas,how's it going mate. I think the thing with this Hornbeam is that it is that hard and true grained, the danish oil doesn't really penetrate that much and hence it doesn't change the natural colour of the timber hardly at all. Unlike it would do with say red cedar for example. It must penetrate to some extent though, the finish is lovely and smooth. I bought a big pack of 5 inch pads for my ROS, ranging all the way from I think about 120 all the way through to 3000, multiple pieces of each. Hard to tell if there is much difference between the 2000 and 3000, but since I have it, I use it.

For my photos I have tried several different techniques, light tents, lights bouncing off reflective shields etc, most of them a real pain to set up. Now I use a clothes airer that I bought at Target, one of them fold up types with arms here and there for drying clothes on. It has a high section and another section running off it at 90 degrees. I bought a large piece of white polysomethingorother 1200mm x 900mm that is really bendy and I place it on this clothes airer like a big slippery dip, hence no joints. I place all this in our full glass sunroom on the back decking and just use natural light through the windows. If that all makes sense. This air dryer is always in the sunroom anyway, as my wife uses it all the time for drying clothes.

Those ones you see on ebay with all the lights that are supposed to give you a white background to sell things on ebay, I dont think large boxes would fit in them. They might be ok for very small items.

As for my gifkins jig, I just took it steady, it really screamed but did the job well. For my cavity for the lock to fit down inside, I have a jig made up where I can use a makita laminator and a long 1/4 inch bit and keep going deeper. To get the 1mm x 9mm rebate for the plates of the lock to slip into was a bit more fiddly. I did that on my gifkins router table. I have a sorta jig made up in my head I'll work on in the new year to make that easier. The brass cigar box lock I bought from Michael at Veneer Inlay, and these jigs are made to suit that particular lock

Paul

Thanks for the detailed explanation and also for introducing me to that new word of yours for the sheet. I thought you may have been using a light tent as the diffused light in those tends to remove any sheen on wooden objects.
Glad you didn't do any damage to the router bits. The bit for doing the tails always worries me on harder timbers because of the small neck at the bottom.
Have you been tuning in to the instructional livestreams that Col has been doing on Sunday mornings over the last month or so?

Hey Dallas, no, I didnt even know about that videos, I just checked his site now. I'll work my way through them.

Paul