Re: My first furniture build
Your photos are sideways because you took them with an iPhone and didn't edit them before posting. If you want them to appear upright, you always have to edit the photo (just cropping will do it) in the phone, save it, then post it.
If you would like a few simple tips for your next build and don't mind a critique:
* You have sap wood in the middle of your door panels, thats like having gristle in your New York Strip. Just like the butcher is happy when someone buys those out of his meat case, your wood supplier was equally as happy you bought those from his inventory. In the future, try to avoid that sap wood. As someone who has bought thousands of pieces of figured maple over the years, I would instantly reject that piece if a woodworker brought it to me because of the sap wood.
* Just say no to kitchen hinges. It's not too difficult to cut a mortise into your doors and reveals and use a proper hinge, and you'll be more please with the end result. All you need is set of sharp chisels and a marking gauge.
* There's tricks to getting a vibrant finish on figured maple, you are partially there. You are on the right track with the water-based dye, however you should use a 50/50 cut of fresh (not premix) orange shellac after the stain coat, let that try, then apply a toner coat of darkening agent such as a linseed-oil based color burnt umber (very thinly) followed by two coats of the shellac you mixed up. The result will be a finish like this:
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When start your next project, lets see your drawings and if you are going to make drawers, then its time to learn hand-dovetailing - which is not hard, just requires some patience.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.