Bed made from cherry

Here are some photos of a bed I just completed for my youngest son. The bed is made from solid cherry with a headboard veneered with a cherry crotch veneer. This is the second bed that I have made and was an enjoyable and quite simple project.

I have found that the most difficult part of making a bed is accurately drilling the holes for the bed bolts and cross dowels. Because the components are also large and heavy it is hard to move things around, and for this reason I completed most of the construction in my garage instead of my workshop.

The curved rails were shaped and refined with spokeshaves and rasps and the bedposts were shaped with an Auriou rasp. I recently posted a little video on youtube showing how I did this.

I love veneering and this headboard is the largest panel I have ever attempted. It came out highly satisfactorily.

The finish is very simple. All surfaces receive a couple of coats of shellac, and then the solid wood surfaces receive a coat of very thin Tried and True oil. After letting it cure for a full day, I buffed it out. After another week I buffed it out again to make it super smooth in case any oil bled up to the surface and to ensure everything was fully cured. The headboard received a few more coats of shellac applied with a fad but no oil.

Finally I applied a coat of Antiquax original wax and then polished it with a cloth. It all feels lovely to touch and smells of cinnamon too!

I included a photo of the headboard before I applied any finish so you can see how the shellac and wax changed its appearance.

Thanks for looking.

P.S. One of the photos is duplicated but I do not know how to delete it.