headboard
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Projects / headboard
- This topic has 23 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 4 months ago by Greg Merritt.
-
AuthorPosts
-
This is my last big project for a looong time! I will be making a headboard out of cherry for my father-in-law. I picked up the lumber last Friday and went a little crazy!!! I ended up getting 60bdft. My estimate is that I will need roughly 45bdft before any cutting is made. I should be able to make several other small projects with the left overs. Here is what 60bdft of air dried Illinois black cherry looks like!
I will try and post a drawing later this morning.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.27 October 2014 at 4:28 pm #120203that should keep you busy for a couple of hours what was the cost of that little lot (if you dont mind me asking)
The plan right now is to age the cherry using lye, draino our potassium dichromium to make the lumber a dark reddish brown, add oil and finish it off with Amber shellac. Of course I need to test out the finish before committing to it. My father-in-law wants dark wood. Original plan was walnut,but couldn’t find what I liked and know cherry ages dark.
Do you have any suggestions?
28 October 2014 at 12:27 am #120224Cherry is a joy to work, and planes beautifully. One of my favorite woods.
30 October 2014 at 11:16 am #120347Our local Guild (Rochester Woodworkers Society) just hosted Mike Mascelli who did a workshop on finishing by hand. Mike is a expert upholsterer who has done many things for the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC. But also fixes old furniture so he knows his way around finishes and matching finishes.
Anyways, one trick he uses for aging cherry is roofing cement! Yes that gooey black sticky stuff you get at the Home Center.
What he does is mixes a small slug of it into Naptha (high test mineral spirits) and then experiments on some test pieces of cherry to get the right degree of aging. Add more goo if you want it darker etc.
Takes some experimentation but it works wonderfully.
That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing! I’m going have to do some experimenting before I commit to a finishing processing. I would love to see that process.
The black cherry i have seen ( canoe paddle) had a gloss varnish, but it had aged and with exposire to light, turns a beautiful natural dark rich reddish colour you mention. Sapwood and heartwood are quite different from what i have seen too. So staining may be the way to achieve uniformity.
I’m not opposed to sap wood showing in the final product. Part of me really likes the contrast between the sapwood and the heartwood and another part of me prefers the look of only the heartwood. In the lumber I have, it is about 20-30% sapwood, so if I want the look of the heartwood I will have to dye or stain or both. I’ve experimented a little with dying the lumber a brown mahogany color, just to see how the sapwood accept the dye in comparison to the heartwood. It’s nice, but I still want to try and oxidize the sapwood to have an idea of how it will age. I will attach a picture of the lumber I was able to clean up. For the rails of the headboard I will be laminating two boards together to get a thickness of 1 1/2″. I had access to 4/4 cherry, but 8/4 cherry is more that double, so it was not an option.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.This cherry is a dream to work with, compared to the white oak I used to make the desk with. Cuts smoothly and plans with ease. I’m glad I picked it up.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.