Figured walnut shaker step stool

Very nice. Your son will be proud to have his son use it.

-- Dan, Naperville IL, I.G.N.

your handcut joinery looks great! Awesome! Spectacular wood, that figured walnut.

so great wood

-- Gintaras, http://www.woodatelier.com

Mann look at that wood, so beautiful

-- Wood and Glass they kick (well you know) Have a great day - Dug

nice stool! it certainly looks too good to actually use :-)

just wondering: what’s your reasoning behind using all the different finishes in that particular order?

Yeah . . . the finishes. I was going to try to fill the grain a little with the shellac. So the first few coats of that were sanded down pretty good. Then the danish oil was to get a little oil in there. The danish oil alone didn’t quite have the look I was going for, so I did a couple coats of shellac again because I knew I was going to go water based on top of that. I never really did fully fill the grain. If I did it again, I would probably use a grain filler, some sort of oil and go right to the top coat. One of these days I’m going to build up a finish and rub it out, but I’m just not patient enough yet.

gotcha. I can imagine myself doing the same thing. Actually, while I don’t ever really want to go for a full piano-like finish, I have gotten as close as I really care to get using poly. 1 coat of straight gloss poly put on there without too much care for dust nibs etc, then sanded back with ~500 grit paper does a really fine job. Using another coat or two of diluted “wiping” poly has gotten me pretty smooth finishes – actually smoother than I’d intended.

I’ve never tried shellac, but I was under the impression that it was kind of the perfect grain filler, since it dries so quickly. hmm.

WOW!! That has to be the most expensive foot stool in the world!! sure looks good :-)

-- Bob in WW ~ "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

Nicely done!
The board is really eye-catching but the joinery is equally nice!
Great job on featuring the craftsmanship in your photos.

I’m sure your little guy will love it. Great work.

-- -- Mike

Art!

-- Less is More.....expensive

Beautiful work.

-- Al, Culpeper VA

Thanks for the idea! Nice joins.

-- GX

Amazing figure! Great workmanship!

-- Randy "You are judged as much by the questions you ask as the answers you give..."

Did you try a sample piece by putting the oil on before the shellac ?
Was the oil able to penetrate the shellac on your project ?
Finishes and their order of application intrigue me sometimes.
Thanks.

-- I'm absolutely positive that I couldn't be more uncertain!

Beautiful wood on this stool! Wow!

-- Homer : "Oh, and how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain."