Project Information
So it's been since posting the first footstool that I mentioned there was another one in the works as well. It's been sitting around nearly finished far too long now and I've only not posted it up until now because I'm not completely done evening out the shellac. The photos are all with a coat of oil only and without the superblonde shellac, but the depth the wood gets from the shellac can't be captured on photo with my cam and setup anyway and the color change is pretty non-existent.
So I decided to post it up now instead of waiting until I get off my behind some day and smooth out the shellac enough to be satisfied.
On I go with the explanations. This was actually the first design I had in mind for my friends footstool, but as it turned out the second one I came up with and crafted first fit his taste better anyway. My mother commented on how this one looks almost futuristic in design and when I showed our forum member Chip a sneak peek, he said that he liked the architectural feel it had to it. Both things that I enjoyed hearing and that felt like good compliments to me, since I was going for something with a fresh look.
The wood used is walnut and maple, with strips of zebrawood veneer as the framing for the top and side maple inlays. When I saw the board of maple I just had to resaw off a slice to use it as inlay instead of "wasting" it on a project at once as a whole. The figure is really mesmerizing in real life and the walnut oil base with shellac finish over it brings that out even more.
Glued as usual with hot hide glue and you can see a picture of all the parts and joints as is almost customary for me now in picture 4.
There are a few more things I want to show and mention, so I'll have to add in the pictures from here on. First off is the backside of the top, with my logo carved into it and showing a core thingy the board had that I later filled up with some sawdust/hide glue. Let me tell you, that black evil was hard as hell and made planing it flat pretty much impossible, power planer or by hand. I wouldn't have believed that could happen, but it did. So I helped me with a scraper and hollowed out those areas a bit first, before planing it flat with my handplane, for real this time.
Next image shows how a simple grove can help to define the square form on the sides and make it much more interesting to look at.
Here one can see that the inlay(sides and top are from the same piece) is actually about 6mm thick and not some 0.6mm veneer. Since it's intended to rest your feet on it, I felt it important to give you a few lifetimes worth of slowly rubbing through it.
Last is a close-up of the zebrawood framing around the maple on the top. One of the few things I would change if I could do it again would be to get me some zebrawood veneer with double the thickness, so the top framing is more in proportion with how it is on the side pieces.
First I intended to have the zebrawood veneer be visible as end-grain, but found that in tests and oiled up it was nearly indistinguishable from the walnut and you couldn't see the stripe pattern of it much either. So I found an angle that worked well for what I intended and tried to cut so I end up with a good ratio of light to dark grain. Considering I didn't have much to chose from, it ended up mostly to my satisfaction.
I think this is pretty much all for now. As always I hope you enjoy the piece as well as the read (or at least excuse my wall of text with a gentle smile), but I just feel it belongs with my projects and maybe there is one or the other trick or thing someone can pick up from it.
After my first footstool was so well received I'm more curious than ever how this one will stack up against it when judged by everyone here.
Thanks for looking and any kind of reply you might be leaving!
So I decided to post it up now instead of waiting until I get off my behind some day and smooth out the shellac enough to be satisfied.
On I go with the explanations. This was actually the first design I had in mind for my friends footstool, but as it turned out the second one I came up with and crafted first fit his taste better anyway. My mother commented on how this one looks almost futuristic in design and when I showed our forum member Chip a sneak peek, he said that he liked the architectural feel it had to it. Both things that I enjoyed hearing and that felt like good compliments to me, since I was going for something with a fresh look.
The wood used is walnut and maple, with strips of zebrawood veneer as the framing for the top and side maple inlays. When I saw the board of maple I just had to resaw off a slice to use it as inlay instead of "wasting" it on a project at once as a whole. The figure is really mesmerizing in real life and the walnut oil base with shellac finish over it brings that out even more.
Glued as usual with hot hide glue and you can see a picture of all the parts and joints as is almost customary for me now in picture 4.
There are a few more things I want to show and mention, so I'll have to add in the pictures from here on. First off is the backside of the top, with my logo carved into it and showing a core thingy the board had that I later filled up with some sawdust/hide glue. Let me tell you, that black evil was hard as hell and made planing it flat pretty much impossible, power planer or by hand. I wouldn't have believed that could happen, but it did. So I helped me with a scraper and hollowed out those areas a bit first, before planing it flat with my handplane, for real this time.
Next image shows how a simple grove can help to define the square form on the sides and make it much more interesting to look at.
Here one can see that the inlay(sides and top are from the same piece) is actually about 6mm thick and not some 0.6mm veneer. Since it's intended to rest your feet on it, I felt it important to give you a few lifetimes worth of slowly rubbing through it.
Last is a close-up of the zebrawood framing around the maple on the top. One of the few things I would change if I could do it again would be to get me some zebrawood veneer with double the thickness, so the top framing is more in proportion with how it is on the side pieces.
First I intended to have the zebrawood veneer be visible as end-grain, but found that in tests and oiled up it was nearly indistinguishable from the walnut and you couldn't see the stripe pattern of it much either. So I found an angle that worked well for what I intended and tried to cut so I end up with a good ratio of light to dark grain. Considering I didn't have much to chose from, it ended up mostly to my satisfaction.
I think this is pretty much all for now. As always I hope you enjoy the piece as well as the read (or at least excuse my wall of text with a gentle smile), but I just feel it belongs with my projects and maybe there is one or the other trick or thing someone can pick up from it.
After my first footstool was so well received I'm more curious than ever how this one will stack up against it when judged by everyone here.
Thanks for looking and any kind of reply you might be leaving!