Sideboard, my most ambitious project to date.

For the past few years my wife has been asking me to make a sideboard for the dining room. I always seemed to have something that was more important to be making. This spring I finally settled on a design that she liked and
I wanted to make. This would be my first project using Quarter Sawn White Oak. I located and contacted a lumber mill that was about 90 miles away and they had what I figured I would need to do the project. I had read a posting by Tim Pursell on how he used a yellow analyne dye to help bring out the figure and grain of QSWO. His experience struck cord with me and I decided that I wanted to try his approach to finishing.

I purchased some water soluble yellow and orange analyne dye and Watco medium walnut and black walnut oil. I tried numerous combinations of dye strengths with the oils and settled upon a formulation of orange dye that was further diluted with 3 parts water. This diluted dye was wiped on, allowed to dry and then sanded lightly. I then coated with the Watco medium walnut oil, allowed it to dry for three days then coated with wipe on Minwax polyurethane. The top has five coats of poly plus I used a water based grain filler to bring up the luster. I think the color that I was able to get with this technique is really nice. This was my first experience using wipe on poly and I am now a believer.

Another first for me was adding some bowtie/butterfly inlays on the doors. I used some black walnut for the inlays. With using the orange dye and the medium walnut oil the inlays have a deep redish/brown color. I was surprised how easy the inlays were to do using a template, router bushing and bit.

This is my most ambitious project to date and I really like the way it turned out, especially the color.

-- Randy, Central MN