Project Information
Now, this box here was an adventure in finishing. I started it for my sister's Birthday back in March and finished it with a varnish blend. When I finished the poly, it had some runs and sags in it and when I started to sand it back I couldn't get the chamfers sanded without sanding through the finish so I ended up sanding the whole thing back down to bare wood and rounded over everything and lost all my careful chamfers. Then I decided to try something new. I had just got some Garnet Shellac and mixed up a batch and put it on. It was too thick and ended up very unappealing. Also, I hated what it did to the color of the maple and the way it obscured the grain of the cherry. I was so put off that I shelved it and didn't touch it again for nine months. I saw my sister a few days before Christmas and she ribbed me about it a little so I got out my card scraper and some sandpaper and stripped it down to bare wood for the second time. By then it had the biggest roundovers I've ever put on a project. (I included a shot of the box before any finishing just for comparison.) I finished it with the Jeff Jewitt quick finish. BLO, thinned shellac and wax. The finish took all of about two hours from start to finish, not including the hours and hours and hours of finishing that came before. The skull was carved and glued on and the bottom is lined with red velvet inside and out. FINALLY DONE!
