The headboard is finished!

I bought the wood on 8/04 so I guess this took me 19 days to build.

African Mahogany stained with General Finishes Georgian Cherry gel stain with 3 coats of Old master gel varnish.

Except for 4 buttons to cover screws.

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The ugly side..

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Reply to
Leon
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All I can say Leon is... WOW. Man did that come together nicely! Yet anot her excellent piece from you.

I have to say, that between you and Karl, I am starting to feel like a damn siding installer. You two do more woodwork in a couple of months than I d o in a year!

All of it good stuff, too. I really enjoy your projects, and it is a real treat for me to see what you guys are up to, and the superior level of craf tsmanship you put into all of your work. Thanks to both of you for taking the time to post your work in progress pics along with the end results.

What is sad for the folks that read this group is they can't appreciate the fact that both of you turn our projects and pieces that look even better i n person. I have to say at Karl's place though, I do get distracted by the real deal gumbo... :^) but I look at that as an added perk!

Lovely headboard. That would be a centerpiece in any bedroom.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Thank you Robert. And I'll say again, the fact that you see our work up close and personally and still make these generous comments is a plus. I am sure that Karl appreciates your comments as much as I do.

Yeah , he cheats with the gumbo card. ;!)

Reply to
Leon

As Robert, I like the work and your (and Karl's) assortment of projects. Great job.

And I see the posts' tops aren't so bare, after all. Nice little curved touch, capping the tops. Lends itself, well, to the center piece.

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

Thank you Sonny!

Reply to
Leon

Could you flesh out the finishing a little? I've seen your video snippet of how you apply gel stain. The secret there seems to be "do it

*quick*", covering a small area then immediately wiping off, and wiping off again with a third piece of paper towel. Is it the same procedure with the gel varnish? The finial looks a little glossier than the rest in the photos. Is that just lighting, or greater "buffing" on the lathe?

I'm also curious to know how you shaped the centerpiece. I'm imagining a really large forstner bit for the circular holes, then cutting the straight lines. Is that close? :)

Reply to
Greg Guarino

With the gel stain I applied to about the same 1~2 sq.ft. area before wiping off. I did all of the edges first and proceeded to the faces. With the gel stain you only have to apply and then immediately wipe off and in the same motion wipe off the excess, wipe until there overlay is gone. You cant wipe too much but you can wipe too little. The second buffing is not necessary as is with the gel varnish. If yu get to a thick dry spot just apply a bit more stain and rub out immediately. The glob will melt down quickly. Over lap marks are nonexistent, it does not get darker unless you don't rub off the excess quickly and that is not permanent.

I let this dry thoroughly over night before varnishing.

Pretty much the same procedure as the gel varnish except for the second/last wipe down/buff.

The finial is a bit glossier as I stained, varnished, and buffed the piece with the lathe spinning. It being round it catches the light more easily.

The curves in the center piece were cut out with my jig saw. ;~) I printed out a full scale pattern, taped the pages together, and used a glue stick to glue the pattern down to the wood blank. I only applied the glue stick to the backside of the lines. I cut out the curves to within about 1/8" of the line and then used my oscillating spindle sander to remove material up to the line on the pattern.

I cut all the straight and angled lines with my track saw.

Reply to
Leon

Thanks. Allowing for the ingenuity of fools, would you call this method (almost) foolproof? It seems simple enough. What about dust nibs? Since you wipe off the excess with each step, are these less of a problem? Do you do any sanding/steel wooling between coats? Do you do any buffing after the last coat is dry?

Reply to
Greg Guarino

I forgot to mention with gel stains and varnishes dust is really not an issue. It is not unusual for sawdust to blow on a freshly applied and buffed surface, just blow it off. I even apply the gel stain or varnish to one side of a panel and flip it over and to the other immediately. I don't worry about dust at all.

It is pretty much fool proof providing you wipe the applied stain or varnish "immediately". It starts setting up pretty quickly and your rags will stick to the surface if you don't wipe off the excess and buff with a second clean rag immediately.

No sanding between coats. If you end up with any dust nibs you simply let the last coat surface cure for a few days and gently rub them out with a piece of printer paper or grocery store bag paper wrapped around a block of wood. That will normally give yo a baby butt smooth surface.

Once you learn to apply the gel stains and varnishes you may never use anything else. I switched about 25 years ago and seldom use anything else.

One odd thing about gels varnishes however, I have only seen them in satin sheen's. If you want gloss you need to go with a liquid gloss varnish.

Remember, read the instructions. With Old Masters gel varnish, wipe on a 1~2 sq.ft. area quickly and immediately wipe off the excess, then immediately with a clean rag buff out the surface. Iuse Scott's blue paper shop towels for every step. You will find yourself rebuffing previously covered areas at the overlap locations. If you feel any drag what so ever when wiping off excess or buffing you are not starting those steps soon enough after applying the varnish. I can't stress "immediately" enough. If you saw my video you see that I don't wait for any of the steps. You will need a minimum of 2~3 coats of varnish and or until you get a consistent sheen.

Reply to
Leon

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