Wood Suggestion -- Bed Construction

Oak to be within "mission style" --- or ash to save money as the grain pattern is similar.

Poplar

White Oak, Red Oak, Cherry, or even Walnut was used for Mission furniture.

Barry

I too have or get to build my son and daughter-in-law a new bed. She wants a Chippendale style that is going to be painted white? Hey, its her bed! I plan on building it with Alder or Birch.

Dave

In one of the recent Fine Woodworking magazines there was an article on Shellac. The comment was that Garnet shellac on white oak does a fair job simulating the ammonia fuming on mission furniture.

It took me a while to find some, but I have some Garnet on order. I'm planning on using it on some cherry to mute the color variations in the wood I have.

I personally like working with white oak better than the red. Even when not quarter sawn it seems to have a straighter grain and the grain doesn't seem to need as much filling. It also seems to machine a bit better.

Jim

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Robert Pollard) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

FWIW, I used garnet on pine to "instantly age" it. It works great. However, make sure to apply a couple of coats of blonde (preferably Superblonde Paddylac) on top of the garnet so that the first time the piece gets dinged you don't mess up the color coat(s). DAMHIKT.

Chuck Vance

I'm gearing up for a Missionary style bed too, and plan to use oak, probably red as I just completed a table with that and I like the result. If you're looking for ideas, go to the Stickley web site and look at their mission catalog: they have about 4-5 styles (all in oak or cherry, IIRC).

Cheers,

Scott

You remembered correctly, and I went there. . . .and left with an overwhelming and total sense of inadequacy! I may never set foot in my 'shop' again!

-- SwampBug

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The woodworker in me didn't react much to the Stickley site because I just couldn't see the pictures. So the web designer was well pleased at least.

-- SwampBug

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My boss is a magazine producer. One look at those images and she probably would. Stickley's paper catalogue is a good piece of work, but that PDF is garbage, and it doesn't serve products of their quality at all well.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and say, "YES, I can DO that!"

Cheers,

Scott

I agree! Some see art, some see wood. The PDF tells me the pieces are gorgeous and expensive. I can in no way afford their product and doubt their excellent paper art would tell me more. I certainly won't pay $10 plus shipping for what won't tell me any more than the PDF does.

-- SwampBug

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LOL! I did that back when I visited this site

Nice stuff. I wonder what the Stickley stuff sells for? I just completed a Mission coffee table, and it took longer than expected; second one would go twice as fast. A local furniture dealer sells a quartersawn oak mission table for $629, so I figure I did good at $140 for wood. I see the Berkeley table is $2,600. If I paid myself $60/hr, then that's what mine would sell for. Any takers?

;>)

I dunno what the Stickley stuff goes for. I found out they have a dealer in Houston, TX, about 3 hours from here. Next time I visit the folks there I will check it out. I gots ta know what it is like to sit in a real uptown Morris chair.

-- SwampBug

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