Finish Plans

I got six coats of blond shellac on the frame pieces this week. The sapele is a bit open grained, and the shellac did not finish up that smooth. I guess I will need to touch it with a fine sandpaper and give it a couple more coats to be done.

For the elm panels, I decided against the ruby shellac and was actually leaning towards the boiled linseed oil, it really did a nice job of highlighting the interlocked grain on the elm. However, since the bookcase is actually for my wife, I decided to ask her what she liked, and she said that she preferred the look of the polish. I have to agree that it builds way better, and has a nice gloss finish. Polish it is. I just need to buy a gallon of Waterlox to cover all the panels I have!

I decided to do the shelves next, I want to pre-finish everything at the same time before I glue up. I didn't have enough elm left to build all (five plus top) the shelves out of elm, so I decided to build them out of elm veneer over a ply core.

I ripped my last two big (>24" wide) elm slabs to about 11" wide, which was quite a production. Since they were quite rough, I clamped a 2 x 4 on them to sue as a guide, then got out my 20+ year old skilsaw and ripped away! After a new blade things went much better. Next I jointed one face on my 12" jointer, then cut veneers about 0.100" thick on my bandsaw. I used some kind of crazy 1" wide Laguna bandsaw blade that I have had for ages, but wow did it do the job well. I need to cut the last three shelf veneers still, then I will have to modify the bandsaw to be able to cut the 15" wide veneers for the top.

Next week I'll go buy the plywood and glue the shelves up. They will have a sapele nosing on them.