darty Posted September 6, 2010 Report Share Posted September 6, 2010 Here's a couple shots of a few finished shaker boxes. These are the first that I have ever made. The first one is of the walnut with a bookmatched curly maple top and bottom. The finish is lacquer. The second is the walnut with the two cherry boxes. The tops and bottoms are qs sycamore. The finish is oil. I'll add a few more coats to the cherry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlloydparks Posted September 7, 2010 Report Share Posted September 7, 2010 I have made cherry and maple boxes. However, when I tried to do walnut the wood was extremely brittle. I think only one #3 sized box turned out. Did you do anything special with your walnut? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Posted September 7, 2010 Report Share Posted September 7, 2010 Josh, were you using kiln dried vs air dried walnut? Kiln drying messes with the lignum bonds. It basically sets them and makes bending kiln dried lumber much more difficult than air dried. This btw, is not from experience, rather from advice from Michael Fortune. I've been using his low tension BS set up for resawing too and getting very good results. Lamination projects soon to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darty Posted September 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2010 I didn't do anything special. I put the walnut in a hot water bath for about 20 min. at just below boiling. The walnut was straight grained, that might have made a difference. I got the wood from a guy I know that sales at the local flea market. It was 1/8" thick and I planed it down from there. He said it was kiln dried. I got around 15 pieces that were 1/8x4x36ish for 4 dollars. He's supposed to bring me some cherry and maple next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted September 7, 2010 Report Share Posted September 7, 2010 Really like the quartersawn Sycamore. Wish I could readily find it here. Nice boxes! Soaking the walnut in boiling water helps coax it into bending. Applying a hot iron to the walnut while it is soaked will help you during the bend. Just like hot-pipe bending. While I haven't used the iron for coaxing, I used the boiling water many times with some cranky walnut i bought long ago (it's too beautiful to hold a grudge). Works well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted September 7, 2010 Report Share Posted September 7, 2010 Oops, darty and I were posting at the same time. Basically he did the water-bath trick. Walnut responds well to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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