Well, after a wait for the finish to cure and my being out of town, the Queen Anne Side Table is finally ready for its unveiling.
When I last posted about this table, the construction was complete and I spoke about the possible options for a finish. In the end, I went with a finish schedule consisting of: Boiled Linseed Oil, Garnet Shellac and General Finishes Arm-R-Seal as a top coat.
I started the finishing process by first thinning the BLO by about 25% with Naptha. This thinned mixture was applied liberally with arag and wet sanded in with 400 grit wet/dry paper. After the oil had some time to soak in I wiped off any excess with a dry rag. The wet sanding with the oil made for a silky smooth base to which I could apply the shellac and top coats. In the picture you can see the table after the BLO was applied.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I elected to use some Garnet shellac to add a bit of color to the table and to also act as a sealer coat between the oil and the top coat (though that’s oil-based too, so there was no real issue except for the BLO possibly not being fully cured). In the pictures, you can see the materials and the pad that I used to apply the shellac. The pad is just composed of an inner ball of a loose cotton material and an outer skin of cotton T-Shirt material. I first charged the pad with denatured alcohol and then squirted shellac onto the pad using the little squeeze bottle shown in the picture (you can also see how I store the pad between uses in a sealed plastic bag).
I applied the shellac quickly in a straight motion where possible slightly overlapping my strokes. Shellac dries quickly so I let each coat dry and then the let next coat dissolve into the previous coat to cover any areas that were not evenly coated. I applied three light coats of shellac in total and rubbed lightly with 0000 steel wool after the last coat to smooth the surface. In the picture you can see the table with the Garnet shellac applied over the BLO.
For the top coat I used General Finishes Arm-R-Seal, Semi-gloss. I thinned this just a bit with Naptha to get very thin coats. The top coat was applied with a paper-towel folded into a small rectangular applicator. I rubbed with steel wool before the third coat of finish to get as smooth a base as I could for that final coat. After vacuuming the table surfaces I went over the table with a towel an Naptha so that it was as clean as possible for the final coat. With all of the coats applied I let the table cure for about two and a half weeks. Then I rubbed the entire table vigorously with 0000 steel wool to even it out for a satin finish. Finally, I applied paste wax with steel wool as an applicator and buffed the dried wax with a rag.
The hardware for the table came from Horton Brasses. I ordered two pulls and a matching escutcheon in brass with a semi-bright finish. As you can see in the the picture, the style is reminiscent of Queen Anne styling. I centered the two pulls vertically on the drawer face and aligned them over the center points of the scroll work left and right of center. The escutcheon was applied in the center of the drawer, about 1/16″ below the edge of the detail at the top of the drawer, just slightly higher than the pulls.
I’ll leave you with a few different views of the table (click for a larger view). I decided to take the pictures outside on a nice spring day. There are a couple of close-ups of the drawer, the knee and knee block and the pad foot. I really enjoyed this project. Working on a period piece was interesting and allowed me to develop some new skills. I guess all that is left is to decide which period to reproduce next!
Tags: period furniture, Queen Anne, side table
Well, I’m back from my travels and trying to get caught up. Hopefully I’ll see some shop time this weekend – if the yard work cooperates!
In any event, I wanted to do a quick post about an incredible tree that we saw while we were in South Carolina. The tree is called the “Angel Oak”. It is a Live Oak residing in the South Carolina Low Country near the city of Charleston – just outside of Kiawah and Seabrook Islands. This tree has been cared for by the city of Charleston since 1991.
Though they do not usually grow too terribly tall, it is typical of the Live Oaks of the south to have a spreading canopy and large overhanging limbs (usually draped with Spanish Moss).
However, the Angel Oak is nothing short of spectacular! Its canopy is huge – creating an area of shade over 17,000 square feet. It is 65 feet tall and has massive limbs that are so large that they rest on the ground and spread for huge distances from the trunk. The trunk has a circumference of 25.5 feet and its largest limb has a circumference of 11.5 feet and a length of 89 feet!
This is one enormous tree. It’s age cannot be exactly determined however, legend has it as old as 1400 years!
As I viewed this tree I could not help but to think about how long it has existed and what it has endured to do so. I also thought about how the craftsmen around it must have evolved during that time – potentially making things from wood harvested from around this very tree.
When you see something like this it certainly makes you contemplate the medium in which we work and how remarkable and unique it is. Wood is a renewable resource with many varied uses and benefits. Every piece is different, special and unique in one way or another. When you come upon something like this, the only thing you can do is stop to appreciate the majesty of a tree in its natural state and how special and beautiful it is. Usually when I see wood I am thinking about what I can build out of it. When I saw the Angel Oak all I could think was that some trees should be left standing.
In these pictures (click for larger view) you can better see the enormity of this tree with my wife and son for perspective. 
I’ll be back in the shop soon finishing up the Queen Anne Side Table and then continuing on with the Dreadnought Guitar project.
Hey everybody, I just thought I’d post a quick note that I’ll be out of town and consequently out of the shop for the next week or so. I’ll be back working on the Dreadnought Guitar and also completing the Queen Anne Side Table as soon as I return.
The Queen Anne Side Table has had the finish curing for a bit before the final rub out and hardware. So, it should be making its final appearance in a post on the blog soon. Things are moving along on the Dreadnought Guitar as well. I’ll be posting soon about the process of fitting and gluing the top to the sides. That should be an interesting operation!
Anyway, I just wanted to get an update out to keep you informed. I’ll be checking in remotely while traveling, so, please continue to send and commments or questions that you have. I’ll be back in the shop soon!
Just when you thought that the bracing tasks were complete there was more bracing to do. Whereas the back braces are a bit more structural in nature, the top actually has a more complex bracing pattern that keeps it strong but also allows it to vibrate giving the guitar its unique tone. Bracing the top was my most recent task in the workshop.
Laying Out the Brace Pattern
There are quite a number of braces that must be attached to the underside of the top. As I mentioned, because these braces are both structural and also directly affect the sound of the guitar, the braces must be carefully laid out and applied.
To do the layout, I overlaid the guitar top onto the full-size pattern. I was careful to align the center line of the top and the sound-hole with those on the pattern because all of the brace positions utilize these elements as a reference. There are several sets of braces – the main structural braces are the X-braces and they form and X across the top. In the lower bout of the guitar, stemming from the X-braces are the tone bars. Around the sound-hole are some reinforcement strips and above the sound-hole in the upper bout are the main transverse brace and another reinforcing brace. Last, there is a flat bridge plate just under where the X-braces cross.
To layout all of the braces onto the back of the guitar top, I started by transferring the locations of the ends of the X-braces to the top. With a long straightedge I connected these points giving me the X-Brace locations. Next, I marked for the ends of the tone braces and the upper transverse braces. By extending the lines of the shorter tone bars across the pattern and then replacing the top onto the pattern I was able to extend the end marks for the tone bars to the points where they intersected the X-Braces. The upper transverse braces were straightforward to mark across the top and the sound hole reinforcing strips and bridge plate were done in a similar manner to the tone bars. The picture (click for larger view) shows the completed layout on the back of the guitar top.
Notching the Braces
Before the braces could be applied to the top, some work was required on the braces themselves. A half-lap had to be cut into the X-braces and notches were required at the intersection points of the tone bars, sound-hole reinforcing strips and bridge plate. I started with the X-braces. With one brace clamped to the top, I marked the intersecting points of the other X-brace. Then, by overlaying the other X-brace I transfered the marked location to denote where the joint needed to be cut. From there it was a matter of some quick cross-cuts to half the depth of the braces and cleaning out the material with a sharp chisel.
In addition to the half-lap on the X-braces, the intersection points of the tone bars, sound-hole reinforcement strips and bridge plate needed to be notched into the X-braces. With the X-braces clamped to the top, I used the pattern to mark out the locations of all of the intersection points onto the X-braces. I then scored the lines with a knife and filed small chamfers at the marked locations. With a small chamfer applied to the ends of the tone bars, reinforcement strips and bridge plate I was ready to apply the braces to the top.
Applying the Braces
In the first picture you can see the top with all of the braces laid out, fitted, notched and ready to be glued to the top. I applied the braces to the top in a couple of stages. First, the X-braces were applied. In the second picture you can see that I again used the Go-bar Deck to clamp the braces. Because of the breakage of a couple of the wooden dowel rods I used the last time, this time I decided to use fiberglass rods as the Go-bars. These were originally sold as stakes to mark out driveways during the winter here so that the snow plow driver can see where the boundaries of the driveway are. The stakes came in 4 four foot lengths so, I just cut them to size and applied protective screw covers to the ends. This was a much cheaper alternative than buying the fiberglass Go-bars sold by the guitar specialty shops and it worked very well. Again, while clamping the X-braces you can see that I used small strips of stock under the corners of the top to maintain the radius of the top while gluing the X-braces to the top.
After the glue on the X-braces was dry, I moved on to applying the rest of the bracing to the top. I did this in several stages just to keep things manageable. First came the tone bars, next the sound-hole reinforcement strips and the upper transverse braces and last the bridge plate. In the picture you can see the clamping of the tone bars and how many Go-bars were used. Notice that I used some small blocks of scrap to hold down pairs of tone bars. When I did this I just left the X-braces clamped to keep the top in the same position and then carefully clamped the tone bars.
Trimming the Braces
As I mentioned, these braces are attached to the top of the guitar for structural reasons. However, the idea is to reinforce the top and make it stiff without adding weight or hampering its ability to vibrate. As you can see in the pictures, the most of the braces were already scalloped along their length. This scalloping minimizes their weight while retaining their strength. To further allow the top to vibrate, the ends of the braces were trimmed where they will eventually intersect the kerfed lining when the top is attached to the guitar sides. The ends of the X-braces and main transverse brace were trimmed to a thickness of .100″. The ends of the tone bars were trimmed to nothing where they meet the kerfed linings. In the picture you can see the top with all of the braces attached and their ends trimmed. Next up will be attaching the top to the sides.
The next step in building of the guitar was to do some work on the back. Braces are needed across the back and down the center seam to arch and reinforce the back. As I mentioned in the previous post, the back is radiused from neck to tail and also from side to side so, some creative clamping solutions were in order.
Building the Go-Bar Deck
There are a few alternative methods that can be used to clamp the raduiused braces to the back. Though, most involve the use of a lot of deep throat cam-action clamps. I do not have any of these in the workshop and it would be a fair amount of work to make them so, I opted for an alternate route.
A very old method often used by luthiers to perform this clamping task is to use flexible sticks of wood or other material to brace the objects to be clamped between between two fixed parallel plates. The fixture to do this is called a Go-Bar Deck and usually makes use of flexible wood or fiberglass rods to clamp parts of the guitar during a glue-up.
I made a very simple version of the Go-Bar Deck with some 24″ x 24″ particle board pieces and some threaded rod. As you can see in the picture (click for larger view) the threaded rod is used to stand off one particle board plate from the other. I did also glue on some reinforcing strips to the bottom of the lower plate as well. The threaded rod is screwed into T-nuts in the lower plate and secured with a washer and nut. In the upper plate, there is a washer and nut on both sides of the plate to lock it into position on a plane equidistant from the lower plate.
Preparing and Clamping the Back Braces and Center Reinforcing Strips
Because Rosewood is a tropical wood it can sometimes have residual oils on it, the first step I took was to layout for the braces and then clean the areas for the braces with some Naptha. This step may not have been necessary but, because the radius on the braces will force the back into a fairly significant arch, I wanted to be sure that there was a good glue bond. However, even with the Go-Bar Deck for clamping, the braces could not be clamped to a flat back so, an alternative was necessary.
Many luthiers will use a radiused dish for the purpose of backing the back plate to maintain the needed arches. Two of these dishes would be required (i.e. the back a top have different radii) and I do not have them in the workshop. They can be made by dishing out MDF with a router and a jig but, I was not too interested in the copious amounts of dust this would create. My alternate approach was fairly simple. I created some strips of hardboard to place under the edges of the back plate so that when the braces were clamped to the back the appropriate arches would be formed into it. In the picture, you can see the back with the four main braces clamped in the Go-Bar Deck. I used 5/16″ wood dowel rod with rubber screw protectors on the ends as the go-bars. You can also see the strips of hardboard under the edges of the back to maintain the necessary arches in the back.
Because this was my first attempt at this, I decided to clamp just the four main braces as a first attempt. It’s amazing how much even clamping force can be applied using this method. Because the wooden dowel rods were under a fair amount of pressure, I made sure to wear eye protection during this operation – I was concerned that one of the go-bars could shatter while I was working on this. In the picture you can see what the back looked like after the glue up of the four main braces was complete. In the second picture I attempted to show the arches that were forced into the back during this operation.
After the clamping of the four main braces was completed, I still needed to add the center reinforcing strips to the back. The process for this was the same as for the braces. Though, I did add some spring clamps for the two end strips because they tended to slide around a bit when the go-bars were applied to them. I think that my concern regarding the wooden go-bars was a valid one because when I returned to un-clamp the center strips in a few hours, I found two of the wooden go-bars broken and lying on the shop floor! Luckily, this must have happened after the glue had already set, so there was no issue. However, I think I will attempt to find some fiberglass alternatives for the clamping of braces to the top.
Shaping the Back Braces
The back braces were rough shaped prior to gluing them to the back plate. However, the idea behind bracing a guitar is to achieve a strong, stiff back without adding excess weight. The shape of the braces also affects the sound of the guitar and how it will project when played. These braces extend all the way to the ends of the back and will intersect the sides and kerfed linings. So, they needed to be trimmed down to about .100″ at their ends. I did this with a sharp chisel and a caliper, checking the thickness as I went. After that I did a quick sanding of the braces just to clean things up.
Next up will be the bracing of the top and assembling the back and top to the sides. That effort will also call into play some unique clamping requirements. I’ve already started gathering materials to accomplish that task. Until then, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at thecraftsmanspath@gmail.com or leave comments or questions here using the comments link at the end of the posts.
