Finished With the Finishing

 

Since I have moved away from film finishes and staining, finished is a lot easier and less daunting process than it once was. My go to finish these days is Osmo Polyx Hard Wax Oil. I think it came about as a durable finish for wood flooring until wood workers discovered that it would also work well in furniture finishes. It is simply a wipe on followed by wiping off any excess after a few minutes so there aren't any worries about runs or drips like I always did with film finishes. Also, because is not a stain, it is incredibly easy to touch up or to apply on any missed areas because you don't have to match colors. If something were to happen, I just have to sand out any imperfection and apply some more hard wax oil on that spot and it will blend in perfectly. After two coats and eight hours, I'm left with an incredibly durable finish that I can touch up years from now if needed without much effort.

Above is a photo of the underside of the top of the bookcase showing off a new to me method of marking my name for future people to know who built it should they want to. For the last ten years, I've used a wood brand to char my name some point on my projects but it isn't always the easiest to use. Too hot or holding it too long in one spot and it burns too much wood and becomes hard to read. Too little heat or not holding it long enough in one spot makes it faint and hard to read. Reapplying the brand to darken one that was too light is nearly impossible without ending up with a double image of sorts that it also impossible to read. 

I came across this solution in my Book of Face feed in one of those targeted ads. Essentially I can order metal markers made of brass with a custom logo and a corresponding template and router bit for my router. This allows me to easily mill out a pocket of wood the exact same size as the brass logo which I can then epoxy into the wood after the finishing process. It looks a lot nicer than the wood brand, will last the lifetime of the piece of furniture and will always be legible. I wish I had found these many decades ago.

Below is a closeup of my shelf mounting solution but take note that the shelf is upside down in this photo. It isn't the most elegant solution and had I been a professional designer, I could have come up with a better and invisible means to support the shelf but allow it to expand across the grain with temperature and humidity changes. But I'm not and so at the point when this thought occurred to me a hidden solution wasn't feasible. So I found some small brass brackets which I attached to the inside of the legs but not to the shelf. This allows heavy objects to be places on the shelves (which are doweled and glued in the middle of each shelf) and be supported while still allowing expansion. 

Finally, one more shot of it from the side so you can see the accent walnut vertical rails that I put on each side to contain those books from spilling off sideways. It also shows that those brass brackets on the outside corners of each shelf aren't very visible unless one is looking for them. I have hidden the shelf in my MIL's room (who has been in the Philippines for the last month and a half) where it will hopefully remain undiscovered until the eldest turns 20 here not to long from now and receive her birthday/apartment warming gift from her dad. Now it is onto my biggest project this year, a 12 drawer dresser.