Building a hand-cut finishes
· 3 min read
It is not glamorous, but it holds up. Oil finishes are forgiving, easy to repair and age beautifully.
Before and after
The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for errors. Most of the work happens before any cutting starts. Good furniture should last longer than the person who made it. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. This is less a walkthrough and more a record of what worked for me.
The shift showed up bit by bit, then all at once. You can get unexpectedly far with a marking gauge and some patience. The best advice I got was just to slow down. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out.
- Give cutting dovetails a full spring
- Write down what you change
- Write down what you change
- Leave room for oiled mistakes
A few details
The workbench is the first project and never the last. There is no single right way to approach sharpening, but some ways are kinder than others. The result is not perfect, but it is honest. The small things matter less than the routine of paying attention. Between planing boards and cutting dovetails, the second one taught me more.
What I kept
There is no single right way to approach milling lumber, but some ways are kinder than others. It is easy to overthink milling lumber. It is harder to just start. There is no single right way to approach cutting dovetails, but some ways are kinder than others. There is no single right way to approach planing boards, but some ways are kinder than others. I wrote most of this on a hushed Thursday morning.
Below are a few jottings, roughly in the order I found out them. Looking back, the sturdy approach was the right call. A friend once described walnut as hushed work, and the phrase stuck. Good sharpening is largely a series of small, unglamorous decisions.
Odds and ends
I keep a short list of things to try next; planing boards is near the top. Somewhere between the workshop and home, the notion finally made sense. You can get unexpectedly far with a chisel set and some patience.
It is easy to overthink cutting dovetails. It is harder to just start. The first six weeks were largely about unlearning. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about dovetails. Good joinery is largely a series of small, unglamorous decisions. A friend once described finishes as hushed work, and the phrase stuck.
- Compare against last summer
- Do less cutting dovetails, more planing boards
- Revisit sharpening after a week
drawersjoinerywalnut