Teaser...

[Iceclimber]

A little teaser of some of the birdseye i am using for my built in miter station in the finishing process.

This is two coats of thr Waterlox product i asked about in the finishing forum about a month ago. Everything i read and anyone i have talked to with first hand experience suggests 5-7 coats.

I guess the sheen should mellow to about 60% of what it is today within 6 months. If i want it to stay like this i can use a different product but also made by Waterlox over this.

Pretty cool stuff, much like a conversion varnish it kinda just melts into the previous layers...

This wood has got me very very excited in a way i never thought wood could lol..

One of those boards is 7" x 11' x 3/4 it started out as 4/4. It took me a couple weeks of relentless hunting and a 15 hour day round trip to go source these three boards. I payed between $25 and $30 a board foot for this wood. Combined with the gas it cost me near $500. Most of the 15 hours was spent sorting through a pile of wood for the best boards.

I also ran into some quartersawn figured teak the other day when just going to get a few board feet of regular teak for the same project. Ill save those pictures for when the miter station is done as it is already all milled up and installed and it would knda let the rabit outa the hat. The bench is only about 1/2 finished to date. Maybe a bit more. I wanna save actual pictures of it till it is 100% done as to do it justice.

Anyway maybe these boards will not be as exciting to others as they are to me. I figure someone will like them?

 

[Wooden Skye]

Looks great, that is going to be one fancy bench. 

 

[dltflt]

That grain is beautiful. I don't know if it is worth what it cost you but if your happy, that's great.

 

[Iceclimber]

Sure is lol,

The whole thing kinda snowballed on me. It started out just trying to salvage and do something halfway nice and functional with a existing bench. The guts of the bench where in the house when i purchased it 18 years ago. The gentleman i purchased the house from father built the house himself. Once Upon a time he had a full fledged workshop in my basement. At first i really did not want to just rip the whole thing out and start over as it was fairly functional still and seemed like a waste. Set i set off to work making the top flat agin. Around this time i purchased my Kapex and that is what really started the madness.

More to come but probably much later as i have nine drawers to make still. They will be mahogany with birdseye faces. I have yet to decide do i cut the tails by hand or purchase and use a jig? I also have to make five doors along with build the face frames that will go around them. Oh and instal this birdseye that will act as a backsplash to the whole project.

Enough blah blah, enjoy the wood porn

When 

Looks great, that is going to be one fancy bench.

 

[Iceclimber]

Think thats bad, the figured quarter sawn teak was $35 a bf...

Its worth it to me. I spend countless hours in my shop.
rather it here than in the living room in front of the TV i don't care to watch..

That grain is beautiful. I don't know if it is worth what it cost you but if your happy, that's great.

 

[gsdvorak]

Love the grain and cannot wait to see the finished bench!  If you have any cutoffs you don't want, I'd be interested!  [big grin]

My wood supplier only has the typical domestics- nothing specialty.  However, their quality and service with what they carry is top-notch.  When I've used exotics, I have ordered online which, unfortunately, doesn't allow for choosing my own.

Gerald

 

[ear3]

Wood porn indeed -- the grain + finish is extraordinary.  I'm going to make sure my wife doesn't see this or else she's going to demand that I make everything using it.  Which flavor of Waterlox did you use?

That's really expensive though.  I was looking at a lumber place in New Jersey the link for which someone posted on the forum, and they have 4/4 Birds eye for $6.70 a board foot.  Is it just that the grain of your boards was so high quality that they were so expensive?

http://www.woodboardsandbeams.com/hardwoodlumber.html

 

[Iceclimber]

I think the price has to do with the amount of birdseye figuring and also the size of the boards. Mostly i think its how consistent the figure is throughout such large boards.

When i was sourcing this wood i also found a number of placed with birdseye ranging in price from $7-9 all of it had only minor figuring some barely resembled anything mor than maple with the random eye here and there.

The place i ended up buying from had boards ranging in price from $6-30..

Naturally i had to have the nicest thing in the store per usual.

[quauthor=Edward A Reno III link=topic=37243.msg363967#msg363967 date=1420517439]
Wood porn indeed -- the grain + finish is extraordinary.  I'm going to make sure my wife doesn't see this or else she's going to demand that I make everything using it.  That's really expensive though.  I was looking at a lumber place in New Jersey the link for which someone posted on the forum, and they have 4/4 Birds eye for $6.70 a board foot.  Is it just that the grain of your boards was so high quality that they were so expensive?

http://www.woodboardsandbeams.com/hardwoodlumber.html
[/quote]

 

[ear3]

And the type of Waterlox you used?  And would you use it again -- I only ask because I've been considering it for a piece I'm making it with Quarter Sawn oak.

 

[Iceclimber]

Its the waterlox original.

Ill get a picture of the label for you tomorrow.

Ill let you know when I'm done if i would use it again.

Ill say this i loath poly so i would choose this over that any day if only the look of the finished product mattered. I really went with this product as it gave me the exact color i was looking for more than anything else.

I did a bunch of samples using just oil, then dye combinations with oil, then stain oil and wax. I was half tempted to just shoot this with conversion varnish. I chose this finish as conversion varnish can be hard to repair. On the other hand the upside to using conversion varnish is its tuff as nails and almost impossible to ruin.

Tbh my favorite finish if durability is of no concern is plain old oil. I need to get another few coats on this before i can say for sure. My only concern right now is possible micro surface contaminates that i would 100% not get with conversion varnish in s spay booth or with oil as i would just rub them out..

 

[Billedis]

If that is for your Kapex, I would like to see some of your finished work in the house!  Beautiful to say the least.  Bill

 

[Tinker]

Have you been drinking EXTRA strength green cool aid? [wink]
Those boards are beautiful.
Tinker

 

[Iceclimber]

Festool green tea,

Naia of course

Talk to Smartenblass or whatever he can get you some I'm sure...

Have you been drinking EXTRA strength green cool aid? [wink]
Those boards are beautiful.
Tinker

 

[wow]

Bench Plans? We need to see the bench plans for those boards!

[poke]

 

[mike_aa]

Iceclimber,

All I have to say is will you go with me the next time I'm trying to pick out nice lumber?! [big grin]

Those are some of the nicest boards I've ever seen.  The finish really brings out the birdseye.  Thanks for showing the photos.

Mike A.

 

[Iceclimber]

No plans i just start building..

If it was a customer i would clearly have a plan. I had a general idea what i was doing when i started. I kinda also like to leave room for things to evolve as i build them.

Its a combo bench/built in deal really more than a dedicated bench. Tbh after this is done i will be building a traditional style workbench fir handtool use that ill beat the snot out of. I think it will also have so e kind of cabinet or storage on its underside also?

The whole thing is L shaped. One run of counter top is 8ft and the other about 16'. The miter saw is obviously built into the 16' run of counter. On the left side of the saw it has 9' and a fence for repeatable cuts. On the right side it has about 8' but with an open end extending maybe another 15" so i could make cuts to longer pieces of lumber if need be.

The underside is a combo of custom made drawer slides much like the systacartsor many of my festools combined with traditional doors and drawers for non festool tools and storage.

 

Bench Plans? We need to see the bench plans for those boards!

[poke]

 

[Iceclimber]

Like i said i took some serious time to fond these boards. I spent a good portion of a solid week calling around and driving from lumber yard to lumber yard in a three state radius before i finally found these boards.

By the time i did find them i was so worked up about all the time i had spent looking for them to that point coupled with my mind set on a picture in my mind of these ideal birdeye boards i probably would had payed whatever they had asked for them tbh..

I definately earned these boards thats for sure.

 

Iceclimber,

All I have to say is will you go with me the next time I'm trying to pick out nice lumber?! [big grin]

Those are some of the nicest boards I've ever seen.  The finish really brings out the birdseye.  Thanks for showing the photos.

Mike A.

 

[Iceclimber]

Couple of the QS figured teak.

These are just chestnut stain and teak oil...

 

[nclemmons]

Chatoyance on that wood is amazing.

I don't get to use that word often, but yours deserves it!

 

[Tinker]

Chatoyance on that wood is amazing.

I don't get to use that word often, but yours deserves it!

My first thought on that (hi-lited word) was "ditto".
I looked up the meaning.
Tripple "ditto"
Tinker