# Walnut Burl Box Build Along (1st Veneer Project)



## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

This project will be my 1st attempt at a veneering. The style of the box will be rail / style / panel construction similar to the plant stand I made recently:

http://www.routerforums.com/show-n-...panel-plant-pedestal-lots-pics.html#post63379

As you can tell from the title of my post I’m not a veneer expert. This is the 1st time I’m touching veneer as a raw material. I’ve done some reading and viewing which makes me think, “I can do this!”… I hope some veneer experts will tag along and make criticisms and suggestions so we can all learn from my experience here.

Here is some of the stuff I’ve watched and read to get ready:

Jonathan Benson’s Podcast on Woodworking online:
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/20...neering-step-by-step-from-a-master-craftsman/

Marc Adam’s video on Wood Magazine’s site:
http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/file.jsp?item=video/player&temp=yes

Furnitology Production’s video blog:
http://blip.tv/file/204224/
http://blip.tv/file/204723/

And the articles on Joe woodworker’s site:
http://www.joewoodworker.com/articles.htm

I also picked up the book “Veneering, a foundation course” by Mike Bulton:
http://www.amazon.com/Veneering-Fou...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201292771&sr=8-1

Research is done, it’s time to get dirty. 

I picked up 6 consecutive sheets of walnut burl from www.veneersupplies.com. Now I know burls are not the easiest veneers to work with, but I’ll be keeping it simple for this box. The game plan is to match all 4 outsides of the box and all 4 insides. All the veneer edges will be hidden in the groves of the rails / stiles. But I will make things more complicated for the inside bottom panel as I plan to try a 4 way book match. 

The overall size of the box will be half a cube at 8” x 8” x 4”. The rails and stiles will be made from ½” x ½” walnut sticks (provided by a fellow woodworker). The panel substraights are going to be made from 1/8” birch ply. This is left over from my model airplane days. It’s sold as “aircraft ply”. It's made with 5 layers and is finished VERY smooth. Here’s a good source for it:

http://www.nationalbalsa.com/

Here are the raw materials:



















The 1st step is to cut the substraight material for the panels. I cut them about 1/16" smaller than they need to be to have a little wiggle room when assembling the box. I fix any tear out from my table saw with some wood filler. I don't think it would be an issue but I don't want the risk of telegraphing. 



















After some filling and sanding I have all the substraights ready to go:










Time to break out the veneer. Since I want all 4 box sides to look identical my 1st task is to line up the sheets with features rather than the edges. 










For this I get out my old cork building board and stick a few t-pins through two features on the 4 veneer sheets. This should line up all 4 sheets pretty close to each other. 










Once things are lined up I place one of the ply sides on top of the stack and start cutting with a #2 xacto. 










As I start cutting I understand way they say burls are hard to work with (and why they are not recommended for beginners). Cutting this stuff is like working with thin peanut brittle that has rice krispies mixed into it. While cutting the the 3rd side I was a bit too aggressive and tore out a chunk from under the substraight. I might have been able to tape it up during glue up but I decided to move up and try another cut. This time I took lighter passes with the knife and it worked out well:










I wonder if a nicely sharpened veneer saw would work better for this stuff. One of those is in my future, but not for this project.

So one side is done for all 4 sides and they look pretty similar as far as features. 

The edges are decent and they are not critical at this point since they will be well buried and hidden in the rails / stiles. 

One panel has a hole about 1/8" in size that I'll patch up before glue up:










Tomorrow I cut the pieces for the other side and break out the glue!


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Looking great Nick, I'll take bets that you're going to end up as the forums veneering expert.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

harrysin said:


> Looking great Nick, I'll take bets that you're going to end up as the forums veneering expert.


Thanks Harry! I hope!!! I have this post going on woodnet also. I'll share any tips that get posted there. One guy recommended blue tape over the cut lines to minimize tear out. Might give that a try on the second set of panels.


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Looking good Nick! Thanks for the photos!

Corey


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Getting ready to cut the 2nd set of sides I remembered an article I read in Fine Woodworking. It showed clamping down the straight edge when cutting veneer with a knife. So I gave this a try by claming a hardwood 1x2 on top of my substraight (straight edge):










This packed the veneer under the sub straight and made things much more stable. These cuts came out much cleaner:










Here are the other 4 sides ready to go:










The edges are not good enough for joining but I have a different game plan for the pieces I’ll need to join (4 way book match for the bottom). 

Next is gluing up the side panels.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Here’s what I devised for platens or is it cauls? Maybe they are the one in the same? Someone who knows what they are talking about can chime in on this. Back to my platens / cauls:










3 layers of ¾” MDF and a layer 1/8” cork sheet. Marc Adams discusses on his pod cast how a clamp’s pressure distributes more evenly the further away it is. That’s the reason for the 3 layers of MDF. I figured the cork sheet would be a good idea because of the slightly uneven surface of the burl. But I bet it’s not necessary. Before breaking out the glue I cover the cork with wax paper:










Here’s the glue I’m using as recommended by Joe on veneersupplies.com:










The extra dark color should work well in case there is bleed through.

I also picked up a glue roller from veneer suppies.com:










The thin dense foam of the roller made spreading a thin even layer of glue a snap. From what I’ve read the glue should look like a layer of thin wet paint. 

I place the veneer on the panel and go over it with seam roller. This works well with the initial tack of the glue. I hope this keeps everything in place as I clamp down:










I get as many clamps as I can around the platens and apply gradual even pressure from clamp to clamp:










I set my timer for an hour and wait with anticipation!


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

An hour is up and the clamps come off. So far so good. The panel looks flat and any bleed through is disguised well with the dark glue:










I set the panel on dowels so it continues to dry evenly and hopefully resists warping:










I’ll continue to glue up all the side panels and start contemplating my 4 way book match for the box floor.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 6, 2006)

Lookin' good Nick! I'm anxious to see how this turns out.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Because I don't have you're patience Nick, I'll stick to making things from solid wood and use inlays as in the past.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

curiousgeorge said:


> Lookin' good Nick! I'm anxious to see how this turns out.


That makes two of us!


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

My 3rd panel is clamped up so it’s time to fix that ¼” hole in the one side piece of veneer. 

The game plan is to find a similar color in a cut off and use an xacto to cut around the defect and patch piece at the same time:










I’m not thrilled with the results as the burl was very fragile in that area:










But from a foot away it does not look too horrible:










I’m thinking the results would be better if I didn’t cut the patch with straight lines. I can see where one of those veneer punches would be very handy here. I’m hoping that once the dark glue fills in the gaps and it gets sanded it will be less noticeable. And I’ll plan to put this panel on the inside of the box. 

I put a small patch of veneer tape and the panel is ready for the press:










BTW, how do you guys like to remove veneer tape after pressing?


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

I can't answer you're question Nick. but I agree that a non linear patch blends into the background much better.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Ya Harry,

I can see getting something like this in the future:










http://www.veneersupplies.com/product_info.php?cPath=86_37&products_id=190


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Here’s the patched panel after coming out of the press:










I’m not thrilled with the results and I completely forgot that I now have an extra sheet of veneer (since I’m doing a book match for the floor). I might make up another panel and use this one to practice sanding and to test out the finish. 

It’s time to start the 4 way book match for the box floor. Both Marc Adams and Jonathan Benson show how to use mirrors set at specific angles to “preview” what a radial match will look like. I figured this should work for a 4 way book match also. 

So I gently put two mirrors into a 90 deg clamp:










Now I can move the “house of mirrors” over different sections of a veneer sheet to see what a 4 way book match will look like:










Nah…










Nah…

I move the mirrors to a corner of the sheet that has more of a grain pattern and see two mock-ups that I like allot.

One looks like Xs:










And one looks like Diamonds:










This is the one I decide on.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Now since I marked the sheets when I 1st got them I have them in sequential order as they were cut off the log. In every progressive sheet the grain pattern is slightly shifted. As I line up the features I’m going to use it creates staggered edges, perfect for holding in place with blue tape:



















Marc Adams goes over his method for making great radial matches in his video. It involves packing the veneer between two pieces of MDF, cutting the bundle with a band saw, then using an edge sander to clean up the cuts. I don’t have a band saw or edge sander but I do have some MDF and a 2x2. My 1st plan was to use screws to hold the MDF “clamps” together. But things where not sitting well so I broke out my magnetic jigs / vertical presses (left over from my model building days): After cutting the veneer a bit oversized I clamp everything down:


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

With the veneer stack clamped down I use a piece of adhesive backed sandpaper on an oak 2x2 to sand away the overhang. I start with 80 grit and finish off with 220:










Jonathan Benson mentions that he uses sanding blocks on his shooting board when dealing with difficult burls. This works like a champ on this difficult burl:










With one side done I shift my clamps and polish off the 2nd side. The factory edges of the MDF assure I’ll be at a 90 deg angle when done.










A quick mock up shows everything looks decent and the well aligned:










After deciding on the “good side” I flip the pieces over and tape the seams with blue tape on the glue side:










One trick here is to tack the tape to one side then pull the seam tight as you press it down on the other side. This pulls everything together nicely and now the good side is ready for veneer tape:










I get out a clean sponge to dampen the glossy glue side of the tape. One tip I’ve read is to use distilled water for this. I can imagine that hard water could possibly leave some staining on dark veneer. Since my other hobby is a salt water fish tank I have an endless supply of RO / DI water from a special filter. This is basically pure H2O:










I place strips of veneer tape perpendicular to the seams every few inches. I roll my seam roller over a paper towel to flatten the tape and remove any excess water:


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Then I run long lengths of tape down each seem:










Ok, so I might have over done it with the tape… But I’m new at this so give me a break 

As the tape dries over the next 15 minutes the panel cups up slightly:










This shows that the tape is doing its job of slightly shrinking and pulling the seams tight.

Looking though the tape holes you can see the seam looking pretty damn good:










The slight cupping shouldn’t be an issue once the panel is pressed.

After the veneer tape is dried I remove all the blue tape from the glue side and the panel is ready to be trimmed and glued to the substraight.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

I've said it before Nick, but I have to say it again, you're patience simply amazes me, never even in my heyday did I have that sort of patience. This must be why I've taken to pen-making, one can go from start to finish in an hour or two. Keep amazing me Nick.


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Looking great Nick! Thanks for all the photos.

Corey


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

harrysin said:


> I've said it before Nick, but I have to say it again, you're patience simply amazes me, never even in my heyday did I have that sort of patience. This must be why I've taken to pen-making, one can go from start to finish in an hour or two. Keep amazing me Nick.


I think this comes from my RC airplane days. That's when a project was done over an entire winter! So getting a project done over a few weeks of casual building seems quick for me. And from what I've seen of your pens you would never know they are done in an hour!


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

The next step is to trim the 4 way book match to the proper size. For this I mark the centers of the substraight and line them up with the seams of the book match:










A couple swipes of the xacto and the book match and the backer is cut:










Since the bottom side of the floor will be facing the down most of the time (unless someone picks up the box to look at the bottom) I keep it simple with a solid piece of veneer. But I do stick to the same corner of the sheet that I used for the book match. 

For the larger platens I break out a platoon of clamps. I need to clamp shopping!!!!










Tomorrow I sand! Any tips from the experts out there? I was just going to stick to a sanding block with 220.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

The bottom comes out for the press looking good:










Joe mentions in his taping article that you should wait a while before removing veneer tape. Just in case there is some still wet glue under the tape. So I let the panel site overnight. 

I then moisten the tape slightly with a damp paper towel and use a small putty knife to get the it off:










And residual glue is wiped off with some denatured alcohol . 

Now it’s time to sand. I was a bit nervous about this step since I didn’t know what to except. I’ve also read horror stories of sanding through veneer. I stick with 220 paper on my aluminum sanding block:










As I start sanding my mind is eased a bit. I remember, this is just wood. I can immediately see and feel the high spots of the panel getting knocked down. I sand until the entire panel looks like covered in coco powder. Then checking the panel with my digital calipers I’m amazed at how flat it is. From corner to corner there is only a few thousandths deviation. 

Here is the bottom and an example of both sides after sanding and a mineral spirits wipe down:










The panels are also very accurate in thickness from panel to panel. They average about .155” This is what I’ll set my grove to in my rails / stiles. I figured if a panel or two end up being too tight there is still plenty of veneer thickness left sand them into submission. 

With the panels sanded and ready to go next comes the easy part. Well at least it’s the part I’m more familiar with. Cutting up the rails / stiles on my router table. Stay tuned for more!


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

The next step is to cut up the rails / stiles. The stiles are easy, they will be 4”, the over all height of the box. The rails are going to be 7” plus the length that makes up the tenons. .155” x 2 works out to be almost 5/16”. So the rails get cut to 7 5/16“.

I kiss each end on my disc sander and make sure the rails stiles are all exactly the same length and squared off This is more important than the exact dimension:










A quick 90 deg mock up shows the joints should look good:










And all 8 rails and 4 stiles are ready to go:










Next stop, the router table…


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

A project is not worth doing unless I get to buy a new router bit. For this project I pick up this beauty:










A 1/16” 4 winged slot cutter from Whiteside. The bearing is for show (and to secure the slot cutter on the arbor). The fence on the router table will be setting the depth of cut, not the bearing. I also now realize that I could have used a 1/8” kerf cutter (since my groves will be cut to .155”). I ordered the 1/16” not knowing what the final panel thickness would be for this project. Oh well, it just means one extra pass, not a big deal.

Since I know my grove width is going to be .155” I set my fence at this dimension also. This will produce a square looking tenon at the visible joints. 

As I start my test cuts I run into two issues. 1st off the wood was feeding into the cutter roughly and the wood was smoking????? WTF? Then looking at the bit coming to a stop I noticed I installed it on the arbor upside down (see the pics above again)!!! Doh!!!! I didn’t even think of it when installing the cutter on the arbor. 

With that issue settled I make a test cut with a .155” x .155” grove. With the grove centered in the stiles it was not leaving enough meat on the inside corner of the stiles. So I adjusted the fence to .125”. My visible tenons will not be perfectly square but they will work with the design. 

Now’s a good time to mention that the fence will only be set once while cutting the rails/stiles. This will guarantee that the groves (mortises) and tenons will be the exact same dimension. The only adjustment made will be to the bit height. 

Here’s the router all set up and cutting the 1st pass of the groves:










Here are the rails / stiles after the 1st pass:










The bottom rails will need another grove cut to accommodate the box floor but they will be cut after the tenons to avoid tear out (this is a hard lesson I learned while building the plant stand). 

Here are the stiles after a few passes. Note how the grove is centered since the panel will be visible from both the outside and inside of the box:










Some quick mock ups show the panels fit nice and snug in the groves:




























Here are the rails with the 1st groves all done:










And here’s a panel mocked up with rails / stiles:










But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. The tenons need to be cut! That comes next.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Next it’s time to cut out the tenons in the rails. Or I guess it’s more like cut the rails to show the tenons? Was it Michael Angelo that said a sculpture in every piece of marble, it’s just a matter of bringing it out? OK, Zen woodworking moment over…

Here’s the coping jig I made just for this purpose. The center toggle clamp holds a backer to minimize tear out and the two outside clamps hold the work piece:










This holds everything in place nicely as I start making passes with the same slot cutter set at the same fence depth:










Note the inverted feather board that acts as a stop.

After two passes here’s what we look like:










You’ll see that there is still a “sliver” that needs to be removed. The nice thing about this process is that the final cut setting can be done by sight (no measuring necessary). I raise the bit a little at a time until that sliver is reduced to a few wood fibers:










At this point one cheek of the tenon is cut precisely. Next is the other side…


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

After a few passes on the other side the teneon ids complete:










A few dry mock ups show things are looking good:




























Next I need to cut the groves in the bottom rails to fit the box floor…


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Nickbee


Looking good  very nice job on the veneer as well,, I just can't wait till you discover the T & G router bit set and the R & S bit sets,,and what you can do with them...I know it will be great work just like the work you are now doing 
just quicker and easyer ... 

Sorry I have not jumped in on your other post, but it takes a long time to load up the pictures from a off site service...sometimes 5 mins. or more.. 

But it's worth the time but I'm always in a rush 

========


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Thanks Bj, I promise one of those sets is in my future. One question I have about them is how the slot thickness is adjusted. When making multiple passes with my slot cutter I can use the 1617’s micro adjust to open up the slot at 1/128” resolution for a perfect fit. I’m just wondering if I can get results that precise with one of those sets. 

And I am very happy with the veneer process so far. Just goes to shoe that with enough research almost anything is possible. Anyone need some brain surgery?


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi NickBee

"I’m just wondering if I can get results that precise with one of those sets"

Yes,,,almost all of them come with copper shims,that are about the same thickest as a hair...but more like .002 of and inch.. hows that for precise 
and you can make your own with a gasket puch set and copper that you can pickup at many machinery shop supply outlets and ACE hardware outlets..


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Nickbee said:


> Thanks Bj, I promise one of those sets is in my future. One question I have about them is how the slot thickness is adjusted. When making multiple passes with my slot cutter I can use the 1617’s micro adjust to open up the slot at 1/128” resolution for a perfect fit. I’m just wondering if I can get results that precise with one of those sets.
> 
> And I am very happy with the veneer process so far. Just goes to shoe that with enough research almost anything is possible. Anyone need some brain surgery?


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Sweet BJ! You have me convinced! I'll pick one up for my next rail / stile project.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

For the heck of it I mock up the rails / stiles to see how everything fits:



















So far so good. I take the bottom rails and with a few passes of the slot cutter the grove for the box floor is cut:










Next I finish sand the inside edges of the rails / stiles with 220 paper. I also remove the fuzz from the tenons. The top rails will be glued 1st. I do another dry mock up to make sure everything aligns well. I then mark each corner so I can glue up the box exactly as its mocked up:










Time to break out the glue!


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

The glue up begins! I emailed Joe from veneersupplies.com to find out if his dark cold press glue would be ok to use for the joints. His reply (within an hour) was that it will work great for general joinery. BTW he’s following the thread and wanted me to mention that he’s available anytime to answer questions. I can’t say enough about his great customer service! 

Back to the glue up. The long working time of the cold press glue made working with it a pleasure. I was even able to take one glued up panel apart after clamping (it was not sitting just right). 

1st two opposite panels get glued to the stiles and top rails:



















The bottom rails are fitted dry for alignment purposes. All 4 bottom rails will get glued up at the same time with the box floor as the final step. 

Next one more panel and top rail gets glued up connecting the two panels I glued so far:










Everything is falling together nicely but a few squares guarantee that my box will be square and not a trapezoid or parallelogram (and I wondered when I would use 4th grade geometry!). 

With the slow setting time of this glue I leave everything clamped up overnight. Luckily I’m not in a rush to get this thing done…


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## nzgeordie (Oct 22, 2006)

Luckily I’m not in a rush to get this thing done…[/QUOTE]

Fascinating to follow this thread  Nick, the best things take time


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

Finally I glue up the last side panel:










Next it’s time to prep the floor before gluing up the bottom rails. A flaw (um I mean feature) of this design is that a notch has to be cut from each corner of the bottom so that the bottom rails will slide into position. Here you see the bit that gets in the way:










After notching out the floor corners I dry fit it with the bottom rails. This is the 1st time I get to check out the book match in it’s final place:










Everything looks good so I break out the glue and clamps:










Next comes sanding and finishing.


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

For sanding I break out my aluminum sanding bars left over from my RC airplane days. Because the bars span both rails / stiles it ensures that everything should remain flat:










I start with 150 girt and finish up with 220. The joints blend together nicely after just a little sanding. Then I wipe everything down with some mineral sprits to check for any rough spots or residual glue marks:





























This is my favorite part of a project as I finally get a glimpse of what the final piece will look like!

Next comes finishing. I’m going to keep it simple and natural with a few coats of Watco Danish Oil…


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## Nickbee (Nov 9, 2007)

OK! After experimenting on some scrap I saw that bleed back was not going to be an issue with this wood. So I followed Doug Hick’s scedual for Danish oil. The last coat gets “wet sanded” with 400 grit paper. The results are a nice natural low sheen (no sheen) finish that works well with the open grain of the walnut and burls. BTW the 5 buck download from the seminar is well worth it. He breaks down many hand applied finishing schedules step by step. 

Here are the results:














































Thanks again to all that chimed in on this project. It was fun, but I’m glad it’s over. I know that veneers are something I will continue to work with. Next I plan to use the scraps from this project with some maple burl I picked up for a small parquetry wall hanging…


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 6, 2006)

Great job, Nickbee! That's a fine looking box and thank you for the pictorial essay. It was very interesting and educational.

(edited): Keep this up and you just might win the HarrySin award for pictorial excellence.


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## karateed (Feb 7, 2006)

Awesome job Nickbee....you've got the patience of Job.

Thank you for the pics, I know it's not easy to organize and display exactly what is needed to tell the story.

Ed......


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## fdcox (Dec 3, 2007)

Very nice box Nickbee, & the tutorial is great


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