Bonnet Top High boy Tutorial

[Dave Diaman]

Time for the finish

For starters I use a spray bottle to spray the whole piece down with water to raise the grain. This is to prep it for the aniline dye. And if you are not dyeing the piece this step can be skipped. After the piece dries I go back and give everything a light sanding with P220 to knock off the fuzzies. Don’t over sand or this is a wasted step.

I dye the drawers by hand with a foam brush and soak the piece down making sure I get everything well soaked. I keep the piece wet for about 5 minutes then remove the excess dye with an old t-shirt.

Once dry I move onto the oil. I use a blend of tung oil and varnish and flood the piece again keeping it wet for about 10 minutes and the removing the excess.

After waiting 24 hrs I lightly sand the piece and then spray it with a 1 lb cut of dewaxed shellac. I usually put on at least 3 good coats sanding between.

For this piece I added a glaze because it just needed something to highlight the carving. This step was done after 2 coats of shellac. For the glaze I just used a can of walnut Minwax gel stain I had. When you glaze the piece you will cover the whole piece with the stain but really pay attention to all the cracks and crevices and make sure you get plenty of dye in them. Work in sections so the dye doesn’t dry on you and muddy the finish.



Before



After



The difference is much more dramatic in person.

After the glaze is on add another coat of two of shellac. At this point the piece can either be rubbed out with steel wool or a top coat of lacquer can be added. This piece gets a coat of satin lacquer.

The final step is to add the back. The back is made of 5/8” poplar that is ship lapped. I leave a space the thickness of a nickel between the boards to allow them to expand and contract. I normally install the back boards on site when I deliver the piece so the piece is easier to move. Here is a picture of the back of a different piece so you can see how it is attached.




After you add the hardware it is all done

[Mikail Khan]

Wow. Fantastic work. thanks for the tutorial.

MK

[Michael Handrinos]

Great looking piece Dave. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

[Stephen Ash]

Spectacular! Thanks for posting this tutorial...

Regards,
Steve

[mreza Salav]

Very very nice! Once again, I appreciate all the step by step photos. It's a great service to this community.

[Dan Lee]

Awesome. Why hasn't this thread got a 5 star rating. I voted

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Fascinating thread, Dave. I am in awe!

[Dave Diaman]

I am glad everyone seem so be getting something out of this. Where are all the questions though? My instructions can’t possibly be that clear.

[Michael Arruda]

Dave,

Great tutorial! Thanks so much for all the great info. I will be implementing some of what I have learned on other projects- and some day, perhaps, a highboy.

2 questions-
1. For the gooseneck molding, wouldn't it be so much easier and faster to grind some slip knives to run the profile on a shaper?

2. I can't carve my way out of a paper sack. I know I'd lose "street cred," but what do you think about doing the drawer carving work on a CNC? I have one of those.

I know after reading through it again, I'll have more questions for you, but, aside from being there, I think your explanations were plenty thorough.

-Michael

[Shawn Russell]

As a beginner, this is a great thread.. I see so many of basics that I am now practicing coming together in one piece. Many thanks for taking the time to take pictures and the doing the write up.

[Dave Diaman]

Dave,

Great tutorial! Thanks so much for all the great info. I will be implementing some of what I have learned on other projects- and some day, perhaps, a highboy.

2 questions-
1. For the gooseneck molding, wouldn't it be so much easier and faster to grind some slip knives to run the profile on a shaper?

2. I can't carve my way out of a paper sack. I know I'd lose "street cred," but what do you think about doing the drawer carving work on a CNC? I have one of those.

I know after reading through it again, I'll have more questions for you, but, aside from being there, I think your explanations were plenty thorough.

-Michael

Michael,
It would be a lot easier to cut the gooseneck molding on a shaper but I don’t own one. You could also get a set of custom made router bits but they are about $500-600 a set. Glen Huey demonstrates how to cut gooseneck molding with custom router bits in one of his books. He also demonstrates how to cut the molding using a hand held router. Personally I have found that I have much better control when moving the molding v/s the router but it is all about what you feel comfortable doing.

As for the carving, it could be done on a CNC but you would defiantly lose some cool points on a period piece. A carving done on a CNC would stick out like a sore thumb to someone who knows what they are looking. I actually have access to a CNC router but part of the character of this pieces is the hand carved accents. This carving really isn’t that hard. I have only been carving for a little over a year. I started by buying a basic set of carving tools and reading a few Fine Woodworking articles. I do use a router to hog away some of the waste to save some time but I carve the last 1/16” by hand to maintain the hand carved look.

[Ben Hatcher]

Dave, I like your style of hogging out most of the material with power tools and doing the last bits by hand. Seems to be the perfect balance of speed and detail.

[Jeff Monson]

Dave, could you recemmond some carving tools to get started? A good set or a few good choices?

Thanks

[Sam Layton]

Dave, thanks again for posting this tutorial.

How long does the build take from start to finish? Also how long does the finishing take?

Thanks again Dave. I have enjoyed this thread. Sam

[Dave Diaman]

Jeff,
I would avoid buying carving sets. I have found that you will come out a lot better buying tools as you need them based on what you are carving. For the fan you can probably get away with a v tool, #3/12 and a small back bent gouge. I think after every carver starts carving more and more you will start to develop a style you feel comfortable with and will start to notice you have several “go to” tools you always use. One thing I would caution you against is buying cheap tools. I would also suggest you get something you can hit with a mallet and avoid the palm carving sets and the Flex Cut tools. I personally buy Pfeil but that is just because that is what is available at Woodcraft and they generally have a good selection. There are a lot of good tools out there though. One of the best ways to learn to carve is to just go through some back issues of FWW or Popular Woodworking and look for carving projects. Nora Hall also has a really good DVD on carving a Newport shell. Generally each of the articles or DVD’s will give you a suggested list of tools and you can build your collection from there.

Sam
That piece took me about 7 days to build and probably another full day of labor to finish although that was broken up over several days. I have become pretty efficient at building highboys and can get through one fairly quick as long as I don’t hit any major snags.