Stickley Bed

[marty fretheim]

Recently finished this bed. Stole the basic design from the Stickley catalog with my own dimensions and personal touches.


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[Jim Becker]

Really beautiful, Marty! Outstanding, even!

[Robert Cherry]

nicely done Marty! Beautiful craftsmanship and you got some very nicely figured QSWO. What did you use for finish?

[Yonak Hawkins]

Really nice bed, marty. It looks very solid. ..Can't beat the figure on that oak. Tell about the panels. Is the inlay ebony ?

[marty fretheim]

Thanks for the kind words. I stole the finish also, from Jeff Jewitt. Plus a few of my own preferences. For the bed I did this:

1) Sanded to 180, raised grain with water, and very lightly sanded with 320 just to knock down the fuzz. Remove all dust especially down in the pores and ridges.

2) HVLP sprayed "reddish brown" transtint. Then lightly sanded with 800. I think it removes some of the dye from the rays. Staying away from the edges is crucial. At this stage the wood is an ashy pink color. Faith is required. The next step changes everything.

3) Spray one coat Zinser seal coat. Lightly sand if needed.

4) Hand apply one coat GF gel stain, Brown Mahogany. Because of the seal coat the gel stain mainly gets down into the valleys and doesn't darken the wood too much. Let dry for a week.

5) Sprayed 5 light coats GF HP Poly (Flat). Sanding between coats with scotch pads.

On smaller projects I use the same basic schedule except I final coat with Arm-R-Seal. Love that stuff, but its hard to argue with spraying 5 coats of the waterborne in one day in the warmth of my shop. Sorry didn't mean to write a book.

Marty

[marty fretheim]

Really nice bed, marty. It looks very solid. ..Can't beat the figure on that oak. Tell about the panels. Is the inlay ebony ?

Yonak, Thanks!
The panels are about 6mm MDF core ply. There was a post not long ago where we talked about it. It is very solid as you noted and very heavy. Yes on the ebony. Heres a pic of that ply I posted previously.

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Marty

[Andrew Hughes]

This is a good looking bed. You did a fine job on the finish

[Joe A Faulkner]

Very nice. I'm guessing the photo didn't do the QS rays justice in the headboard panels.

[Von Bickley]

Great looking wood and a beautiful bed.

[marty fretheim]

Very nice. I'm guessing the photo didn't do the QS rays justice in the headboard panels.

Yes and no Joe. The headboard panels are much more subtle. Believe it or not I eked all four panels out of the same sheet (4x8) of plywood. I actually like to contrast the "exotic" grain with riff sawn or milder grain. Too much tiger stripe looks funky to me. The headboard looks better than the pic shows, but more mild than the footboard.



Thanks, Marty

[roger wiegand]

Elegant design well executed! Nice.

[Jim Becker]

Yes and no Joe. The headboard panels are much more subtle. Believe it or not I eked all four panels out of the same sheet (4x8) of plywood. I actually like to contrast the "exotic" grain with riff sawn or milder grain. Too much tiger stripe looks funky to me. The headboard looks better than the pic shows, but more mild than the footboard.



Thanks, Marty

With heavy figure already in the rails/stiles, having a more subdued field in the panels is a good design element. If everything is highly figured...it can be "really busy" visually. Again, this is a very nice piece of craftsmanship!

[William Chain]

Great execution, great materials too. Nice work man.

[Marshall Harrison]

Nice work Marty. I love anything Stickley related.

[Charlie Jones]

Great looking bed.