Hand Crafted

Branding

I've been building things in my garage/shop since I bought my house in 2003.  It was the first chance I'd ever had where I owned the property, knew there wouldn't be a move in 18-24 months, and room was available to accumulate tools and equipment and make sawdust.  Over the years I've built all my own shop cabinets, workbench, materials rack, and numerous cabinets and pieces of furniture for myself and others.  But I never had a way beyond a Sharpie or ballpoint pen to mark my work.

Now I do.  It came today... a full two weeks ahead of when I expected it.  Just in time too.

Completed Bookcase A

This past weekend I finished the construction work on the bookcases.  Tonight I sanded everything to 320 grit and used the new branding tool to put my mark on the backs prior to applying a finish.  Over the next week or so I will apply several coats of a wipe on varnish and Danish oil finish until the build looks nice to me.  This will not only get things looking nice but it will be durable and waterproof for those days when I get a little clumsy.

The cases are made of American cherry and red oak.  Even with a bit of cherry oil the two different materials are going to finish differently.  I'm looking forward to how the contrast comes out.

When the finishing work is done on the cases I'll get them out of my way and start work on the three work surfaces.  Then put finish on them and install everything.  Hopefully all before the end of November!

Red Oak base moulding

All photos of the build can be found on my PBase work office build photo gallery.