Labor Limae: a tad too posh?

Well, I've been busy making small repairs for the house and fixing the closet we bought together with the mahogany desk last week. It's a 3 drawers closet with a shoe compartment that broke and somebody replaced with particle board that exploded inside the closet and served the two spiders who lived in there to decorate their houses.

So I had to change it, and since it's not an exposed surface, I could use the chance to practice more french polish, a la chilensis of course.

I used cedar since had a wild grain part laying around that I could happily resaw for a bookmatched piece.

As you see in the background, the splayed legs bench is still not finished, nor have I finished planing it either. I brought the piece so julia could check the finish and see if she likes it for the bench. She does.

So it seems I'm getting a helper, I reckon that you need ca. 10hours per m^2 of french polish.

Oh, why chilean way? No sandpaper, no pumice no nada. I'm filling the grain with the same shellac and it's taking long. I should have watered the surface before the last planing since the grain raised a tad with the alcohol. I first gave it a few coats of pure shellac with the brush. Spiriting off every 2 coats or so to keep things uniform. Then switched to shellac with sandarac and benzoe and a cotton pad. The same, apply two coats then spirit off.

This is the closet btw.

That panel was in the trash and a neighbour called me to pick it up. Maybe a guitar top? The panels are pretty much perfectly quartersawn.

This is the hole my shellac-ed board will cover.