Got Furry Wood? Tips on how to prevent grain raise peel up when making stenciled wood signs.

Have you been thinking about refinishing your own piece for the first time?  Maybe you inherited a wooden table, but it has seen better days.  Using the right tools and high quality products, you can transform that old table into a piece that naturally fits in to your home.  Today is the day to start that project, and here are the tips to help you succeed.  Grab your brushes, put down a drop...

A quick video highlighting the use of General Finishes Water Based Finishes with an emphasis on distressing and using General Finishes Glaze Effects Van Dyke Brown to highlight those distressed marks.

A local Sawyer saved this sequoia tree from being disposed of in a chipper. I bought a set of book matched slabs and made a big dining table or conference table out of them. I stored the slabs for a while until they were dry enough to work with.

Using a circular saw, I made sure the joint in the middle was straight and met up nicely. I used a Festool Domino to align the two halves and glued...

This was my first green turned bowl and it turned out really well. There was only one major crack that I filled with brass dust and CA glue. I wanted to preserve the wood feel of the bowl so I only finished it with mineral oil. This has the added benefit of being food safe. The end result was a smooth finish that can be easily reapplied.

Handmade wood turning project. The handle is made of Purple Heart wit a spalted beech Celtic knot inlay. 

The Purple Heart was cut to length then cut at 45deg to put a spalted beech segment in then glued back together. The piece was then rotated 90 deg and repeated then again another two rotations. The completed piece was then placed on the lathe between centers and turned to shape. 

Once the...

I filled the rather large voids with a mixture of epoxy and French Roast coffee grounds. The whole project was sanded to 600 grit before applying 3 coats of EnduroVar, while still on the lathe. I lightly sanded with 600 grit paper after each coat, and ended by using the 3 step Beall buffing system (tripoli, white diamond, and carnauba wax).

This is a Ambrosia Maple bowl and is probably one of my favorite woods to work with. I love the coloring In this bowl. 

I have taken a log section of Florida Cherry and turned and hollowed a vessel that is about 11" tall and 8" wide. I applied a basketweave texture to the exterior with pyrography(Woodburning), I also added additional texture with a power carver. I then took a slice of Live Oak Burl and made a lid. the exterior and lid were ebonized and the exterior was given a finish with Gel Topcoat.

This Hollow Vessel was power sanded to 600 grit. After sanding I applied 2 thick coats of medium CA glue to the Maple vessel. After shooting a light coat of accelerator the vessel was re-sanded to 600 grit. At this time I buffed the surface with VONAX with a white diamond buffing wheel made by BEAL BUFFING system. The ebony finial, collar, and base were sanded to 1500 grit and shot with a...

This piece was made with over 3,000 pieces of wood that includes cherry, maple, peruvian walnut, yellowheart, spectra ply and black veneer.

It measures 12-1/2" diameter X 6-1/4" tall. The finish consists of several coats of sanding sealer and ten coats of General Finishes Wood Turners Finish sanded and buffed to a high gloss.

Mini Segmented Bat, made with 218 pieces. Woods used in this project are Walnut, Maple, & Paduak. Finished with Arm-R-Seal Oil & Urethane Topcoat. 

My take on the Greek Amphora. I have made a number of pieces in this style but I think this is the best of them. Honduras rosewood burl and ebony. 

Emerge measures just 3.5" tall by 2.25" wide, and weighs just 32 grams. This ornament was created from sumac (the emerging flower) and an unknown hardwood species (leaves & stem). The globe, or the flower, was turned and hollowed on the lathe, then carved using a Dremel tool. The leaves/stem were turned on the lathe as well and carved using a Dremel tool, riffles, and sanded to 400 grit. I...

GinkgAu measures 8" in diameter and 2" thick. The surface is carved with ginkgo leaves which intentionally all flow out of the field of view. The surface is painted with acrylics using the dry brush technique and the "bowl" is covered in gold leaf. The name references the ginkgo leaf and Au which is the chemical symbol for gold.

This piece was turned on 6 axes to create the initial form.  It was subsequently carved with the inward spirals.  The form was inspired by the physical forces described by astrophysicists that occur at the edge of a black hole.

The piece was meticulously sanded to 800 grit.  Fnish was just one coat of modified tung oil finish.  This is all that is needed to bring out the grain and lustre of...

Here is a Buckeye Burl bowl that I turned a few months back. When I got the Burl cap, I saw that the wood was almost all blue. I knew I wanted to try my hardest to save as much wood as possible, so I made it winged. I love Winged Burl bowls because they are all never the same. Nature decides the shape while I help bring it out.

I wet sanded it up to 600 grit using Howard's feed N wax. I use it...

These beech hollow forms are made out of some local wood. They at have lots of color and figure.

      The finishing process for these hollowforms started at the lathe with sanding. I sanded with and electric power sander from 120 grit through 600 grit. After turning and sanding the foot I signed them with a woodburning tool. Finally, I took the hollowforms out of the lathe and applied a few...

This guitar is crafted from Maple, Sapele, and Rosewood.  The combination of materials and construction methods I used produced an instrument that has long lasting sustain and a wide array of tonal options.  The design of this guitar was influenced by the hard geometric lines seen across many aspects of design, but my goal was to tame that aesthetic while hinting to the original inspiration...

This finish was one of my first forrays into General Finishes Endurovar Satin. I started with the body and headstock stained as black as possible, then I sanded the body back to give it a kind of weathered look. 

After sanding the body to 220 grit, I started applying Endurovar with my HVLP spray gun, sanding lightly between coats. The entire finish took only 5 coats, which was amazing to me!...

This chair is a hobbyist's first attempt at chair-building and is a classic Sam Maloof style rocker with tasteful flair and a strong presence in any setting. Hand constructed from a rich walnut, this elegant rocker features flourishes of color from a natural light stripe of grain and tasteful accents of maple. After the completion of the basic construction, the chair was carefully sanded and...

This is a Sam Maloof inspired curly cherry rocking chair. It is made of highly figured cherry wood and highlighted with curly maple back braces and plugs. The entire chair is completely handmade and hand carved. The finish is what really makes the wood 'pop'. I use a mixture of tung oil, boiled linseed oil and of course General Finishes Arm-R-Seal.  This finish is strong and beautiful and very...

Built from Sapele Mahogany and inlaid with Maple and Walnut, this cellarette/bottle case was inspired by a Queen Anne version seen at Winterthur Museum.  I kept the proportions of the case, but changed it to Federal style instead.  All of the inlay was done from scratch with sand shading on the fans and homemade bandings and stringing

The finsh was a coat of Seal-A-Cell followed up by multiple...

Multi drawer map chest / apothecary chest made from white oak hardwood. Finish was antique walnut gel stain. Designed and built in my workshop for my home office and stores all office supplies and design blueprints. Love the function it provides and hoping to use the style in future designs. 

To finish this table a sanded every surface to a 400 grit with a festool rotary sander and hand sanded the curved pieces between the legs. I broke the hard edges with a block plane and with sandpaper. I finally sprayed it with a satin conversion varnish, I sprayed two coats and lightly sanded it between them. I wanted to show of the beautiful color and naturally occuring medullary rays of the...

Curved Walnut Hall Table - Wall Mounted. Finished in High Performance Satin.

Woods: Basswood ( tilia americana)

After some practice carving traditional forms that would be found on furniture or architectural elements, I stumbled across the work of Grinling Gibbons, a 17th century English carver, famous for his intricate lifelike cascades of flowers, fruits, and animals. I was immediately taken aback by the beauty and skill of his work and decided to try a project in...

Using hand chisels and a mallet I carved this 3 foot Indian from a basswood log.