Pekka Huhta's Cabinet [Improver] Final Submission [Complete]

[Pekka Huhta]

The cabinet was originally intended to be only a part of my competition submission, but the schedules did not allow me to finish the interiors of the bathroom in time. So my design part was about the whole bathroom and the building stage only about the cabinet.

Here are the drawings


and the final product. Click the pics bigger if interested.



Tabletop is heat treated birch, just deeply oiled (about a quart of linseed oil soaked in) and then varnished 8 times with oil varnish. No stain or dye is has been used, the deep color comes just from the wood being "wet" with linseed oil. Panelling is painted with three coats of linseed oil paint, I will still add 2 coats of varnish in order to get a deep cream color and a bit of shine in the paint. All the moldings are hand planed/scraped/carved. The knobs on the drawers and door were turned from heat treated birch and varnished.


The sink is still just a temporary one. I made a mold for the potter and he will make a sink out of porcelain with that mold. This is the first rough version, which got damaged (cracked) in the kiln, so I got that home for fine-tuning the proportions of the cabinet. The final sink should be ready in a few weeks.

Building the whole thing (and most of the bathroom as well) is explained at https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... hp?t=18644

A special thanks to all of the hand tool people on the forum. I have had this disease with hand tools since I was a kid, but only with your support I have (publicly) come out of the closet as a full neanderthal. Machine tools have always been awkward to me and it really is relieving to just "drop off" to the good old way. In our woodworking scene there are only a handful of old farts hanging onto traditional woodwork, and it feels relieving that there really is someone else out there. At least someone else below 80 :wink:

I'll post some pics about the completed bathroom as well. On the other hand I'm disappointed about the slipping schedule, but then again building the cabinet was something worth enjoying and it would have lost its value if I had to hurry it up too much.

Pekka

 

[Paul Chapman]

Lovely work, Pekka =D> =D>

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Philly]

Wow! Looks wonderful!
And I love the colour of the top - I'll try that method one day.
best regards
Philly

 

[Sawdust]

If I could make things like that, I would start entering competitions. A lovely piece and I hope you win

Cheers
Mike

 

[Escudo]

Lovely proportions to that piece. Like Philly I am amazed by that colour and finish on the top. Will have to give that a go sometime.

Well done Pekka, nice one.

Regards, Esc.

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Oiling has a few tricks in it. First of all, very oily or dense woods don't take much oil, for example teak takes a dash of it and too much oiling can prevent the varnish to stick to the wood properly.

You should add turpentine to the oil to help the oil to soak in. I use only pine turpentine as it's much better to the wood than white spirit, but either one goes. Even lamp oil can be used.

I use raw linseed oil and occasionally boiled linseed for the final few coats. The method is to apply oil wet-to-wet as long as the wood takes it. On wooden boats it's even possible to impregnate the planking whole way through, but just for color you don't have to be that pedantic with it.

The varnish must be linseed/tung oil varnish. First of all those varnishes add to the color, but they also work well with oil whereas more modern varnishes can peel off because of the oily surface. I usually varnish the first coat just on top of the wet, oiled surface the next day after oiling. If I can't varnish right away, I use a gew coats of boiled linseed oil on the last rounds of oiling, as it dries quicker than raw. You can varnish either on wet surface or then completely dried, but not on a week old semi-dry surface; nothing sticks to it.

Pekka