Project in white/paper birch

[Max sawdust]

Hi,
Got lots of birch lumber coming out of the "kiln" Been playing around with ways to make Birch look good, to create a little better market for what I think is some fine lumber ;)
I figured I would share my troubles and successes with my Forestry Forum Buddies ;D

I got the idea for the bookshelf from Fine Woodworking, It is a knock down design with no hardware and housed joinery.  All in all I think the bookshelf would be fine for a house full of adults, but it is a little unstable for my intended use in the kids room.
:-[

I sized the wood with shellac to stiffen up the "fuzz" and then sanded down to 320Grit.
I used Transtint Cherry water based wood dye, then removed the raised grain with gray synthetic pad.  Next I put a light coat of Boiled Linseed oil on followed by two coats of Garnet Shellac brushed on.  Next I padded on two coats of Blond Shellac.  (rubbed out between coats)  I finished up with wax.





Here is my oldest boy next to his new bookshelf.


This recipe seemed to to a pretty good job of evening out the color between sap wood and heart wood yet still showing all the figure and grain.

Max

[WDH]

Whoa!  What a nice finish ;).  It just glows.  I will have to try that myself ;D.

[sawguy21]

That is beautiful grain and color.

[Norm]

I remember that article, your's turned out great. I've always liked birch but we get very little of it around here.

[beenthere]

Sure looks good and shows what a lot of work can do.

What was the time period to do the several steps of sanding, coating, and drying to complete the finishing of these pieces?

[Max sawdust]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone ;D

Beenthere,
I really like shellac put it on thin and it dries "instantly"  I only put the two brushed coats on as a 2 or 3 lb cut, I let those two coats dry overnight.  The last two I used a 1 lb cut, and put one on right after another, kind of like french polishing.

I would say the sanding took 5-7 hours total.  The whole project was 3 days.  (The Fine Woodworking article featuring the bookshelf was labeled "bookshelves in a DAY" :
Of course that guy used store bought pine and probably slapped on a single coat of min-wax finish or something ;) :D :  Or.....
max

[WDH]

That Transtint Cherry stain has such a rich color.  Where did you get it?  Do you have to order it or can you get it at a local store?

[Patty]

I marked that bookshelf as a good one to build also.  :P    Yours turned out very nice. I really like birch.

[Max sawdust]

That Transtint Cherry stain has such a rich color.  Where did you get it?  Do you have to order it or can you get it at a local store?

homesteadfinishing.com is the maker of the transtint dye's  they sell them in larger packages.  They have links to other online woodworking stores that sell it in 1 oz bottles.  (I think I got it at woodcraft or rocklers.)  (I thank LARRY for turning me on to homestead finishing ;D)

The cherry used to be called medium brown.  The birch was quite red until I got the oil and the garnet shellac on it, that is what made it "glow".

Patty,
If you build it play around with the thickness of your finish before cutting the housed dado's.  I overestimated the thickness of the finish and my joints are a little sloppier than I like..  The structure relies on those joints for rigidity.. 
Max 
max

[SwampDonkey]

It sure is nice Max. I didn't know birch had any fuzz to it. Maybe you mean when the finish was applied the grain lifted some. Never worked with white birch, just yellow. But still not much grain lift like you would expect from butternut. Your young feller looks proud enough of his new book shelf.  ;) 8)

[Max sawdust]

SD,
Thanks ;)
Heck of a time planing that stuff with tear out and all on the reversing grain.  Had area's that I  would sand and sand and it was like sanding felt, nap would just lay down and not sand off.
Birch is notorious for being blotchy when dyed.. I think that is because people do not size it to get that fine fuzz to sand off?? IMO :
max

[WDH]

Went to homesteadfinishing.com.  Looks like some good stuff.  I always use oil base stain, but I want to try some of this.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 That Birch sounds like Spanish Cedar. Everyone raves about it down here. I don't care for it. Tearout is horrible. Shelix head makes it tolerable.

   OOOps, Nice job. That finish looks real nice.  8)

[Dodgy Loner]

Beautiful shelves, Max.  I tried shellac for the first time on my last project, a Shaker-style cherry end table, and I was instantly converted.  Nothing else I've used makes the grain "pop" quite the same.  Thanks for sharing!