Where did my weekend go? I had to replace the faucet in the kitchen and a couple of light switches. Any home project seems to involve a minimum of 3 trips to the hardware store. Yuk.
I did most of the refinishing on my saw handle, although I still plan to put a few more coats of Shellac on it. I started out by sanding it smooth, starting with 80 grit on the rasped areas, then 120, 220 and 320.
I wasn’t sure how to proceed, and I probably rushed things a little. No patience. Next Day Air is an interminable wait for me. I had thought about bleaching the handle first to try to average out the colors, but didn’t wan’t to wait for that to work. So I put a little Georgian Cherry gel stain on the patched areas and let that sit a few minutes. Then wiped a quick coat over the entire handle.
There was still too much contrast, so I put another coat of stain on the patched areas.
Then I put on one coat of plain boiled linseed oil. Again, probably too soon. It removed some of the stain. I rubbed more on the patches and left it alone for an hour.
Then I started applying coats of Garnet Shellac. I put a few coats on, let it dry, sand it with a 500 grit norton sponge and some linseed oil for lubricant, then apply a few more. This is after the first coat. I will sand and apply more tonight, hopefully that will get me to the glossy finish I want – it’s mostly there already.
I also cleaned the saw plate and sharpened it. I’m not happy with the job I did filing it. The files I bought have too much radius on the corners, and I probably should have just re-toothed it from scratch. I may still do that. I think it’s around 15ppi, probably too fine for tenons. It is certainly too fine for my Stanley 42X saw set. Maybe 10 or 11?