My 100th. Post!

When I first began this blog I didn't know how far it would go and how long I'd last doing it but here it is, post number 100.  Never know how many readers I actually have but since there has been a fair amount of feedback, questions, and comments it's been worthwhile to me.  Hopefully the goal of sharing my woodworking trials and tribulations have encouraged others to try the craft.  Learned a long time ago that you can't get anywhere if you're just sitting on the couch!  Yesterday Diane and I went to the Civil War reenactment at Spring Mountain ranch. I had my sample pistol case and flyers to see if I could generate some potential commissions and she had her camera to see if she could capture some good images to use as reference material for future paintings.  Other than the occasional wind gusts the weather was pretty nice and we made some contacts.
Earlier I'd mentioned that I have a couple of projects in the works.  One of them are the two frames I'm currently gilding and one of those is just about complete.  The other I'll try to improve what I did on this first one -- it's a definite work in progress this business of gilding.  The other is the box to hold my cabinet scrapers, files, burnishers, etc.  Here's how it looks at this time:

Scraper Box in Progress

This a practical project and it's allowed me to experiment with some techniques as well.  First off is the carving.  The profile of Ali is pretty self explanatory but now I've added her paws.  They're a little over sized but  were added so that I could get a grip on the sliding top to open the box -- Ali agreed to pose for them.  To finish this box I plan to use a new process I read about that (hopefully) should be  a durable one for a dining table top.  The hand rubbed finish I've been using for years on my furniture is not as durable as I'd like for that and  requires some maintenance.  Supposedly, this finish will appear as a hand rubbed one but uses gel polyurethane rather than my concoction of linseed oil, turpentine, and varathane as a final coat.  I'll keep you posted.