Cody,
The stock was stained with iron nitrate. A 20% solution of concentrated nitric with about as much iron as it wanted to disolve. I let this solution sit to evaporate and reduce in volume to about half or one third of its original volume. The solution is quite a bit thicker after this. Since it's thicker it doesn't penetrate the stock a deeply and the color ends up being lighter. Believe it or not, it also sort of seals off the grain to some degree as well. One thing to keep in mind though, is that on a highly figured piece of wood, it doesn't accentuate the curl as much as a standard solution since it doesn't penetrate as well. It was finished largely with Chamber's oil although I've used a little Tried and True Oil Varnish as well. As far as the darkening of receses etc. goes. I think I'm still in kindergarten when it comes to this but I'll explain what I did. I used standard comercial glaze after sealing the stock. This created a little of the effect, but not a tremendous amount since the wood was pretty dense and pretty much sealed off. In my experience the glaze works best when it has something to bite into. I also used Transtint dye concentrate to darken areas, but it seems as though I must have removed much of this with subsequent finishing. This sort of thing is always an experiment for me. Looking at some of the work shown at the CLA reminded me of how good some are at this sort of thing.
The border along the box lid is basically what Eister typically did, but to be honest, my execution was not up to the level of Eister. His wavy line was much finer and more even. Take a look at some of the published examples. I'll get it better next time. In talking to Mark Silver a while back, he mentioned how the wavy line helps in disguising any gaps or inconsistencies in the lid to sideplate fit. Even if it was fit well at the start, shrinkage can cause slight gaps and such. Made a lot of sense to me. One other interesting thing about the border is that in talking to Jack Brooks, he indicated that he thinks Eister cut the scallops on the unsuported edge of the box lid with a chisel. Cutting these with a groove to ride in is doable, but I can't imagine cutting them without this support.
Larry, the hardware is investment cast from my patterns and molds. I made masters from polyurethane foam modeling board and then created wax molds from these. The modeling board is great stuff to work with. I've got a fair sized sheet of it, so if anyone needs some for creating masters, let me know.
Ok, got to go for now.
Thanks,
Jim
