Almost Ready To Hang

I did no work on the doors yesterday and very little today. I’m back to the strange behavior of mine that if I don’t do the work, then I won’t screw up, so I never do the work. I finally got started again. I got the first door sanded and stained. Both tasks were kind of tricky.

I left a minute amount of wood on the addition pieces because I new I wouldn’t get them to the exact thickness before I attached them to the door. The idea is that I attach them to the door and then sand them down to the final depth to match the thickness of the door. That, and also because there is always some glue residue that needs to be sanded away. The tricky part is because I don’t want to sand any part of the door itself. Trying to match the new wood to the old is hard enough, but trying to match new to old to old that has been sanded would be even harder. At least it seems that it would. That part came out good.

Next I had to match the new wood to old in color. I took the advice of a friend and used Red Mahogany stain to do the color match. Just putting BLO & turpentine on to the new wood doesn’t do it. The old finish on the wood has deepened with age. Even though I stripped off the shellac it still has a much deeper color than new wood that is finished the same way. I’m not sure why this is.

I stated with BLO & turpentine and then added the stain to that. I did a test piece and I thought it came out good but once I tried it on the real thing it was too light. I ended up adding a lot more stain to the mix but it seems like a good match. The doors still have a subtle sheen of shellac on them, and the new wood is dull with just the oil, so to me it still looks odd. I’m trying not to panic. I’m going to work on the other door tonight and then let them both sit overnight and reevaluate tomorrow. I may even call in a second set of eyes for another opinion.

Still With Glue Residue


As It Stands Now