From where you are sitting, I am sure there are times I look like a media harlot. Sweet mother of mystery, I get tired of seeing my name, image and videos spread all over the Internet. So I can only imagine how you feel about it.
Ask my mom if this is true: Though I’m a total goofball, I really am too shy to look strangers in the eye. Somehow, I have ended up where we are today – featured on “The Highland Woodworker.”
When I get phone calls to do a video, class or presentation, my first response is always “no.” I’d rather dig through old books and build things in the shop. Period.
But Charles Brock has always been a helpful and genuine guy; plus, I owe so much to Highland Woodworking in Atlanta, which is the sponsor of the show. So I agreed to have Charles and Stephen Price in my home to chat about Lost Art Press.
I think they did a great job. And they used some photos of the farm house my mom and dad built outside Hackett, Ark., so it was a nostalgia trip as well.
Check it out. As always, it’s a great episode with high production values and a little bit for everyone.
There are lots of ways to achieve a cracked paint finish, and I don’t pretend to be an expert on all the different products and methods out there. But I do know what works for me every time, is completely controllable and is done with stuff I always have on hand.
I use a coat of slightly thinned liquid hide glue that I brush on between the base coat and the top coat of paint. As the top coat of paint dries, it cracks to reveal the color of the base coat.
I decided to use this finish on one of the many six-board chests I’m building for “The Furniture of Necessity” book. This chest features an enclosed base and a suite of iron hardware. The finish on this piece is a base coat of flat black latex paint with a topcoat of a flat acrylic blue paint.
Between these two coats is the hide glue, which is the big question in the minds of newcomers to this technique. Here’s how I do it and how I control the crazing effect.
1. Paint the case with your base coat of color. Flat sheens work better than gloss sheens. After the paint is dry, level it with a fine sanding sponge.
2. Get some liquid hide glue. Make sure it hasn’t expired, or the glue will dry slowly or not at all. Pour some glue into a bowl or cup and thin it with a little warm water. You want to get it the viscosity of latex paint – thin enough to brush on but thick enough to cover the base coat of paint.
The thickness of the glue/water mixture controls how much cracking you will get in your top coat of paint. A thick mixture will promote lots of cracks. A thin coat will produce fewer and smaller cracks. If your glue/water mixture is as thin as water, it is too thin. It won’t do much cracking to the top coat. So add more glue to your mixture. Or add a second coat of glue to your project.
I apply the glue with a chip brush and let it dry until I can touch it without removing glue from the surface.
3. Apply your topcoat of water-base paint and use all the same care you would use when applying any finish. Don’t get sloppy. Let the glue do that work for you.
The cracks should start to appear as the paint starts to “flash,” which is the point where it goes from wet to dry. Don’t muck with the finish as it dries. That’s a bad idea, like picking at a scab.
4. If you want to go a step further in adding age to your piece, apply a coat of black wax over the crazed finish after all the paint has dried. The color in the wax will lodge in the cracks and make the piece look both dirty and old.
For the piece shown in this article, I applied a heavy coat of glue to the top to create big cracks. I wanted the base to have more subtle cracks, so I added some warm water to my glue/water mixture before brushing the base.
This chest is complete except for the escutcheon plate. I’ve ordered a few iron German and French ones from Whitechapel Ltd.
If you want to dive deeper into this technique, here are resources I trust (there are some dumb, dumber and stupider methods on the Internet.)
• Glen Huey wrote an excellent article on this technique for the Summer 2008 issue of Woodworking Magazine. He compares hide glue to commercial crackling glazes and barriers formed by white and yellow glues. For a few dollars more, you can order the entire 2008 annual – a very good year.
This morning we completed testing the dies for the debossing on the cover of “Campaign Furniture.” In general, I dislike using metallic foils on covers, but I made an exception this time.
The deboss is supposed to represent metal hardware, so it made sense.
Metallic foils are a pain to photograph. Because they are so reflective, they look either too dull or too bright in a photo compared to what they look like when the book is in your hand. The snapshot above accurately represents the color of the cloth cover, but the foil in the photo isn’t quite on the mark. Oh well, I’m happy.
This cover test is the final step before the book goes on the press. Our printer informed me the book is scheduled to ship to us (and our retailers) on March 6. If that date holds, then we will begin taking orders and fulfilling them sometime the week of March 10.
The book will be $33, and we will offer free domestic shipping for the first 30 days the book is in the Lost Art Press store.
The following retailers have agreed to carry the book.
While the six-board chest is a simple form, there are some variants that make the chest look more high-style, like it might have a fancy bracket-foot base.
Today I decided to convert the chest I built for the Alabama Woodworkers Guild into one of these fancier chests. I removed the moulding that returned down the sides of the chest (see the video here), and made some base pieces to fit under the moulding.
I also removed the crappy hinges I installed in Alabama. One leaf of each hinge was entirely too long. Today I installed iron Lee Valley unequal strap hinges, which look better. Unfortunately, I have some work ahead of me to hide the screw holes from the earlier hinge set.
I also installed a vintage crab/grab lock, which I picked up on eBay for $30 (gloat).
So far, I like the enclosed base, but I don’t want to pass judgment until I get the piece painted. The base coat will be flat black, followed by a coat of thinned hide glue. Then a top coat of dark blue, which will crackle thanks to the hide glue layer between.
My Douro chair from Christopher Clarke Antiques Ltd. arrived yesterday morning, and I shot this short video of the unpacking and assembly process.
The chair’s mechanism is exceedingly simple and ingenious, and I’m excited about building a version for my own travels. It won’t require any custom hardware as best I can tell.
The table/crate is enormous – tall enough to eat off of or work as a desk (in a pinch). And it is built like a tank. The corners are reinforced with iron. The hinges and lock are built for heavy service.
The chair itself is quite comfortable – like a Morris chair with springy armrests.
