Following on from my previous blog post I have finally completed my project and am very pleased with the result
I made all the necessary cuts getting all the components to the correct size and then cut out the handle holes which were then shaped with a Japanese rasp and sanded smooth on the pillar drill with a bobbin sander, rounded the edges with the router and cut all the joints with the Festool domino XL
Glued everything together and clamped until dry, routed a groove for the base board and then cut the base to size carefully and fitted it in place
When I selected the timber for the tray bottom I came across a board with very complex grain, this does make it a little more difficult to work with due to the grain being in different directions but once finished the beauty of this type of grain pattern really does shine through although it does take considerably more work but efforts like this are rewarded by beauty in the finished piece. I needed to have a finished thickness of 9mm for the bottom of the tray so was able to cut this board down the middle on the bandsaw which when opened out after cutting like a book gives a Bookmatched grain pattern and oh my god did this look nice ! It is very rare to have a grain producing such results so this made me really excited as when I placed the two halves together I had a perfect heart right in the centre of the board which I made sure was in the very centre of the finished tray
Everything was sanded really well down to 320 grit so silky smooth and then applied three coats of Liberon finishing oil sanding in between coats and finally waxed everything with three individual coats of black bison wax followed by some heavy duty elbow grease to ensure a really good shine
A very pleasurable project to do and a very pleasing end result