Toshi-Nuki Shelves – Build 3

Well here we are in the final stages of this build. At this point the only tasks remaining were to cut wedges, mill and cut the shelf boards and apply a finish to the whole piece.

My plan for the shelf boards was slightly unorthodox. Rather than having long boards running lengthwise with the shelves, which is pretty standard, I decided to break up the shelf boards and run them front to back. The useable shelf width is 660 mm (about 26″), and I wanted to have two shelf boards fill that space, with each being 330 mm wide. The concept behind this was to create a modular system allowing individual shelf boards to be swapped out in place of small cabinets. The video below shows an animation of the concept.

The design in the animation is slightly different from what I have been building here, but the overall proportions are similar. Hopefully you can see in the animation how the shelf boards are simply laid in place on the long stretchers. The boards themselves are held in place simply by setting in the rabbets that I cut in the stretchers in the previous post. No screws or fasteners to lock them down. One danger of not fastening the boards in place is there is a possibility that the boards will cup and warp with changes in humidity. Having now lived with the finished shelf for a couple weeks I’ve watched the boards move a bit as we enter into the hot humid summer here in Japan. They haven’t moved that much, so I’m not terribly worried about it, but I’ve decided that next time I build this shelf I think I’ll divide the shelf space into 4 segments, using 165mm wide narrower boards which will be less likely to show pronounced warpage.

So to get 330 mm wide boards I first had to glue up some narrower tamo (Japanese ash) boards. I doubled up the shelf glue-ups in each set of clamps, which saves a bit of time and clamp useage, and also helps distribute the clamping force more evenly.

Unfortunately that’s pretty much where I stopped taking pictures from the build phase of the project. All the fabrication for the other shelf components was covered in the previous two posts, and really the shelf boards just needed a bit of milling and cutting to size after gluing. I also hand planed the shelf boards but again forgot to take pictures.

So the final task was finishing. Lately I’ve been using oil finishes like Kreidezeit on several different projects. But on ash, oil finishes have a way of turning the wood a rather unpleasant yellowish tone. Particularly oils like linseed or tung oil mixes, which are quite common and which are also the main components of Kreidezeit. On a lot of woods that yellowish tone blends nicely, such as on oak, cherry or even walnut. But on I’m not a fan of the look of oiled ash, so I went in search of alternative finishes.

I spent a bit of time searching around and thinking about different options, and one option that I remember some friends using on ash many years ago was a soap finish. Soap finishes have been used in Europe for quite some time, including on very famous pieces like Hans Wegner’s chairs and other work from Carl Hansen. A soap finish is pretty ideal on light colored woods like ash, since if anything it imparts a slightly hazy white tone. It’s incredibly minimal as finishes go. Which also means that it’s minimal in terms of protection. I’m not positive where it stands compared to a straight wax finish, but it’s probably pretty close. People who use it on chairs or tables recommend applying a few coats, and then a yearly maintenance coating. So it requires a bit of TLC over time but on the plus side it’s a pretty foolproof finish to apply. It’s also incredibly mild on the body, meaning no fumes or nasty chemicals warranting gloves or a respirator, which I really like. And its dirt cheap.

So having never used a soap finish I was intrigued, and decided to give it a shot. I found a couple of good articles and a video from Chris Schwarz explaining how to make and apply the finish. Here in Japan I had a bit of a hard time finding a decent supply of truly pure soap, with no scent or other additives. That is until I looked at soaps for babies, and for ¥400, I got a bar of pure soap, and followed Chris’s recipe to make the finish.

I applied one coat to all surfaces of the shelf; posts/ladder assemblies, shelf boards and stretchers. I might put another coat on the shelf boards, but overall I really like the results with just one thin coat. As finishes go, the looks is about as close to unfinished wood as I’ve ever seen, but when you touch the surface there is a noticeable soft feel to the soap finish. And the color of the ash still looks great. Initially after appling the finish the surface looks fairly matte, and I was a bit disappointed that the finish seemed to dull down the glossy handplaned surfaces. But after waiting for the finish to fully dry I found a light wipe with a rag was enough to buff out the hazy surface and the shine of the handplaned wood returned. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the results and glad to have another finish option, especially one that’s so inexpensive and mild to use.

So at long last, here are some final images of the finished shelf. One detail that has yet to happen is I would like to slightly round over the top of the posts. Right now they are just a crisp cut edge and seem to harsh, so I’ll soften them up a bit. I’d also like to take some photos of the shelf during assembly, and will update this post when the time comes. You can see in the photos the effect of handplaning the posts and leaving a faceted texture that I talked about last week. It’s a subtle effect, but definitely leaves a tactile feel to the piece, and to my eye really accentuates the flow of the vertical grain in the posts.

Thanks for hanging through with this build. See you next week.