(Another great project from Steve Promo. - ajp2)

HWC Members, 

A friend recently commissioned me to make a mirror for behind his bar.   The walls are all rough sawed vertical cedar Tung & Grove narrows so I felt the mirror frame would need to be of a blonde, dark wood, or have color added to make it unique, and a focal point…..hopefully one with obvious value and appeal. The mirror is located just above the bottle caps of the liquor bottles on the top shelf so none of the mirror would hidden behind bottles..  

I thought a leaf shape might be interesting and unique so I looked around nature.  I first tried a broad leaf maple but it was about the same length as it was wide and I need to fill a space of 3 by 5 feet, more of a rectangular space.  Beech and birch and apple leaves were too elongated (more like 2 x 5 ratio), so I looked at other leaves.  I found an oak leaf to be closer to the desired 3 x 5 ratio and I liked the reddish veins in the green summer leaves. I thought of connected short cedar blocks and red cedar boards that I had on hand, all of which was very well dried.    

It began as a sketch of an imaginary oak leaf on white paper about 3” by 5”.  I used the grid method to enlarge it to a 3 foot by 5 foot (full sized) cardboard pattern.  This allowed us to position the cardboard mock-up mirror on the actual wall to see how well it would fit the space and then decide whether to proceed or not .  The cardboard became a pattern for 1/4” plywood to which all the cedar was glued and screwed from the backside.  The veins of the leaf are 1/4” thick by 2.5” tall strips of Eastern Red Cedar (aromatic) placed on edge.  The rest is local Michigan Yellow cedar, about 2.5” thick, spliced as needed with dowels or biscuits to reinforce the glue joints.    

This the frame after the initial glue up.

After the glue cured I jigsawed out the 1/4” plywood in the mirror area.  After moving outdoors on sawhorses, I sculpted the leaf with a Lancelot disc…basically a circular 4” chainsaw blade on a mini grinder. 

Wood is removed very quickly with this tool.  Next came  24, 40 and 80 grit abrasive flap wheel refinement, then 120 grit foam backed sanding discs of various diameters powered by a slow speed close quarter angle drill.  After all this there still remained considerable hand sanding and rasp work in the corners.  After it was fully sanded, I placed it face down and routed a 1/2” wide by 3/16” deep rabbit in the backside to hold 1/8” thick mirrored glass.

 

 

 This is the frame after it has been carved and sanded using the flap wheel sander.  Note the flat areas left after sanding with the flap wheel.   Now the fun part - hand sanding.

The entire project was then airbrush sprayed with 4 coats of highly diluted green aniline dye.  This is alcohol based and dries very quickly.  I wanted the grain, sapwood, and heartwood to show through the dye, hence the airbrush for good control over how much stain was applied.   It was then sealed with 6 coats of satin water based varnish applied with a brush with 220 and 320 grit sanding between coats 2 and 3 and coats 5 and 6 respectively.  

The local glass company enjoyed the challenge of fitting the glass to the rabbeted glass ledge and billed me accordingly. OUCH$$$.  Last step was applying a second layer of 1/4” plywood over the entire backside with screws to hold the glass in place, further stiffen the piece, and to attach hangers onto

While this project did not involve any woodturning, I though it might inspire a fellow club member to do some sculpting or use dyes on their turning projects.  If you do make a bar mirror be sure to invite me for the christening as well!  Cheers. : ) : ) 

Steve Promo

Finished product.  (Another great project by Steve Promo.  Thanks for sharing Steve. - ajp2)