Festive Sleigh Project

[chop]

Michael T
Very nice job on the sleigh

[brady.schwyhart]

My hat is off to you Sir! Excellently done!
Brady

[Betty Woodall]

Michael,
That is beautiful. I am looking forward to getting that pattern when you post it. BW

[Router-Jim]

Michael, that is truely an impressive project.

Well done!!

[mtylerfl]

Hello,

Thank you everyone. I'll see if I can answer some of your questions...

- Yes, this is the next Monthly Subscription Project. I've already talked to LHR about getting it sent out a little earlier than "normal" to the subscribers so they'll have time to make it before we're all in the thick of the holiday season (I know some of you already are!). I am writing the illustrated "Festive Sleigh" tutorial now, and will email it to LHR early next week (or before). My hope is that it will be released to the subscribers no later than mid-November.

- It won't be for sale separately for some time - since it's a subscriber project, they usually wait 2 or 3 months after it's been sent to the subscribers before it is available for sale by itself.

- I had a heck of a time deciding how I wanted to finish it. I stared at it for 3 days before deciding! I'm making two more this weekend so I'll get a chance to try a couple other ideas I had in mind. (I carved/cutout another one today in fact.)

- The finish on this first one is MinWax Cherrywood Gel Stain.

- The finish for the sleigh runners is Rustoleum Specialty Metallic Gold reflective finish spray paint. I primed the runners with Red spray primer and sanded lightly before spraying with the gold paint. Got both paints from Walmart.

-The gold trim was applied by hand with a KRYLON Gold Leaf marking pen (I used blue masking tape to keep me from getting sloppy). Richard Tharp had sent me the gold pen as a gift, but I have seen it for sale at Michael's Arts & Crafts. It matches their specialty reflective gold spray paint perfectly.

- The clear finish is MinWax water-based Satin Polycrylic - four coats. (I love the stuff - it dries in less than a half hour so I can apply multiple coats quickly.) I originally bought some satin clear laquer for the top coat, but wimped out and used what I am already accustomed to.

I've been designing a lot of projects lately - just hard to get 'em all done and tested/perfected/tutorials written due to days being only 24 hours long. Look for some really unique items coming out over the next few months! Some will be available separately right away, and some will be for the Project Subscibers "first dibbs".

EDIT: Forgot to mention that no clear is put over the gold runners - dulls the finish. Also, the gold marking pen is applied last, over the clear finish of the sleigh - same reason - no topcoat on that either so that the gold won't get "dulled".

[Lin]

Michael, Now this project I really like...it has gotten harder and harder for me to come up with the "one of a kind" cool,,,,neat and special project for certain family members for x-mas each year....I think this will work super great for my MIL and a few others that have gotten really hard for me to come up with the great ideas for.
Thanks,
Looking forward to when its released...
Lin

[chop]

Micheal
I find myself checking your sleigh out everyday and showing them to everyone that comes over.They all want one.You really out did yourself.

[RayTrek]

Wow Michael
I think back to Hi School wood shop and a sleigh project we did with plywood and was working on replicating it with relief this year and you come up with something that is outstanding I have scraped my project for yours.
To put it in a nutshell you amaze me with your talents and hope you don’t mind that I have made you one of my mentors to achieve higher levels of excellence.
Thank You
Ray

[bayea]

Michael, you are a cruel man ! show us this beautiful project and not let us purchase it ! mean, mean man.! lol
so, is there anything we can do to convince you to post the project for purchase?

[mtylerfl]

Thanks again everyone! You are my greatest motivation for creating projects. Your encouragement overwhelms me sometimes.

I cut out a couple more and they are in the sanding and finishing stage today (my least favorite part!). I hope to have these two done by this Thurs or Fri. Going out of town that weekend, so I won't have a chance to work on them then.