A bit of a project for highland dress storage

**Kitfoxdave** · 28th February 23, 06:42 PM

Since last November, I have been working on an armoire to store my kilt stuff.

The missus said, you've got 10 kilts, you need to sort out something to store them. So the work began.
. Took pencil to paper, made some measurements... pestered the sales staff of one of the sponsors for measurements of their kilt hangers... after much work, with still a bunch left to go. I have gotten to the point where I can use the Armoire as I finish the project.
20230228_155338.jpg
Materials: birch plywood, curly maple, curly cherry, western red cedar, and aromatic cedar.

**Darrin1200** · 1st March 23, 05:48 AM

Nice build Dave. Are you going to leave the wood natural?

**piperalpha** · 1st March 23, 09:48 AM

Nice work. I look forward to my next house. A walk-in closet that can store my kilts and Highland accessories is a must.

**Tobus** · 1st March 23, 10:19 AM

Very nice! The cedar lining is spot-on. I have considered doing the same, either building a new one or retrofitting one of the antique wardrobes we have. I own a ~100 year-old house, and they didn't build them with closet space like we do today. I've also considered building a roll-out set of huge cedar drawers to go under my (antique) bed, where I can lay the kilts flat and arrange all the pleats tidily for storage. But alas, these projects are on the list of hundreds of other things in my head that "I'll get around to one of these days".

Seriously, very nice work there. I hope you'll share pics when it's all finished.

**Kitfoxdave** · 1st March 23, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by Darrin1200

Nice build Dave. Are you going to leave the wood natural?

The cedar is left with NO finish, the rest is finished with satin original Waterlox tung oil finish. 3 rubbed in coats... brings out grain and easy to repair

**Tobus** · 1st March 23, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by Kitfoxdave

The cedar is left with NO finish, the rest is finished with satin original Waterlox tung oil finish. 3 rubbed in coats... brings out grain and easy to repair

Perfect choices. I prefer tung oil (well, a polymerized tung oil finish, not pure tung oil) as well, for the very reasons you mentioned. It really highlights grain and gives it a depth that I don't get with other finishes, while being easy to apply and to touch up later. It can be applied as more of a matte finish or all the way to high gloss, depending on the application technique and number of applications. I built a big 4'x12' table for my engineering department and was initially worried a tung oil finish wouldn't stand up to heavy use, but it's done just fine. Here in the next couple of years I'll just reapply the tung oil finish with some 0000 steel wool and it'll look as good as new again.

**Kitfoxdave** · 1st March 23, 01:37 PM

Tobas I have been using this brand of finish for nearly 40 years. Polymerization tung oil. There may have been an issue with the tung oil in the mix. I never had a reaction to it before, but one batch seems to be gave me one heck of a rash... If the bark or other parts of the tree get into the mix I got a NASTY rash. The next can I got was a different batch, no where near the reaction. Be careful and use gloves.... it buffs out by hand beautifully. The pictures do not do it justice in the golden hour lighting....

**Tobus** · 1st March 23, 02:17 PM

Yeah, I always wear nitrile gloves. Mainly because it's sticky and difficult to wash off. I typically apply it with cut-up t-shirt material for the first few coats, then with steel wool for the last few if I want to dress up the finish.

There was a period where a lot of rifle stocks of mine got refinished with tung oil, but it was a mixture of pure tung oil, Japan drier, and mineral oil (to thin out the tung oil). It was great, but took months to do. That stuff took forever to dry. But it hardened to a finish that's better than the polymerized commercial tung oil finishes.

Will your kilt wardrobe have doors on it?