Krenov Wall Hanging Cabinet - Making the Door Panel Part 5 of 6

 One of the things that really appealed to me of this Krenov cabinet.  It mostly but not completely blocks the contents of the cabinet.  For what I wanted in this cabinet this was perfect.  I decided to use this panel as an opportunity to have a nice complimentary wood.  I was at Rockler and I found a really nice piece of figured maple that was either 3/4 or 1/2" thick.  Wasn't cheap from a board foot perspective but I didn't need that much.

The biggest problem with the piece of maple was that it had a significant bow in it.  With lots of patience and careful work,  finally got rid of the bow; however, my stock ended up being about 1/4" think.  I was hoping to have 3/8" thick.  Oh well, really won't matter from a functional perspective.  Put 1/4" mortises on the rails.  I decided to attach the two shorter panel pieces to the large one by wedges of wood.  There is probably some sort of fancy name for this connection but I don't know what it is.  Came out good.  

After the glue up of this panel, I prefinished it with blond shellac that I made up fresh (ca. 1-1/2 lb cut) that I dissolved in 97%ish isopropanol.  Why isopropanol you ask?  Just before Covid became a big issue in the USA, I stocked up on a bunch of bottles of it for disinfecting.  I didn't use that much for disinfecting.  Since I have it around, I have repurposed it.  As best I can tell, it works just about as well as 190 proof ethanol; maybe it took the shellac a bit longer to dissolve in the isopropanol..  I was curious so that is why I did this experiment.  Generally speaking, I'd prefer to use 190 drinking grade Everclear for my shellac.  I will likely use the remaining isopropanol to clean my shellac brushes since it costs a lot less than any form of ethanol I can purchase.

The door glue up was uneventful.  Project is really close to completion (one or two more posts).