Making a Portal Mirror
A quick photo story of the making of the current generation Portal Mirror. I haven’t written a blog post in over a year, because I haven't set aside the time to write something that I’d be proud of. So, I’m going to say from the beginning that I am a decidedly amateur writer, and please bear with the brevity of this post because it is almost my bedtime.
Picking up raw materials from Hardwoods Specialty Products, about a five minute drive from the shop.
There is enough lumber in the back of this truck for three mirrors. There will be two in koa and one in white oak. The koa mirrors will be made using thick koa veneer over a sapele substrate.
To start, the raw material must be processed into square, flat pieces. Here, the parts have been jointed and planed, and are ready for cutting to their final dimensions.
Zooming ahead, the parts are cut to size and the sapele has been wrapped in thick koa veneer. If you look closely, you can see on the ends of the boards where the veneer border is showing. There are a few reasons to use veneer instead of solid koa. The primary factor is the price and scarcity of koa. I’ll write an essay on this subject at some point.
This block forms the base of the Portal Mirror. I came up with this design while in the Hilo airport, and then rendered the first version of it in a treehouse in Volcano. I think that this angled block makes a gorgeous, simple shape.
A very simple rabbet joint holds the sides and top together. There are also internal floating tenons that strengthen the joint, which haven’t been added in this picture.
A test fit of the white oak parts. The next step is to glue the joints together, thus assembling the mirror frame.
Here, a koa frame is in the clamps after being glued.
A closeup shot of the rabbet joint. It is very satisfying to see a nice tight joint like this.
Next, I fix any flaws in the material. Whether its an open knot in the white oak, or a split in the koa, the flaw gets patched up.
Just to zoom forward a few steps, above is a what the patch looks like all finished up. For the patch material, I try to use pieces with a lot of character, because they become little exciting accents.
After a final sanding, the frames are ready for finish. A natural oil is wiped on, five to seven coats. The finishing process takes nearly as long as the first part of actually building the mirror frame. The result is a finish that looks and feels amazing.
After finishing, the 1/4” mirror glass is installed and a sapele back is attached with brass fasteners. And that’s pretty much it! Below will be a little gallery of finished shots of the koa and oak mirrors, including some shameless mirror selfies, because that’s the whole point of having a full length mirror, isn’t it?!
Right now, I'm building another batch in koa, white oak and monkeypod, so stay tuned for when those get finished.
