A question about burnishing

[Hammock Hamster]

Hi all,

I am experimenting with finishes at the moment and am currently messing about with burnishing.
I know the general idea is that using a harder smooth material you can compress the wood fibres and create a shiny surface that may or may not degrade over time.

My question is would you also oil or wax say a spoon you have burnished and if so would you do this before or after.
My gut feeling is that oil would need to go on before as it isn't likely to penetrate the compressed fibres but wanted to see why the collective hive mind thought about it first?

Cheers all, Hamster


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[Janne]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Robson Valley]

I think you're better off to leave the wood surface "open" so that you can saturate that with the finish of your choice.
Burnishing crushes the surface wood fiber which defeats your intention to seal the surface.

Google 'Ukibori' That's essentially burnishing small spots.
The WCI frog pictures evaporated in the big hack but there's all kinds of other illustrations

 

[Hammock Hamster]

That's what I figured, I am wondering though whether oiling first then burnishing could work almost by sealing the oil in and giving a glossier appearance?
I would try a few experiments but I am down to my last stocks of timber which I am using for a couple of gifts and don't want to cock them up.


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[Janne]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[mrcharly]

As another finish to try, have a go at fire hardening.

I think it was Dave Budd who had some dark tool handles - I asked him how he'd finished them, he said they were fire hardened. So I tried it with an axe handle. Play a blowtorch over it until the surface is starting to blacken, then rub off with a green scouring pad. The finish is harder than plain wood, doesn't seem to take up dirt.

Australian natives used to fire harden wood tools, including spear tips in fires.

 

[Robson Valley]

For starters, stop sanding. All that does is shred the surface. Big or little, you still shred the surface.

Look into the business of cabinet scrapers. Basically a hard steel edge which very finely cuts the wood surface.
Microscopic curly shavings. Same glossy surface as I see from my "carving sharp" wood carving edges.
I make my own scrapers from junk lumber steel strapping bands. Even if you had to buy them, not expensive.
Next, learn how to put the cutting edge on them and don't expect to see heaps of shavings.
The tang of any file is the correct tool!

Use the very coarsest steel wool you can buy. The individual strands are flat, not round.
As a result, the steel wool cuts like a thousand chisels. To cut off any raised grain
while having very little effect on the most recently applied finish.

 

[Robson Valley]

Fire hardening helps, too. Read Homer's "Odessey." Odysseus fire hardens the spear that he stabs the Cyclops with.

 

[Janne]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Robson Valley]

Hey! It's an epic of heroics! Like special effects in the movies that really aren't needed = do it anyway.

The age old outcome from running with scissors.

Cabinet scrapers don't work well on conifer/softwood at all.
When I first started to use scrapers on birch carvings, I had to use a 10X magnifier to see the little shavings.
The coarse steel wool is magic on any curved surfaces. It does very little damage to any finish on the wood.
I've got most grades of sandpapers from 60 to 1500 grit. 600 then 800 and up are for sharpening.

I can see burnishing a figured hardwood for knife scales and for pistol grips then going back into it to cut some chequering.
I like to use Minwax Tung Oil Protective Finish on many of my carvings. One coat is satin and 4 coats is water-wet glossy.

 

[mr dazzler]

Burnishing was at one time a very popular way to finish oak furniture (1600's/1700's) They used a bundle of reeds with (IIRC) a tough hard mixture of wax pumice or fine brick dust? and simply used it to polish the wood. The liquid wax mixture was saturated into the ends of the reeds, then hardened as it cooled, and they gradually wore down like an eraser does when being applied to the oak. The friction compressed the wood and forced the wax/dust into the pores. It worked for them, plenty of that old English/dutch oak furniture still survives

 

[Robson Valley]

That burnishing technique with a wax-saturated reed bundle would have easily raised the local temperature
where friction would have softened or even melted a little wax. Like buffing friction on leather?
For smoothing hardwoods, cabinet scrapers are still popular.
Scouring rushes are Equisetum, horse-tails, which have silica crystals in the many cells.
Woodwork and wood carvings were often finished with these. For a time later, I think there was "glass paper"
and eventually sandpapers. That of course depended on both glue/adhesive and paper-making.

 

[mr dazzler]

Yes, the silica in the reeds rings a bell, cant remnember where I read it some years ago.
If you use a cabinet scraper correctly you dont even need to sand. I make them from thick tapered plane irons (the oldest type with inset tool steel fire welded in) I sharpen them on norton stone, strop them on green polish then turn the edge over with a big spanner that has a polished chrome finish, it makes a very fine very sharp finishing cut, and of course will handle awkward grain without tear out. Works great on any hardwood especially kitchen worktops. They also work good on animal horn. I used a scraper to fine finish some shofar horns, which were then burnished using a smooth piece of buffalo horn while there was an oil/wax mixture on the antelope horn. Works on rams hhorns too. Sanding horns is quite disgusting the dust smells and tastes like a gammy burnt roast lamb joint, so the scrape/burnish option was much cleaner

 

[Robson Valley]

Grinling Gibbons (1648 - 1721) was a Dutch-British sculptor and wood carver. Had a reputation for extremely elaborate carvings which still sell for 10's of thousands.
He was a great promoter of scouring rushes (Equisetum) for finishing his works.
I've never tried it, I presume you let the horsetails dry first.
I should, my flower beds are full of the stuff at the moment.

Most of my carvings are softwoods (western red cedar, yellow cedar, a little pine) and cabinet scrapers don't cut well at all.
Some parts, I'll sand during finishing, other parts I texture with a 5-sweep crooked knife or a gouge.

Seems independent of the ring count per inch, too. Birch, willow, mahogany and oak all cut just fine.
I make my little scrapers from hard steel lumber bundle strapping.
Joint an edge and then use the tang of a file to upset a burr.