Finishing Wood......now with images

[weaver]

Ian,

You've done a brilliant job there, very nice carving and I knew immediately that it is a chicken. I wish I could find burl wood like that here. Very rarely I find a burl in the wild, most times I have to buy it and folks are very proud of what they have.

I like to use a cabinet scraper instead of sandpaper. It cuts like a knife but is easy to control and leaves a smoother surface than sandpaper with clear grain / not cloudy like sanded wood. I have a couple straight ones and one small rounded one. I am looking for a larger one with a wide curve on one end and a smaller curve on the other.

I finally saved enough money to buy a bottle of cold pressed linseed oil, will post my impressions when it arrives and I have time to play with it a bit.

 

[bushtuckerman]

Thanks weaver and I look forward to your impressions.

As for the burls, yes they are very hard to get hold of. I have been looking constantly in this area of the Czech Republic for 6 months and I have found a fair few birches with burls, but very few have them within reaching height and are of sufficient size for cups. The breakthrough was to find one very ill, leaning tree with at least 50 burls, many of which were usable, and so a friend took me up it with his climbing ropes and we harvested 7 small to big burls in about 3 hours on the rope. He and his girlfriend are getting some camping cups for Christmas as a thankyou!

Look at it this way, you can be thankful that the trees in your neck of the woods are healthy

I'll investigate the cabinet scraper with interest.

 

[Bimble]

When I finish wood for a fine finish I use Oil and wire wool.

The wire wool actualy cuts the surface rather than scratch it like sand paper. This gives a silky surface on the wood.

Process is, cover with oil so that the grain is raised, let dry. Polish with wire wool. Repeat until you get the finish you want.