Replies

1. 
   RW | Apr 26, 2003 04:33pm | #1

   From the Encyclopedia of Wood:

   " The wood is difficult to dry because of the alternate hard and soft grain and is liable to distortion.  . . . but it is difficult to obtain a smooth finish because of the nature of the grain. Care is required in gluing and a clear filler should be used . . ."

   or in English, I take this to mean the dark vs light wood has distinctly different densities. Filler, as you describe, pertains to pore fillers. In a nutshell, sand the surface dead flat. Apply pore filler, remove excess. This fills pores and allows the surface to be flat, sans divots. Apply finish.

   For more, search pore fillers, or consult the bevy of lit out there. I think Flexners chapter on fillers in Understanding Wood Finishing is adept at covering the ins and outs of filling with water based, oil based, and even filling with the finish itself (which he doesn't seem to be a fan of).

   "The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb "      lyrics by Roger Waters

2. 
   pauld | Apr 27, 2003 07:57pm | #2

   Mark,

   Here's a beautiful finish for your project that you may want to consider; the finishing process simultaneously fills the pores of the wood.

   After scraping or planing to remove all mill marks, sand with 220-grit. Next, buy some Liberon Finishing Oil and sand it into the wood in three stages.

   First, sand in the Liberon with 220-grit, creating a slurry that fills the pores - it'll take about 10 or 15 minutes per surface. Then carefully wipe away all remaining slurry with a clean cotton cloth. Don't start wiping too soon, or you'll drag the slurry out of the pores.

   Wait 24-48 hours, and repeat the process with 320-grit. Wait 24-48 hours, and repeat the process with 400-grit. Wait a week or so, and apply a high-quality wax containing Carnauba.

   This finish looks as though you can reach in up to your elbow, feels like silk, and has none of the conspicuous surface-build so common with urethanes.

   Good luck,
   Paul

1. 
   LD | Apr 29, 2003 05:08pm | #3

   Paul, Have you used this approach using Tung Oil?  I'm not familiar with Liberon Oil, maybe it's the same thing.

1. 
   pauld | Apr 30, 2003 06:37am | #6

   Dave,

   Liberon Finishing Oil is terrific stuff. It has a Tung oil base, but the formula has other additives that help it dry much more quickly than straight Tung oil.

   Good luck with your project,Paul

1. 
   LD | May 04, 2003 03:18am | #9

   Paul, sorry to keep bothering you, but a couple of ?'s about the liberon oil.  Do you sand in the last coat, or is the last coat just applied straight.

   What do you use to apply the wax.  Is that done with cloth or another abrasive like #0000 steel wool?

   Thanks for the info.  I'm try the procedure now on a box made with walnut burl, and I'm liking what I see.

   Dave

1. 
   pauld | May 04, 2003 04:39am | #10

   Dave,

   No problem asking more questions - as long as your project turns out well!

   The final coat is sanded-in with 400-grit wet & dry sandpaper, and the gummy, almost-dry, slurry wiped off with clean cotton rags until ALL haze is gone. TO thoroughly remove the slurry from corners, try wrapping the rag around a smooth stick - maybe you can borrow an "orange stick" from a friend who takes good care of their cuticles.

   If you're satisfied with the sheen, let the final coat cure for about a week, and apply a coat of Liberon's Black Bison wax, let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes, and buff it out with a clean cotton cloth (an old 100% cotton t-shirt works really well). You can buy Black Bison plain or tinted - I'll leave that decision to you. I don't wait for the wax to haze over as is customary when, say, waxing a car.

   If, after doing this, you aren't completely satisfied with the sheen, you can alter it to your liking: If it's not quite shiny enough, step up the the next highest grit of sandpaper and apply another coat of liberon (after wiping off the wax with a rag  wetted with naphtha); if it's too glossy, you can apply a coat of wax using 0000 steel wool.

   I don't work for Liberon - I just like their products. Even their steel wool is better than the rest: IMO, you can feel the difference with your fingers.

   Don't forget to properly dispose of any rags or steel wool that are saturated with Liberon (or any other) oil - I'd hate for the subject of your next post to be about your workshop burning to the ground because of spontaneous combustion!

   Good luck with your project - post pics when you're done!Paul

2. 
   MHargrove | Apr 30, 2003 07:06am | #7

   I don't have a local supply of Liberon oil (though I've ordered some for a future project).  Instead, I used pure tung oil cut 50/50 with mineral spirits for the first two coats, and then straight tung oil for the final coat, finishing as you coached.

   This has been very educational for me, having two very different woods side-by-side for comparison while finishing.  The zebrawood is very smooth now, but the walnut is just incredible.

   Thanks for the suggestion, it's really looking beautiful.

   -M.

3. 
   Marcello | Apr 29, 2003 06:27pm | #4

   I have not tried Liberon but sounds appealing, especially with the baby butt smooth finish described and its ease of application.  But...my favorite is a coat of tung oil followed by a minimum 4 coats of shellac, although it has a slight learning curb.   As a note: I like to prefinish the inside of the box first, before glue up.  It makes it much easier rather than try to get those inside corners afterwards.

   As a filler, I have been experimenting with epoxy.  I have been using saw dust from different types of wood to "color" the epoxy-it is compatible with just about every finish out there, you don't have to worry about being a water based or oil based filler.  Smear it on the surface pressing it down into the wood's pores, wait 10 minutes and sand.  This works well on large celled wood.  With zebrawood my knee jerk reaction may be to use ebony saw dust, but without seeing the wood, grain, color, it is difficult to decide.  An alternative would be to use walnut saw dust to bring hints of the color from the boxe's body to the top.

   Enjoy,
   Marcello

4. 
   erich | Apr 29, 2003 07:19pm | #5

   Hey Mark,

        Good choice in woods, isn't that Zebrawood neat?  I've just recently finished a Zebrawood humidor myself.  For the humidor I was looking for that deep gloss look, so a filled, closed-pore finish was required for me.  If you don't want a really flat surface you probably don't "have" to fill.  I think I would, because even if you didn't want a glossy look, you could rub your finish down to satin and it would look more even if you filled.  For me, I really didn't want to color the pores as Paul talked about, I liked the color of the wood on it's own, so I wanted a clear filler.  I used Crystalac, a water based filler, which I got over at Homestead finishing, Jeff Jewitt's site, and it worked great.  Wipe on, squeegee for a second to push it into the pores, and burlap it off.  I did two applications.  Good stuff.  Hope you find what you're looking for!  Erich

5. 
   SgianDubh | Apr 30, 2003 07:45am | #8

   Zebrano and walnut can end up looking like the example below. Personally, I'd have prefered the zebrano grain in the drawer fronts to run vertically, possibly in the form of veneer with a cross banding and stringing of some sort around the edge to pick out the form, but this is the look the customer wanted, chose, and was willing to pay for-- the latter being the primary consideration, ha, ha..

   Anyway, the finish is standard oil based alkyd varnish, in this case Pratt & Lambert 38 gloss for a base coat for clarity,and satin to finish. The walnut was water based dye prior to varnishing, and the top of the cabinets grain filled and the varnish applied with a spray gun.

   Zebrano is certainly a bit open grained and wee bit coarse, but not overly so in my experience, so I've never found it strictly necessary to fill the grain with a proprietary grain filler-- and because of the decidedly stripey nature of the grain you'd probably be best to select a clear or neutral coloured grain filler if you chose to go that route.

   Here I simply sprayed on (if I recall correctly) three coats of varnish the same as I did for the cabinets. A brush would do it too, and so would wiping on ten or so coats of thinned out varnish. Each method will work to fill the grain, and more importantly create a fairly substantial  barrier to both moisture ingress and and actual physical damage, but no film finish is immune to either cause of damage in the long term. Because the pores aren't too deep and marked in zebrano, there shouldn't be too much of a problem with the varnish sinking into the pores causing a somewhat uneven grain hugging look. Slainte.

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