Voyage to Darkness Continues

Well, onwards and upwards. The ebonized bowl is coming along slowly but surely. Now the outside has several coats of ebony the inside is starting to come along. As you can see, there are still areas that need covering. We have had humid and rainy days which greatly increases the drying time. So, we have to wait longer for every new layer. Traditionally lacquering is referred to "Japanese Lacquer" which comes from many many (possibly hundreds) of layers of lacquer from the lacquer tree. This website shows how the Asian process is done: http://www.urushi-kobo.com/process.html. As we go along, our ebonizing liquid is made from a stain and pigments. There is some minor finish layers included in the commercial stain we are using. Once the color is clear and black, we will be adding the proper finish layers of clear shellac and polyacrylic. This combination has proven to be optimal under the additional pressures of the shave bowl which is often wet. In general, finishes are not made to withstand being in water. We have also finished some really beautiful Shave Brushes in wenge, purpleheart and mahogany.

Write Away! Wooden Pens turned on a lathe.

One of the items that we make is wooden pens. They are great fun to make. From the beginning when they are blocks of wood, to their turning and the trials and tribulations of working with wood. They crack and pop and sometimes the blanks (hunks of wood)dry and distort especially those made of fruit woods like pistachio and apple. It is a whole new ball game. . This is a blank of laminated woods which gives us stripes in the end product. These on still on the mandrel (metal rod) fresh from the lathe. . Here these are the pieces drying on paper plates, we use a nail to support them vertically. Best way to dry round things. If you have noticed, I write on the plates where the pieces are in the finishing process. It really helped when we were working on a large order for the Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin. . Here is the striped pen as a result of the blank from the first picture. We also make fountain pens but that's a topic for another day. To see more, visit our Etsy Shop: Lovgren & Daughter. Nice to visit with you today!

Paint the Rainbow!

Tops and their finished look

After matching the tops and their handles with color, then at least two coats of shellac.  In between each coat you have to sand the layers to make sure there aren't any bumps.

Shellac is frowned upon currently because it reacts to water.  Think about the white rings on your grandmother's table.  BUT and this is HUGE shellac as a base coat provides great build or depth of color in the finish. 

What does that mean?  Depth of finish creates more refractive light to see the wood.  Or, it looks better. 

We use a poly as a top coat to protect against water and many other solvents like alcohol.  Solvents - dissolve finish.  Shellac is based in alcohol so if rubbing alcohol spills on it - it gets gooey and smudgey and basically ruins your day.

The is the bare handle                                                 Handle with color on it

 

 

 

In the last photo you can see how the colors blend into the bowl and look like a matching piece.  Some of the intensity is lost with applying another coat of shellac, snading that down with 600 grit sand paper and proceeding with the poly coats of finish. 

 

 

 

 

Color; what to do when you parts don't match

Color.  Sometimes we need to adjust the color.

In making Handles for shave bowls, sometimes we have to use regular maple instead of spalted.  Luckily, we have a source in Maine that rescues wood from a toy manufacturing plant and we can take those scraps in still make a wooden handle that is still up cycled from wood that could potentially end up in the trash.

The only "problem" is that the wood is light maple without any spalting.

So, the non color of the handle is much lighter than the bottom and would look hinkey.  In several handles are quite different than the bowls' lids:

The next posts will describe different ways to even out the color and it will produce handles that beautifully match the bowls and their tops.

First Finish Layer - How does it look?

Here is the sanded piece with 1 coat of thinned shellac.

The exposure (brightness) is really turned up.  In person, the void looks simply like a dark spot.  This is our goal :).

Why choose shellac for the first finish coats?  That's easy.  It adds to the depth of the color of the finish layers.  Layers?  Why Layers?  Funny you should ask.  Layers are the part of the finish that 1) protects the wood from the environment 2) Enhances the color of the piece. 3) Increases the light that is bounced along the surface of the piece which enhances the color.

After the shellac comes the Poly finish.  Poly being the hardest and durable finish there is.  But poly can yellow after 50 years.  So it's a trade off.  In a Chair poly would keep everything very nicely.  Realistically  will you have your pen?  I hope so.  I believe in keeping things.  Passing them along for your children to sort out.  So, questions? Comments? Snarky rhetoric?  Let me know in comments.  Thanks Kristin

Maple Spalt Filled and Sanded

Here's the patch after being sanded.  And yes, it is lighter than the surrounding lines once the shellac is added as the first layer of finish it will darken as you will see in the next posting.  I sand with 300 grit sand paper at this stage.

In sand paper the higher number, the finer the sand paper.  So, 60 grit is extremely course and 600 grit is super fine.  For large scrapes a lower number is fine.  For finishing, I believe the finer the better.  After this I will sand in 600 grit.  After the first layer of finish 600 again.  One of the contingencies is once the first layer of finish is applied, the grain will robably be raised and feel like a course peach fuzz.  Not appealing in something you are going to hold in your hand for the next 10 years.  Once the first layer is sanded and the second layer is placed, 600 may be too course and I will either go to a 1400 grit or to steel wool.  The steel wool is called "4 Aught" which means "OOOO" (four zeros) of steel wool.  You can get this unsoapy steel wool at any hardware or home improvement store.      

Yup; Un-soapy steel wool.  You can't use the kitchen kind.  It isn't pretty.  Of course I have tried it thinking it wouldn't really make a difference.  It does.  It is course and now particles of siap smashed into the finish.  Don't do it.  Well, I wouldn't advise you to do it.  You can see if you want.  But you will probably have to sand off the finish you've put on and loose hours if not a whole day.    

Filling the Void and Finish

One of favorite types of wood to work with is a hardwood that has spalted.  Through the natural processes of breaking down the tree, fungi create lines and different textures with the wood.

One of the challenges is when a piece comes out due to the fragile nature of this wood.  Once the finish layers have been added, they are stable.  We of course, if there is a problem would replace a pen that had trouble later.

The section highlighted in the oval is where some of the wood came out.  In order to make a stable repair, we need to fill the void.  I prefer a water based filler like Wunderfill which you can get through Rockler's catalog.

This fill like many others comes in predetermined wood colors.  I have never had one that really matched well with whatever I was working on and end up modifying them in some way.  With this fill material, one can add water to make a slurry or a consistency like really thick gravy.  Once it is sloppy I had pigments to adjust the color to most closely resemble the area adjacent to it.

I work in the pigment and then press into the area that needs it.  Pigments are available from many different sources.  I get mine through a fine art supply company that way you have the most control over the color.

You can see on the right is a color called "Vine Black"  and on the left is an "Ivory Black".  Some where in the middle of these two blacks is the color with which to fill.  I am balancing the darkest color of the spalt lines with the color of the surrounding wood which is a nice brown beige. 

Now comes the waiting for the fill to dry.  You can figure on 24 hours before being ready to sand down.  It the patch feels cool in your hand then get it some more time. If you sand too early you will make mud on the sandpaper and have to re-do it.  The patch also will dry faster in a low humidity environment.  During a hot and humid summer it may take longer. 

In the end, I enjoy working on having a great finish.  A lot of people find it tedious and boring and try to get through it as quickly as possible.  There are even those who finish their pens with CA glue as the finish.  Which is fine for them but I prefer to finish  like a piece of fine furniture one that will both wear well and last long.