Thread: Blackwood Table for my Son

Well it's nearly there. After testing the oil finish with some red wine I decided to put a couple of coats of home made WOP on it. The Countertop oil finish was pretty fresh when I did the wine test, so it is not a fair test at all.

The HMWOP gives it a really nice wet look without being particularly glossy (the mix was 20% satin PolyU, 30% Gloss PolyU, 25% Pale BLO, 25% Turps). I photographed it today, but something weird happened and I don't have the first bunch of pics - just the very last ones, so fletty might have one of the finished table.

I'll take some pics of it tomorrow when it is installed in its new home.

What I like about the tube undercarriage it that the lines are very minimalist - a celebration of the timber on top, as it should be.

16. Minimalist lines 1.JPG 17. Minimalist lines 2.JPG


I took some detail pics of the feet that Skew very kindly turned for me, but they got nuked as well, so they'll have to be redone tomorrow as well. It might be a bit hard to see in the pics above but the feet bring home the bacon for the overall image, so thanks very much Skew!



At the moment the table is loaded in fletty's Disco awaiting delivery tomorrow, when I'll put the second coat of HMWOP on. What's the bet we get within 100 metres and we get the call "Turn around - sorry but the baby has popped!"

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Well it's nearly there. After testing the oil finish with some red wine I decided to put a couple of coats of home made WOP on it. The Countertop oil finish was pretty fresh when I did the wine test, so it is not a fair test at all.

The HMWOP gives it a really nice wet look without being particularly glossy (the mix was 20% satin PolyU, 30% Gloss PolyU, 25% Pale BLO, 25% Turps). I photographed it today, but something weird happened and I don't have the first bunch of pics - just the very last ones, so fletty might have one of the finished table.

I'll take some pics of it tomorrow when it is installed in its new home.

What I like about the tube undercarriage it that the lines are very minimalist - a celebration of the timber on top, as it should be.

16. Minimalist lines 1.JPG 17. Minimalist lines 2.JPG


I took some detail pics of the feet that Skew very kindly turned for me, but they got nuked as well, so they'll have to be redone tomorrow as well. It might be a bit hard to see in the pics above but the feet bring home the bacon for the overall image, so thanks very much Skew!



At the moment the table is loaded in fletty's Disco awaiting delivery tomorrow, when I'll put the second coat of HMWOP on. What's the bet we get within 100 metres and we get the call "Turn around - sorry but the baby has popped!"

Looking Good Brett, if the delivery is called off by the other delivery you can drop it at my place temporarily.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

I photographed it today, but something weird happened and I don't have the first bunch of pics - just the very last ones, so fletty might have one of the finished table.

DB518E09-1251-48B7-AEEB-1EDF2122EEE2.jpg 57612B45-54BF-4102-915D-25441154EA33.jpg

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Looking Good Brett, if the delivery is called off by the other delivery you can drop it at my place temporarily.

Or permanently! Possession is 9/10's of the law.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

.....After testing the oil finish with some red wine I decided to put a couple of coats of home made WOP on it. The Countertop oil finish was pretty fresh when I did the wine test, so it is not a fair test at all.......

I don't know how long you need to leave an oil finish to be red wine resistant, Brett. Last year, a glass was spilled (& broken!) on my favourite Scented Rosewood occasional table: Rosewood occ table.jpg

I can tell from the background that the pic was taken in our old house, & we've been here more than 12 years, so the commercial Danish oil I used on it has had at least that long to cure. The wine left a nasty, permanent mark, even though it was wiped up pretty quickly. I'd used oil because an old cabinetmaker had told me it was about the most reliable finish on S.R. So I decided to clean off the oil & try several coats of thinned-down poly. So far, the finish has stayed on looks as good as the oil did - haven't tried the Red Wine test yet - I'll leave that to fate to organise.

I used to love D.O., it's so easy to apply & looks great on many woods, but I've got other pieces that have been finished even longer than the occasional table & they will mark from the condensation if a cold glass is sat on them. So I think your decision to use WOP on your lovely new table is a wise one. I stopped using oil on any piece that is likely to suffer spills a long ago, and any of my old oiled pieces will get a more water-resistant finish if & when I get around to re-finishing them.....

Brett
Stunning table mate the finish really popped the grain.
[emoji106][emoji106]

Cheers Matt


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That's interesting Ian. I put 6 small pools of red wine (just cask - not the good stuff that we purchased at Rutherglen on the w/e ). Each pool was about a 20c piece, and they were left for 10, 15, 30, 60 minutes, 2 hours, overnight. What I noticed was that all of them stripped off the finish a bit so that there was a matte spot, and when first absorbed off there was a slight discolouration as well. The discolouring went from the first four after a while but the 2 hours can still be slightly seen, and overnight a bit more so.

Now I know that a member here maintains that hard burnished pure Tung Oil will resist red wine, but I'm just not confident enough to risk it, especially with a baby that will become a toddler etc etc (errrr, not that I expect the babe to be drinking red, but......).

I'm going to design some tests for a few finishes that I'm interested in. A couple of oils by themselves then followed by wop, perhaps pure poly, etc. I can probably expect plenty of blowback, but that's life.

On the weekend, down at the Kyneton Lost Trades Fair (which was fantastic) there was a fella had a really nice workbench made from American Ash. He'd used Osmo PolyX Oil Raw (matte) and it was like there was no finish on it whatsoever. Apparently best on paler woods, and it has Titanium Oxide in it. They say it red wine proof.....

It is most certainly one of the most expensive finishes I have ever seen at ~$75 for 750ml but they make some pretty amazing claims for it. Mind you, the Livos Countertop Oil that I used was $30 for 250ml (and that was -$5 show special)

maaate the table looks stunning. I really like the feet, a nice subtle touch.... good work skew. Looking forward to seeing the pics of the table once delivered.

Cheers Andy! NCA can take some credit for the final finish - it was himself that suggested (or mentioned) his Home Made WOP. I more or less followed his recipe for the test batch and then just tweaked the percentages slightly.

I had intended to put two coats on today, but the first was taking a while to dry in the Camden humidity (longer than yesterday up here, when it was misty/raining and cooler......go figure). We loaded it in the Disco while the first coat was still a little tacky, and so I'll put the second coat on when in situ tomorrow.

This project has been quite the collaboration (and in chronological order): mainly fletty of course (and thank you so much!), Chris Parks in an Observation Capacity, Peter Proudman assisted with the undercarriage assembly (he was the Hegner Jig guy at fletty's Joinery FGT), NCA with WOP recipes, Skew's Turned Feet, even RayG by proxy for donating the Walnut logs to Skew as payment in kind.

More than anything, it has been a lot of fun, minimal swearing (okay, moderate swearing - not happy when I saw some skid marks on the oil finish ), and a result that I'm happy with. Blake has seen some progress pics at various stages, but of course there is nothing like timber in the flesh (and I don't mean splinters ). I reckon he might be a little surprised at the difference between pics and the real thing - we're all used to it, naturally, and can allow for it. He's never seen any timber like this Blackwood, and hasn't been quite turned on to timber.....yet . One thing that will come home to him is how the chatoyance of this timber changes as you walk around it - it really is lovely to watch. I keep seeing things that I think are faults, dings, or summink else that has happened, but no, it's just the constant magical movement in the grain.

G'day Brett,

groeneaj summed it up for me as well - a nice result.
I'm quite partial to blackwood, being Tasmanian and living up on the slightly far north-west coast for a while.

Iain

Originally Posted by groeneaj

I really like the feet, a nice subtle touch.... good work skew.

...and I should mention that this was fletty's original idea.....

Originally Posted by groeneaj

maaate the table looks stunning. I really like the feet, a nice subtle touch.... good work skew. Looking forward to seeing the pics of the table once delivered.

Actually I would like to be there to see Blake's face when the table is delivered. Sometimes the reaction of the recipient is the best part of all. Superb and build and collaboration.

Regards
Paul

I had to think long and hard on this one as I could not recall the last time that I told Brett(FenceFurniture) great job on this table.

You don't notice the turned feet straight away it is one of those little things that you have to look twice at.

Nicely done, sirrah!

I think you're right and those clamps you showed me t'other day would look cleaner. Pity about the cost of 'em, though...