Thread: blackwood table

Beautiful table, PWH, and well worth the effort (easy for me to say), and what a great score on the beam.

No doubt you'll miss the workshop but good luck with the move.

Looks very nice.

I especially like the runners underneath the drawer.

Yes, that was my thinking, too - I didn't want them visible on the sides of the drawer. They're hideously
expensive - I paid NZ$ 52ish for the pair, but for a fine piece I think they're worth it. The silent self
closing mechanism is also brilliant.

Hi PWH
What a fabulous piece
Beautiful colour and thoughtful design

can you talk about the finish please?

thanks

Rob

I used what I call 1-2-3 finish.

1 part boiled linseed oil
2 parts gloss polyurethane
3 parts vegetable turpentine

by volume. The receipe came from the
Fine Woodworking magazine decades ago.
Gloss poly because matting agents may mess
this up.

I mix them the day before, let it 'make' overnight.

Flood it on - liberal amounts of the mix, and let it
soak into the wood until the wood stops absorbing it,
then wipe off the surplus with some rags and polish it
dry with a cloth. Surface should not be sticky when you're
done with each coat.

repeat the next day, and the day after ....
I did 3 coats over 3 days on the table top, left it for 3
days and found it was quite thirsty again after that.
I will probably give it a 5th coat in the near future.

This stuff is supposed to fill the pores in the wood and
polymerize there; with enough applications you can get
it waterproof, and it's a low sheen finish that looks and
gives the timber depth like an oil finish but it hardens
and waterproofs much better.
It does not form a surface film. I did a rimu kitchen table
with this years and years ago, and after 9 coats water
just beaded and ran off the surface. Results may vary
with different timbers.

What's more, a dust-free shop doesn't really matter, unlike
varnish.

Before I started, I did a sample and compared this with
a mix of tung oil and vegetable turps, and the tung oil
came out too dark and contrasty for my liking, so I skipped
that idea.

*don't forget to spread out linseed-oily rags on a concrete floor
or keep them in an airtight jam jar after application*.

-Peter

Thanks Peter.

Ive copied that to my "recipe book"for future use

Thanks for sharig

Rpb

that top is well worth the effort.

Nice balance to the design works well with the timber.

Hi Peter, have made some of the finish but used water based polyurethane. Is it supposed to be in separate layers? have shaken the mix and the colour is changing to a yellowy tinted mix, cheers, Lance.

Lance, I really don't know that the oil and turps will mix with waterbased PU ... it seems doubtful to me, but ... let's know how that pans out in the end!

Update:

I applied some more finish and left the table sitting in the conservatory overnight afterwards.
Being winter and all, some condensation dripped off the roof and on to the table.

Turns out that 5 applications of the finish are not enough to seal blackwood - I got some surface
water stains.

It was very easy to get the stains out, some more mix, a light going over with the cabinet scraper
(while wet with finish) to clean up a few raised fibres and a bit of rubbing with a cloth cleared
things up, can't see any damage, but I think I am going to have to put more on ...
I will probably change to pure tung oil thinned with vegetable turps.

I want this table not to be super delicate, but robust enough to sit next to the entrance door in
the new house we're building.

Oh well, live and learn. I guess the pores in blackwood are bigger than in rimu, so it will take more
applications to stop water from creeping into the timber.

-P.