Thread: Distressed Finish

Ubeat man, no need to SHOUT. Who cares how old it is, unless the world has changed since then.

Originally Posted by FlyingDuck

Can black japan also be called 'bitumen'. I was at the Maleny wood show and saw a finish that I liked, and the guy said he wiped on bitumen first, then two coats of lacquer, followed up by wax. I wondered what he meant by bitumen, and maybe it was black japan. Am yet to go into bunnings and ask 'do you sell bitumen'?

Bitumen is exactly that, -the black tar stuff that goes on roads, also called tarmac or if you are a yank then it is asphaltum.

This is a Donkeys old formula for giving a harder finish to an oiled piece. Cut the bitumen with mineral spirits until it is a more fluid 'creamy' consistency, add your Danish or whatever oil and apply as usual. It does take a little longer to 'go off', but when it has, it is not possible to scratch the surface off as you would an ordinary oil finish.

I use it when restoring an antique that cannot be stripped back to bare wood.

The 'Van Dyke' as mentioned in another post will not 'age' the appearance to any extent. Again it is an old recipe for colouring timber, staining if you like. It will give varying degrees of light to dark brown depending on the amount of source material you use.

My mother was 'in service' to General Wavell and his sisters before and during the war and regularly had to polish the furniture with 'Van Dyke'. She made her own by boiling up walnut shells, ( when they were green ) and the resultant goo was allowed to dry before being used as a polish. Especially effective on oak to revive the colour.

Been using these hand-me-downs for quite a while now. I prefer it to the chemical products of today to keep the integrity of the original antique. Something the modern day apprentice avoids like the plague as a lot of that secret ingredient called elbow grease is required together with that long forgotten virtue called patience.

Ho Hum,.......those were the days.

Art

Crikey..... even JC only rose from the dead once.

Beware of the undead.

cheers