About the Oil

I get asked a lot about the oil that I use, and over the years I've used many different types. One mix that I've often returned to is a spar varnish, raw tung (or linseed) and mineral spirit mix. The next question that I get asked is usually about the proportions, which is perfectly natural.

But the answer that I feel compelled to offer isn't as easy as a the question. I think that it's more important to understand that each of these three components play a role and depending on where I am in the finishing process or the environment that I'm working in, I might change it up a bit.
First, the spar varnish. This is the tough flexible finish that dries to form the shine and water resistance. But, left alone, it is way to sticky, thick and fast drying. So to slow it down to the point that I can lay on a thin layer, I add the raw oil, which goes on smoothly but if applied alone would take way to long for my patience to build and dry. But mixing these two together gives a mix that is akin to the thickness of honey, so I add mineral spirits to make it flow. If it's the first coat and my goal is to flood the oil on and have it soak in, then a generous amount of mineral spirits is a good idea, but for later coats that I pad on and wipe off the surface quickly, then a thicker mix works fine. Often, I'll burnish the chair before the final coat and use more raw oil in the last mix to get a "softer" look. I don't wax my chairs because I've seen trouble with body heat causing clouding, but maybe I just don't know how to use it or have used the wrong stuff.

So as far as I'm concerned, there is no magic mix. I suppose that the simple way to put it is that whatever you do, you are gonna end up with a basic finish made up of cured oil, and using the different elements is simply an opportunity to guide the process. I usually start with leaning towards too much spar and fill in the other elements to get the consistency and time that the project and weather call for. I always check my rag to see how long it takes to harden, if it isn't hard after a night of drying, add more spar.

And of course, dispose of rags in a safe way to prevent spontaneous combustion!!!

A Fine Time

I just returned from the Lie-Nielsen open house in Maine and, as usual, I can't say enough about the host and all the other makers. It's the one show that I go to every year and it's a great chance to see my friends and get feedback on new work. I highly recommend going.

 Here is a rocker that I finished in preparation for the show. I fumed it in ammonia as you see in the tent below.

Here is the before and after. I went darker than usual, just to see what the results would be like, I think it suits the design nicely.

Here is one of my favorite details. I've been wanting to make a crest like this for some time, and I think it will be appearing in my chairs more often.

Here you can see the oil going on over the fumed wood, I don't think the video will play, but the image say it all.  I fumed it overnight to get this color with regular household ammonia.

Empty Nest...soon

I've been finishing up these three little youth chairs lately. They have a presence that's hard to ignore, something about the fine details and scale makes them stand out. Soon they'll all be gone, and as much as I look forward to the extra space in the shop and less risk of damaging finished pieces while working, I"ll miss em.

I've been posting pics to instagram for a while, frankly it's much more of a hit and run easy way to post, but I just got a new laptop, so here I am in the shop, sitting in my new rocker typing away, hopefully the ease will help get me back in the blog game. Here are the ears before and after burnishing and oiling.

 Besides lots of chairs, I've been working on making a shop dog of Kobe. He's no scruffy shop dog, but as long as I keep a space heater on him and give him a bed, he's good company.
I'll be teaching in a couple of weeks at North Bennet Street, so you can see the mess I'm making doing the turnings.

We've added a class in August, which is my last one this year. I"ll spend the fall at Suny Purchase on an artist residency. This summer I'll be teaching for the first time at Lie Nielsen and shooting a video to boot. If you are going to their open house, I'll see you there!

First you build the chair, then you build the finish

Recently a client asked me to take process shots of his chair being finished, so here they are.
Painting chairs has long been a sore spot as a maker and teacher. Yes, I agree wood is pretty on it's own, but in the service of furniture, sometimes there can be more done with it than swooning at the "figure". Part of what forms the aversion to painting chairs among new makers is the fear that the extra process will lead into unknown territory and problems, which is a legitimate concern, especially because the process is yet another that requires real effort to master.

Here you can see the stained chair in all of it's dull glory.

This chair needs paint!

 I covered this in my book, but it is worth restating, you can't expect a finish to look right until it's done. Just like a single spindle doesn't look like a finished chair. But you can learn to recognize when each step is complete and looks "right" even when "right" is truly homely.

yes, the pine stains terribly

Here are the steps to completing the finish, first the stain, a mix of alcohol soluble dyes from Lockwoods. I change the mix depending on the topcoat of color. For more bluish colors I shift the stain to a complimentary orange and for black over red I keep it relatively brownish.

first coat of red

The first coat of red is knocked back with burlap, steel wool and sandpaper, each used where called for. I want to keep the paint layer thin and smooth but still fully covering, so if the smoothing process makes it too translucent, I paint and smooth it again, usually just using burlap or mirka mirlon gold pads.

The red burnished

Then the black coats, smoothing inbetween again and then finally multiple coats of oil. I start with a penetrating thin oil and then subsequent coats of thicker oil to build the finish.

First coat of black paint

Smoothing the first coat of black with burlap

Oil on the seat after the second coat of paint and burnishing

The warmth of the red helps draw attention to the lower parts that are usually in shadow

Now here's where I might go too far for some gentle readers. Lately, I've been making chairs with butternut seats intended for paint. Now hear me out. I know it is beautiful, somewhat rare and certainly expensive, but it has some qualities that I want in some chairs for strength and scratch resistance. The seats below are destined for continuous armchairs that will live in the Lie-Nielsen showroom and, as public seating they will take a beating from the every joker who carries their keys in their back pockets, you know who you are....

That's right, a butternut c arm

I've used poplar in the past for this role, but it is a dull homely wood even under the paint. I really like  the lovely grain pattern visible when using the white pine, and was concerned that the subtle grain of the butternut as well as the rich color wouldn't shine through. But after making some samples I can see that it does! So no, I have no problem painting butternut and if I wasn't allergic to working with walnut, I'd paint it too.
Maybe paint could even make me want to use some of that horrendous curly maple that I've been meaning to get rid of.

More Teaching, More Learning

I've had a couple of busy weeks here with lots of folks in the shop. First, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Jameel Abraham, whom I've been working with long distance all year to get the Drawsharp completed.

Here is Jameel carving the front of his seat.

He brought along his pal Louis to join in the fun.

Here they are with their chairs.

When I was starting to make chairs in my NYC shop that I shared with a guitar maker, I used to get visits from Eddie Boros who was an amazing untrained sculptor. I featured his work in this post and tell the story of him calling me a fence builder compared to the guitar maker. All week long, as I guided Jameel through his first chair, I couldn't get Eddies raspy voice out of my head. If you don't know what I am talking about, look at what Jameel can do.



Luckily, chairmaking is very different from Oud making and I think Jameel picked up a thing or two.
When I had a little down time, I continued my quest to master the Real Milk paint.

A little background...I stopped using the Old Fashioned Milk paint because of the issues that I, and lots of others ran into with white powdery flecks, adhesion and color shifting. It's a fine product, but to get the consistent results that I want easily takes some effort, and even then, can be elusive.
I think that I have finally latched onto a way to make the results of the Real Milk paint product as good as the Old Fashioned at its best, at least with the black over red finish.

I have been using a very very thin coat of blonde shellac to aid in the process and doing so, I was able to get this finish within a 6 hour period from the raw wood.

 I shot the photos from two angles so you could get a better idea of what the finish looks like in a dark or light environment.

Here is how I did it.

First of all, the best way that I've found to mix this paint is to combine the paint and some warm water in a cup and then to swirl the cup like you would an icy drink until the powder is all wet, then use a stick to mix it further. Then let it set and mix it more over a period of a couple of hours, this gives the particles a chance to absorb all the moisture they can.

In this instance, I mixed the red paint 2 parts to 3 parts water. Then I applied the red to the piece. I put it on thin, but at that mix, it covered great.

Once it dried for a couple of hours, I rubbed it lightly with a xfine mirlon pad to get any excess paint build up off. This step seems to be the key to getting the thin finish that I like,really allowing the wood texture show through. If any of the steps would benefit from a longer drying time, it would be this first one.

Then, I padded the piece with the super thin shellac. Don't let the shellac harden before the next step. This seems to do a few things. The next coat of black paint (mixed 3 to 5 H20) adheres a bit better and it keeps the black from dissolving the red and mixing in with it, which just creates a dull muddy appearance.  After an hour or two, I rubbed the piece again with the xfine mirlon pad to remove the excess paint. This step gives me the opportunity to even out the saturation of the paint. The piece had an ox blood color at this point.

Then another coat of shellac and black. One lovely benefit of this process is that the shellac allows you to see exactly what the piece will look like if you simply finished at that point. The second coat of black dried for a couple of hours and then I rubbed it to get just the look that I wanted, which doesn't take much effort and then a final coat of shellac to seal it up. After that, I rubbed out the shellac with the mirlon lightly and did a topcoat of Waterlox to finish it off.

It may sound like a lot of steps, but each one is quick and there isn't that moment of fear right before oiling that something might not look right.
With the Old Fashion Milk paint, I found that the mixing, filtering and application were the keys to getting a successful finish, but if you screwed up any one of them, then the results were compromised. With the Real Milk paint, you do want a good consistency, but the translucence of the final finish comes more from sealing in what you like with the shellac and rubbing each subsequent layer to a thickness that you want. It's much more controllable in my opinion.

I will be finishing and documenting a c arm that I have in the works, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. If you are interested, do some samples and let me know what you find, thanks!

Magic?

I've been recovering from my trip to WIA this week.  I felt incredibly proud to be there with Claire Minihan, Tim Manney and Caleb James. The next time you hear someone grumbling about todays youth...just send them my way and I will blow them out of the water with the talent and incredible work ethic of these three. I could go on and on about the show, it was a highlight of my year.

Here is a stool that I brought along. I really shouldn't have heaped building this onto my plate while preparing to leave, but I had this itch to build something new and fun and it certainly fit the bill.

The "magic" part of this is twofold. First of all, in the first photo, it looks like a 3 legged stool in the photo even though it has 4. With curved legs like this, that can only mean one thing. The sightlines run directly from the front leg to the rear on the opposite side of the seat. I've never done this before and am very pleased with the results.

The rear legs are closer together in the seat and are reamed at a slightly greater angle.

The other "magic" is the finish, which only took a few hours start to finish and came out great. I was hoping for a worn black lacquer look to go with the Asian style and am very pleased. I'll share the process in another post soon.

Autumn Rocker

A few years ago, I was inspired by the colors and new growth of Spring when building a curved settee and I named it the "Spring Settee". It's still the front page of my website.



Now it's a different season and I suppose that it's no surprise that  I've been  drawn toward the earthy browns and oranges. Here is my latest rocking chair.

 I've been playing with the milk paint and shellac combinations to build a burnt orange with some depth.

 The process used the Real Milk paint company colors Goldenrod and Butternut and the shellac was tinted with stains Early American Maple and Engish Oak from Lockwood Stains. I built the color by layering the paint and shellac and then topping it off with Waterlox and finally raw tung oil.

 

 I tried to keep the warmth and grain of the wood showing through while using the paint to tame the differences in the species. I am pleased with the results and hope to refine them more. I will happily share my recipes and process once I've got a better handle on it. There are just too many variables that I am still grappling with.

It's been a learning experience that began with a chair that I built this spring. I was commissioned to build a replica of a chair owned by Ezra Stiles, an early President of Yale University. It was a gift to the retiring President who loved the chair that sat in his office.

 They asked me to make the chair look as much like the original as I could and I was concerned that using stains alone wouldn't do it. I have lots of old wood in the house and one thing that I noticed was the way that the patina masks the grain. I thought a translucent layering of milkpaint could create this effect. Here is the chair "in the white".

 Here is the finished chair. I had the seat done in natural rush by an expert weaver.

Finishing is always an opportunity to make or break a piece of furniture. I have painted lots of chairs and while the standard results that I've gotten are pleasing, I think there are too many options and possibilities that might add to the chairs to stop trying new things.

One Last Shot

There is one opening left for the class that I am teaching at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking beginning this Friday. I am excited because we are trying a new format. The class is being broken into two sessions of three days a piece. This will allow the students to finish some of the parts at home which will take some pressure off of the class and give us a chance to rest. If most of my teaching didn't involve long distance travel, I would probably do all of my classes this way. As I said, there is still one opening, I hope to see you there.

Here is a prototype for a Birdcage rocker that I am developing. I has always loved this style and am having a ball making it with all of the techniques and design ideas that I've been playing with for the past few years.

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston a week or so ago and saw an amazing Samuria exhibit. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a couple of distinct quirks. I wake up every night for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and I generally use the time to memorize every moment of Akira Kurasawa films, especially the Samurai genre.
I have always admired the Black lacquer of the Japanese, but felt the application would be a pain on my chairs. I decided to paint this chair a solid black, which strangely enough, I don't think that I've ever done before. Coupled with the shellac that I have been using these days, the black milk paint finish gives a nice nod to the Japanese lacquer finish and goes well with the Asian influence of the style.

I used a goldenrod undercoat and cream in the v notches.

I've got another decorative addition, but I'm not quite ready to share!

Bullet Proof Finish

I don't think that I have to go very far explaining the troubles that can plague finishing. We all love woodworking and hate finishing. Milk paint has an especially bad reputation for drawing us into some bizarre quantum world where paint mixed and applied the same way can have very different results.

New Milk Paint Results

I've used one brand of milk paint almost exclusively, which I've covered in other posts. It can create a lovely translucent finish, but is plagued by many problems such as a short pot life, lots of filler that needs to be strained out, strange hazy white specks that show up when least expected, trouble retouching and I'm afraid the list goes on. I've stuck with it because of the softness of the paint that allows it to be easily burnished to a high sheen. But after suffering my own traumas and fielding many calls and emails from others with the same trouble, I thought it was time to direct some attention to finding a solution.

The search for a solution pointed me to another brand of paint from The Real Milk Paint company. I've always loved the paint for its rich colors, ease of mixing (no straining), incredibly consistent results, long pot life (two weeks) and rock solid results. I suppose that I should mention that there's no connection between myself and the company.
What I didn't like was the matte finish and density that made it hard to get that translucent glow that I like. Lucky for me, I had a strange job recently reproducing a 200 year old chair that pushed me to play with some new techniques that seem to have surmounted those issues.

I will spell out the basic process here, and then give the blow by blow in the next post or two. I also hope to make a video soon. There have simply been to many folks in the shop lately for me to attempt a video, which would give far too much teasing fodder to my so called friends.

The key to the process is to mix the paint thin and use a very thin coat of shellac to seal between the different colors, and at the end of the process before varnishing.

Ugly Stain and Shellac Seal Coat

 First, I seal the chair by brushing on thinned shellac (one cup of shellac flakes to 3 cups alcohol). The shellac mix should be so thin that you suspect it of just being alcohol. I put some stain in the shellac to stain the chair and let me see where the application is going. Later, I use clean blonde shellac.

Then I paint the chair with red paint twice. The mix is 1 part paint to 2.5 parts water. I gently rub the chair with mirlon pads to remove any rough areas. I also sand any scraped areas to eliminate the raised grain between the first and the second coats. I have found that the shellac seals the first paint coat from raising the grain excessively, bonus. In between each coat of paint, I use the mirlon to rub off any caked up areas of paint, which makes getting a smooth result later easier.

Red Milk Paint

Then I shellac over the red paint. You could use the stained shellac or the blonde here. The next step can and should be applied while the shellac is still soft.

Shellac Coat

Then I paint the chair black, with a similar ratio of paint as the red. You'll notice that paint is a bit slippery on the surface and doesn't melt into the red. The second coat of black should be applied once the first is dried for at least 3 hours.

First Thin Coat of Black Paint

Once the black is dry, I burnish the chair with the mirlon again until it is somewhat smooth.

Mirka Mirlon Pads

It will be tough to get it shiny like the other brand, but that is what the next step is for.

Once the final coat of black paint is burnished, paint one more coat of shellac and then burnish it to even it out.

Burnished Shellac

Finally, apply your favorite oil or varnish. If I want a quick build up, just one coat of Minwax antique oil can do the job.



I know that it sounds like a lot of steps, but it really isn't because the shellac goes on thin and fast. The benefits of control, consistency and ease make this a great finish. And if you like a more matte finish, just skip the last shellac and go straight to the oil.
I did the finish you see here in less than 24 hours and I've done samples this way and run them under the tap after a few hours to see the water bead off.

There is still lots of experimenting to do with the other colors and layering possibilities, but for my most popular black on red finish, I'm sold.