Finishing Fir mantle

[peterrum]

Good day all. Looking for a little bit of advice on how to finish this Fir mantle. My neighbour just built a new attachment onto his house and in the process had to knock down a couple of smaller diameter Douglas Fir trees. He asked me if i could mill it for him so that he could use it as a mantle for his fireplace. So i milled it for him and debarked itlast spring, it has been air drying and they recently installed it in the house. You can see from the picture that the mantle has both sap wood and heart wood. We have some offcuts from the mantle to practice some finishing techniques prior to applying it to the final product. My neighbout tried a couple of Watco stains on the wood and it is very blotchy of the sap wood. So as a starting point I believe that the wood has to be first coated with some shellac. I watched the podcast on Coloring Blotchy Woods so this is where i got the idea for the shellac. This log is very thirsty so i might have to put a couple of coats of shellac on it, is this right or should one coat be sufficient. After that we want to apply some stain, preferably a water based stain only because of the smell as the mantle is now installed in the house. If i apply a layer of stain over the shellac and the color is too light can i keep applying additional layers of stain until it darkens to the color my neighbout wants. Right now the mantle has been hand sanded to about 100 grit but i believe that it should go to at least 220. I'm not sure what kind of top coat to use on this so any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks from the Tree Whisperer.....LOL

[Pete Bennett]

You may be lucky with one coat of shellac but as you have offcuts that's the place to start. Choose a piece that matches the mantel as closely as possible and experiment. Don't rush and you'll be fine. If you coat it too many times you may find you are actually colouring the finish rather than staining the wood itself. The most important thing to remember with any finishing is it is always much, much easier to go to a darker tone than to attempt to come back to a lighter one. As regards actual finish it is one of many choices. If your friend enjoys a drink and placing his glass on the mantel you may like to consider something like 'Rustins Plastic coating' or similar. It's a two part catalyst, absolutely clear finish that will withstand almost anything once it's cured. You can cut it back to a matt finish or you can obtain a satin type of finish with the supplied finishing compound, or, if you really want you can burnish it to an almost impossible brilliance. Failing this any good quality Polyurethane should be OK.

Pete

[Vic]

I'd try BLO or tung oil. Then a few layers of dewaxed shellac. All repairable without completely restripping.

[peterrum]

Thanks for the replies so far, my friend is coming over tomorrow night and we are going to practice with different stains and procedures. The offcut I have from the original sized mantle is about 2 ft. long. I just finished sanding it to 150 and i am going to divide it into thirds, one section will have a single layer of shellac, one section will have two layers of shellac and the last section will be clean in order to try Vics suggestion. WS, i think that Rustins Plastic coating has its place but probably not for this project, it won't need that level of protection as the mantle will be used more as a shelf than a place to put a Rum and coke.

Cheers

[AceHoleInOne]

I would sand to 180 to 220, the higher you sand the more it help against blotching. The wash coat of shellac, how many coats thing...as you know, well that's what your test pieces are for :) but my feeling here, probably 2 coats of thin shellac.

Just curious ...most half log mantles I have seen typically are top-coated with an amber tone lacquer , that "Natural" look. How dark are you thinking of going?????

-Ace-

[peterrum]

We did our testing of the various colored stains the other night. By far the best test area was staining on top of two coats of shellac. Both those coats of shellac were put on straight out of the can, not thinned. The stain on top of a single coat of shellac still showed significant blotching. I agree that the mantle will probably have to be hand sanded to 220 grit prior to any finishing being applied and I mentioned this to my friend. On one of the test areas I applied some straight linseed oil and I liked the colour, almost identical in colour to two coats of clear shellac. My friend wants to try and match the color of the mantle to his dark hardwood flooring. Its his mantle so his choice, actually its his wifes preference and we all know how that works.

Cheers

[AceHoleInOne]

Cool...

Just a thought, go easy on the shellac, sometimes if applied to thick, you may not be able to take your stain as dark as you would like (seals off the wood to much). If that's the case, scuff the shellac with 320 paper, to give the shellac some teeth and those stain pigments will hold on better.

Very cool project, good luck.

-Ace-