• Congratulations to Phil Hamel winner of the April 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Steve Bonny for "A Book Holds What Time Lets Go" being selected as Turning of the Week for 28 April, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Finishing maple burl

JeffWimer

JeffWimer

Joined
Dec 19, 2013
Messages
9
Likes
33
Location
Albany, OR
i am trying to create a smooth lacquer finish on a couple of maple burl projects. The unfinished surface has been sanded down to 320 grit. For the life of me I cannot get a completely smooth finish. Because of the mismatched grain I have tried a coat of Shellac and even a coat sanding sealer on another piece to even things out, neither worked. Any help would be appreciated
 
Just guessing here, (a picture would nearly eliminate all of us guessing) you didn't sand well enough with the courser grits and there is minor tear out that wasn't sanded off, could be some punkiness that is soaking up the finish, you just didn't put enough sanding sealer or shellac on. Hardly ever would one coat of shellac or lacquer completely seal off grain switching directions. 4-5 coats would likely do a much better job, before adding that many coats of lacquer.
 
Richard is spot on a pic would really help.I have had good results with maple burl using multiple coats of polymerized Tung oil and then using the Beall buffing system after the finish has cured. I also always blow the eyes of the burls out with some compressed air as I'm wiping the applied finish.
 
This was the bowl I am talking about. I am seeing areas now where I could of sanded better. But there are areas where the grain direction was a problem.

58F74002-5265-46B2-9331-370D3DB4461B.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Like the color you got on this . That is not just sanding problems. There was a lot of tear out before sanding started. A final shear scrape with a gouge might have helped. In some cases the scrape causes tear out and for these a very fine scrape with negative rake scraper or final cut with freshly sharpened gouge will save you a tremendous amount of sanding.

Also that kind of sanding (tear out) should be completed in the first two grits. To test you can wet surface with mineral spirits.
 
In addition to what Gerald said, it appears that your tool is very dull which leads to applying a lot of pressure to force the tool to cut which leads to a lot of tear out. You can't fix a poor surface with with any kind of varnish, shellac, or lacquer. A glossy finish will rat you out without mercy and highlight even the slightest surface imperfection. So the surface needs to be absolutely perfect before the finish is applied.

When sanding start with a grit that is coarse enough to remove any imperfections that your gouges and scrapers can't fix. After that, sanding with finer grits will only remove sanding scratches left by the previous grit. For a high gloss finish I typically sand to 400 grit and sometimes 600 or higher. For the best results, don't skip grits.

With a sharp tool and a light touch the grain direction in figured maple shouldn't present a problem unless the wood is punky.
 
Yep, had nothing to do with the grain. Are you using carbide scrapers? I started using 5" random orbit sanders on the exterior of hollow forms and bowls a long time ago. Even if the shear cuts were perfect, starting with finer grits on the random orbit still has it's benefit. Buy a 5" Bosch random orbit sander and start over with the sanding. You'll have to get pretty aggressive at the start, but it beats trying to re-turn that piece. Finish up with 220 and you are good to dye and then clear coat again.
 
Some of that looks like the texture that appears in burl areas when the wood isn't completely dry before completing the turning. Christian Burchard has been very successful with this texture on his Madrone burl pieces. I also agree with others above that part of it looks like tear-out.

You have an expert woodturner source nearby in Eugene -- contact Reed Gray (aka Robo Hippy) for face to face advice. He's a top notch turning teacher and very willing to share his knowledge. A member search will turn up his contact info.
 
You've probably gotten enough comments about the sanding prep and probably have a good idea about what to do next time. Not sure you can do anything about it now as you have already dyed the piece. As for finishing this piece you need to develop some surface thickness on your lacquer to fill those surface variations. Surface variations are cause either by the rough surface from turning or natural things going on in the burl. If you are using a spray lacquer system it will likely take quite a few coats to develop sufficient surface thickness in which to either rub or buff out. Make sure that you are giving enough time in between coats for the lacquer to fully cure, otherwise you will run into rubbing/buffing problems later. I brush lacquer on all my gloss pieces as it has better build, but that will limit you to only a few types of lacquer finishes. Not sure what you are putting on, but brushing does give better build. Its just a slower process. You can adjust whatever sheen you have at the end to avoid it looking too plasticy. Here are some results on my gloss pieces https://vanduynwoodwork.com/body-of-work/ so thats what you can end up with. Also I do 1-2 coats of danish oil as a seal coat then all lacquer after that. You said you sealed it with shellac so you should be good there.
 
good advice....ur not happy with the piece...asking for help is hard...but will move u up the learning curve
 
Really soft or punky BLM burl can be a pain.... Both of which can cause tear out. I do mentor, and am on the club list for both the Beaver State Woodturners, and the Willamette Valley Woodturners up in Salem.

robo hippy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top