[blindwoodworker] Early wood vs Late wood
- From: "JDM" <sunnyday001@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:55:51 +1100
Hi all,
I hope everybody has had a wonderful Christmas new Year break. Here, it is
summer and everyday is around 40 Celsius, that's er um...about 104 Fahrenheit.
I simply cannot imagine the intense cold and freezing conditions that you have
in North America. For me here, any temperature below 68ºF, I'm putting on the
long Johns and three or more woolen pullovers. I went up into our Mountains
here once, and experienced some snow, about an inch deep, and I have never felt
more miserable, depressed and unhappy. hahahaha, so, never ever again...give
me a sunny beach, rolling surf and a blazing sun every time.
Over the Christmas period I've been doing a little delving into the science of
tree growth and its consequent lumber. I viewed/listened to several videos by
the Canadian woodworker named Hendrik Vardu from the Web site, "Passion for
Wood."
I now understand the structure of the wood grain in Douglas
Fir which I previously talked about with reference to urushi or Japanning.
Actually, the same structures occur in all lumber, but in Douglas fir it is
particularly noticeable.
I spoke about a grain pattern of soft, pulpy, light coloured wood, separated
by much harder dark coloured grain lines. In my childhood, I learned that
every grain line represents a year of tree growth. but apparently, that's not
exactly true.
Apparently, as the Winter thaws out, and the warmth and rains of spring
arrive, a tree puts on a very rapid growth spurt. During this very rapid growth
spurt, the tree develops a new outer layer of the soft pulpy wood. Then as
Summer comes on, and the air temperature heat increases and the rains stop, the
tree develops another new outer layer of wood which is much more dense, harder
and darker.
So, to count a trees age, you do not count every apparent sequential growth
ring, but every second light coloured pulpy ring, or every second dark coloured
hard growth ring. The light coloured pulpy wood is called "early wood, "and
the dark coloured hard growth rings are known as "late wood." My apologies and
sorry if all of this is old news to you, but for me, it's new and exciting.
In speaking with many woodworking friends here, and talking about my idea of
Urushi or japanning a Douglas fir stool, to make a lined pattern of dark late
wood and black Urushi filled early wood hollows, it has been suggested that I,
1: wet the wood to raise the grain,
2: scrape out the "early pulpy wood" with a wire brush, by following and
scraping along the grain line,
3: applying a pore filling wood sealer to the scraped surface,
4: applying a black Japan or Urushi stain to the now, non-porous, surface,
5: applying urushi or Japan lacquer across the grain to fill the "early wood"
hollows,
6: continue applying Urushi/Japan coats, until the scraped out "early wood"
hollows or valleys are more or less filled and flush with the high "late wood"
peaks,
7: then sanding the surface in line with the grain until the peaks of the
"late wood" are re-exposed, and are flush with the filled "early wood" filled
hollows,
8: then apply many coats of clear lacquer to the surface, leaving a pattern of
dark black "early wood" hollows, which contrast with a myriad of much lighter
mid brown "late wood" grain lines.
So far, it is all just an idea and I've not made any further progress on the
project. I've spent my summer holidays experimenting with the use of Tung Oil
on a Pine DVD Cabinet I recently built. Natural Tung Oil smells wonderful, but
it takes days and days to dry, even in this hot dry heat, so I've been messing
around with the addition of hardeners and dryers to the natural product. It
has worked out wonderfully, and the texture of the pine surface has turned out
to be hard as rock and as slippery smooth as an Ice skating rink!
Cheers,
John
Melbourne, Australia.
From: John Sherrer
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 4:35 PM
To : blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blindwoodworker] Re: Urushi/Japanning technique
Let us know how it works out.
I have been in the Southwest North Carolina mountains for Christmas. I have no
internet service there. We came back to Winston Salem, and our house felt like
a coffin, we found that turning up the heat did no good. In fact, we are still
waiting for repair parts for our furnish. We had bought a load of fire wood a
month ago and we are quickly using it up.
Canada is currently dumping a load of very cold air on up.
I hope all went well with all of you.
John
http://WhiteCane.org
http://BlindWoodWorker.com
http://HolyTeaClub.comcom\whitecane
http://anellos.ws
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