[blindwoodworker] Early wood vs Late wood

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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