[blindwoodworker] Urushi/Japanning technique
- From: "JDM" <sunnyday001@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:47:57 +1100
Hi John,
Yes, your description below is exactly what I want to achieve. The finished
surface hopefully will visually show a grain pattern of millions of black and
off-white brownish lines. But it will be visual, not tactile as the finished
surface will be quite smooth and flat to the touch.
John milburn
Australia.
----- Original Message -----
From: John Sherrer
To: blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 9:43 AM
Subject: [blindwoodworker] Re: Urushi/Japanning: a technique or product, or
all of the above.
John
You have gotten me interested in what I think you are wanting to do.
I will rehash what I think you said so that we are on the same page.
You want to remove the softer wood between the grain lines, causing the grain
lines to be higher.
Then you want to fill the low areas with Japan laquer.
You will then rub the finish down showing only the higher grain and the dark
laquer between the grain lines.
John
http://WhiteCane.org
http://BlindWoodWorker.com
http://HolyTeaClub.comcom\whitecane
http://anellos.ws
----- Original Message -----
From: JDM
To: blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 11:46 PM
Subject: [blindwoodworker] Urushi/Japanning: a technique or product, or all
of the above.
G'day Larry,
thanks for your very helpful feedback on surface preparation , application
and finishing of Urushi/Japan. thanks also for clarifying my misunderstanding
between Pumice stone and rotten stone. The difference between the 2 forms of
rock, and the differences in their use is intriguing.
Intriguing also is the question, whether or not Japanning refers to a
product, or to a technique. Further, if it is a product, as well as a
technique, then what that product is made from. It presently seems from my
information hunting, and Larry's informative history on Japanning, that Japan
or urushi is both a product and a complex finishing technique. It additionally
seems that urushi is a very specific product made from tree sap, while the term
Japan applies to a wide variety of products of varnish, lacquer, Shellac and
modern synthetics.
I don't know, but the whole area of japanning may also be further confused
by the different terminology or words used to describe the same thing between
the USA and UK/Australia. In Charles Dickens novel, "Oliver Twist", written in
1837, there's a reference to Japanning. In illustrating the criminal slang of
street gangs of his day, Dickens has one of his characters, the "Artful Dodger"
tell the captive Oliver Twist, to, "Japan my trotters." In the street criminal
slang of the day this means, "blacken and polish my shoes!".
A paint manufacturer here in Australia markets a product they call Black
Japan Varnish, and since my first Email on this subject, I've been able to buy
myself a can of it. All I need now, is to find somebody to read the usage
instructions on the label. The manufacturers Website is:
http://www.feastwatson.com.au/WoodstainsBlackJapan.asp
Hmmm, but from reading what I can on this speech unfriendly Website, it
seems the job is even more complex than what I originally anticipated.
Hope this has been of interest.
John milburn
Australia.
----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Martin
To: blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 10:16 AM
Subject: [blindwoodworker] Re: Japan lacquering....anybody?
John -- I think your plan should work. I have the following comments. In
step 2 I don't think you will be able to remove much of the softer wood between
the harder grain lines, but you need to do the step in order to remove the
raised grain from Step 1. Pumice is different than Rottenstone. Pumice is
crystalline quartz silica and rottenstone is aluminum silicate. For fine
finishing to a glossy finish, Pumice is a rougher grit than Rottenstone. Pumice
is used first, rubbed out and then rottenstone is used and then rubbed out. If
you want to fill the pores, you can use any of the grain fillers and you can
tint the grain filler any color you want.
For Step 3, I don't know of a product called Japan Lacquer nor do I see
anyone offering a product of Japan Lacquer. I know the term primarily as
describing a Japanese multi-step method of applying lacquer and rubbing it out
to produce an extremely smooth, deep finish. For Step 3 for the purpose of
coloring the grain, I think any of the stains should work, particularly the gel
stain in the color you want, or the darker wood filler you might use in Step 2.
Step 4 will be your next step in leveling the surface. You will probably
have to repeat Step 2 or Step 3 in combination with Step 4 any number of times
to get as smooth of a surface as you are after. In each repetition of the step,
you will be sanding off the high points of the grain lines very gradually
bringing that surface down to the level of the lower surface between the grain
lines. The more you have filled the grain or the pores the sooner the two
surfaces will be in the same plane.
Step 5 will give you another opportunity to rub out the high points to
get them back to the same plane as the lower surface.
It's a lot of work, but certainly sounds as if you'[re up to it. Good
luck.
On Dec 17, 2009, at 11:03 PM, JDM wrote:
G'day all,
I've just finished making a small footstool. It's made entirely from
some leftover Douglas fir, or as we call it here in Oz, Oregon. The wood is
deeply grained, and I'm wanting that grain to show in the finished stool.
I remember as a kid seeing a wonderful piece of furniture that had been
Japanned. The black Japan lacquer had filled the hollows of the grain, while
the high ridges of the growth rings had been lightly sanded to make them stand
out and show through the black hollows. It produced a most impressive and
beautiful result.
But search as I might, I can't find any directions on how to do this
technique.
My present plan to replicate my childhood memory is:
1: Thoroughly wet the surface of the Douglas fir to make the grain
stand up really high,
2: Rub along the grain with powdered Pumice stone (also sometimes
called Rotten stone, and try to make the hollows even deeper by permanently
removing the paler softer wood that lies between the darker, harder and higher
annual growth rings,
3: apply the Japan lacquer sideways across the grain, so as to fill the
hollows, and mostly wipe off the Japan lacquer from the top of the high spots,
4: Then begin using a fine sandpaper, say 320-400, and rubbing along
the grain, in order to leave the hollows filled with the black, hardened Japan
lacquer, while the tops of the high standing grain are rubbed back to bare
wood,
5: finally, applying a clear high gloss polyurethane coating over the
entire surface to weatherproof and protect both the black lacquer in the now
filled hollows, and also the high ridges that were brought back to bare wood in
step 4.
Hopefully, by the time I've finished, the surface of the stool should
finish up, more or less completely flat with no tactile grain detectable to the
fingertip. That is,, the high ridge lines and the previously low hollows would
be flush with each other. But, the beauty and complexity of the original grain
pattern would show in sharp contrast as black and pale whitish-brown lines and
thus be startlingly visible. Well, to my friends and family anyway!
What do others here think of this approach? Maybe there's something I'm
missing, or perhaps a better way? Does anybody here have any experience with
japanning?
John Milburn
Melbourne, Australia.
Larry Martin
woodworkingfortheblind@xxxxxxxxxxx
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