Shellac flakes, Gold leaf, Staining Cherry

Keenan, Arno, Jim MacNeil, Jim Hiltz, Rick, Paul, John

Leo set up an old Craftex lathe that Miles had sent over and started to explain to the new members the principals of lathe work.

Arno wants to have Leo take them through the bowl process starting from scratch--ie the raw wood blank from the tree.

Paul worked on the Gold leaf vase. Jim Macneil helped out with that.

Jim Hiltz brought in a finished bowl, ready for staining and finishing.

Leo discussed finishing Cherry.
It is very hard to stain as the end grain absorbs too much stain. Best approach is;

Finish sand to 800-1000 or higher
Spray on Shellac.  Shellac is food safe. It is a biological product gathered from a certain tree species. Insects produce the shellac.
Let that dry
Wipe on the stain . Mix the stain first with household ammonia. This makes the stain adhere; otherwise it would not .

Then let that dry and repeat the cycle a few times. This results in even staining. The more coats the darker the cherry will become.

Shellac is best made using flakes; blond or super blond best. (Available from Wood Essence-Canada)
Use one measure of flakes to 4 measures of Methanol.

Keep flakes in a dry place as they absorb moisture and get spoiled .

We discussed having a separate meeting with the new members over the Holidays to discuss plans for the upcoming workshops.

NOTE

Leo discussed Shellac. He is studying modifications on the use of the age old finish.
Shellac comes from the secretions of insects;

Lac is the scarlet resinous secretion of a number of species of lac insects, of which the most commonly cultivated species is Kerria lacca.

Cultivation begins when a farmer gets a stick (broodlac) that contains eggs ready to hatch and ties it to the tree to be infested.^[1] Thousands of lac insects colonize the branches of the host trees and secrete the resinous pigment. The coated branches of the host trees are cut and harvested as sticklac.

The harvested sticklac is crushed and sieved to remove impurities. The sieved material is then repeatedly washed to remove insect parts and other soluble material. The resulting product is known as seedlac. The prefix seed refers to its pellet shape. Seedlac which still contains 3-5% impurities is processed into shellac by heat treatment or solvent extraction.

The leading producer of Lac is Jharkhand, followed by the Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra states of India. Lac production is also found in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, parts of China, and Mexico.

Shellac flakes can be dissolved in Methyl alcohol

They come in various colors: Orange, white, blond, and ultra blond: 

(Available at Wood Essence in Ontario) The flakes will deteriorate unless humidity is low.

Orange is the hardest to use as it colors up the grain too much

Use a ratio of:   1Flakes : 4 Methyl alcohol

This solution should be stable for a good while

This dilution is OK for spraying  use a low pressure or it will gum up on the surface of your wood.

Jig for getting into the bowl to turn

Note the plate on lathe bed, the wood rest on which the metal arm sits

The L-shaped rest is sturdy  3/8 to 1/2 inch metal plate

Craftex Lathe ..beginners instructions

Make a small shelf:

Straight: Flat: Square workshop
This project uses tapered dovetails to make a small wall shelf.
No hardware and no nails or screws or glue

ROUTER SKILL- Make a tapered-sliding-dovetail THE EASY WAY! www.youtube.com CLICK BELOW FOR LINKS STUMPY NUBS WOODWORKING JOURNAL http://www.stumpynubs.com YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBE https://www.youtube.com/user/StumpyNubsWorkshop Amazon affiliate ...

Keenan, J Hiltz, J Maclean, Rick, John, Shawn, Arno, Paul, Miles

Leo started by demonstrating how a plane blade cuts wood, emphasizing the angle of attack of the blade. In turning the inside of bowls, raising the tool rest can alter this angle so as to make it easier to remove material.

When one sands off the bowl, more wood comes off the end grain than from the side grain as the bowl turns. Hence the wood turns oval as sanding progresses. Using "stones" to grind down the wood ( inside and out) works well to minimize this problem. A broken piece from an angle grinding wheel works well. The cutter can be scored on a grinding wheel and broken into pieces.

Using various grit  and shaped sharpening stones works well.

Leo demonstrated how to apply gold leaf on Paul's vase. Size is applied, let dry until just a little sticky to touch and then apply the leaf. Use wax paper to pick up the leaf..makes handling it easier.  Squish it into the grooves  with a dry brush.. 2500 sand paper wet with paint solvent is used to sand off the leaf from the overlap and edges.

Photos Below: specialized toolset to get inside the bowl: various stone cutters for truing the bowl  A Piece of a grinder disk



an assortment of stonesHome made holders for the grinder wheel pieces
Trueing with stone

Trueing with finer stone

A box of small stones, various grits

Supplies needed:

 Gesso, made from the following ingredients:

 Yellow ochre pigment: Whiting (sifted limestone)

(Not much yellow is needed)

 Fish glue

 Good brushes

 Gold leaf

 Transfer paper for real gold leaf

 Eraser (rubber)

 Paper towel

Paint the vase: brush it on well: spend a long time at this and do several coats

Sand between coats using paint thinner on the sand paper: start at 320

Spray on lacquer

Cut out the grooves again to expose the wood

Brush on concrete bond: let dry

Brush on the yellow pigment:whiting , mixing it with bond: this gives a very hard surface

Sand out the groove and recoat

Then brush on fish glue (or sizing)

Let it dry

The gold leaf is brushed lightly with water and laid in the groove.

The water melts the fish glue!

Apply the goldleaf gingerly and press it down using a rubber

Let it dry

Can do a second layer

Then burnish with agate

Rick MacDonald, Jim Hiltz, Paul Murphy, Miles MacDonald, Keenan Whalen, John O'Brien, Arno Raymakers, Shawn Raymakers

Shawn Raymakers was welcomed as a new member. Shawn is a carpenter who has done work in old home restorations.

Work continued on the cherry bowls.
Leo says that random orbit sanders are no good to power sand on the lathe. Start with #36 and progress up to 60, 80 etc. Cherry is especially hard to sand on the lathe.
Try to use a non-oscillating sander. The inside of the bowl has to be sanded with sanding jigs to be able to get under the lip of the bowl. Leo has special ones made of foam rubber, placing the sand paper on the opposite side from usual to accomplish the job.

Rick spend the night trying to core out a large bowl using the Oneway coring jig.

Leo spent some time on grinding and sharpening with the new members.

Paul suggested that a workshop on making sanding jigs and implements might be useful

Several people attended tonight in addition to Paul, Rick, Jim Hiltz.

Keenan Whalen is a carpenter who is interested in learning some new woodwork skills.
John O'Brien is interested in learning more about finishing.
Arno Raymakers is a woodwork teacher in the local schools.

The newcomers observed the process tonight to get an idea of how this club functions.

Rick went to work on his large bowl turning project on the Bowl lathe
Jim, Rick, and Paul had completed  the preliminary turning of the Cherry bowls that we discussed at the opening session this fall.

Paul had a vase that he had started some time ago and is interested in trying to complete the Gold Leafing of the inlays. The bottoms of the inlays were rough-not sanded properly. Leo suggested that to make it presentable, make the mistake more obvious by using a texturing tool to indent the surface of the inlays in a random series of punches so that it looks deliberate.
(See photos)

Paul will use "Size" to coat the inlays, wait  until it is almost dry and then lay on the inlay.
"Size" is traditionally made using a mix of fish glue, bole and ochre
Cerium Oxide and shellac is another way to make it.

Leo's vase-copper inlay with texturing

Paul's vase-preparing to Gold Leaf

Ricks large bowl turning

Paul managed to turn the inside of the cherry bowl a fair amount. It needs some adaptation of other tool rests and turning tools to get the rest of the wood out.

Cerium(IV) oxide, also known as ceric oxide, ceric dioxide, ceria, cerium oxide or cerium dioxide, is an oxide of the rare-earth metal cerium. It is a pale yellow-white powder with the chemical formula CeO₂. Wikipedia

Molar mass: 172.115 g/mol

Density: 7.22 g/cm³

Formula: CeO₂

Crystal structure: cubic (fluorite)

Solubility in water: insoluble

Magnetic susceptibility (χ): +26.0·10⁻⁶ cm³/mol

Annual dues will be collected next session

Rick, Paul, Jim Hiltz

We started the fall sessions this evening.
 Leo was in good trim  and went over a technique he has developed for gold leafing surfaces;

Mix Cerium Oxide powder or paste with shellac.
Cerium oxide is an abrasive used to polish glass.
Spread this on the surface of your well sanded project and let dry.
Sand this down well and even burnish it with agate

Spread a small layer of methyl hydrate on the surface
Carefully lay on the leaf (papered product) and the gold will be sucked on to the surface and you life away the paper easily (See attached movie)
Once dry it can be burnished
This is good for imitation or real gold leaf

He has a vase project under way and showed how he used masking tape to cover edges so the the gold leaf goes on cleanly.

We then cut blanks from a 4 inch thick x 8 3/4 wide cheery stick
We will make contoured bowls from these with an ornate lid(see photos)

Two..perhaps three or four.. new people are interested in attending the sessions.

Attendance: Rick Jim Hiltz, Jim Maclean, Paul, Miles, Robert


Work continued on the mold project.

Paul  and Jimmy Maclean had a mold blank ready. The Gelatin did shrink as Leo predicted.

A compound of Medussa cement and fine stone was mixed with a few dollops of Concrete bond and then small amounts of water added to produce a thick product.  It is important to add small amounts of water gradually as too much water will spoil the mixture. This was poured into the mold and let set. The settling can be aided by using a sander under the mold box, tapping the box down on a solid base and then screeding the surface to get it smooth: the same process as when making a concrete slab.

Tip: the slower that concrete cures ( i.e. the slower that the water evaporates) the harder the finished product. Leo instructed us to wrap the pieces in plastic to slow the curing.

Leo says that , in place of Gelatin, one can use silicone to make the mold-the same silicone one uses for bathtub sealing. It hardens well and does not shrink.

Use Isopropanol as a parting agent. Coat the materials with this to ease separation of the pieces.
This is Rubbing alcohol : C3H8O is the chemical formula (Can also be written as : (CH3)2 CHOH)
http://www.ivyroses.com/Chemistry/Organic/Naming-Alcohols.php

Powdered brass, copper, aluminum can be used for the mold instead of concrete. Epoxy works as well.

Leo produced several examples of small items of art  that were done from these powdered metals.

We agreed to meet Friday evening at the Art exhibit at UCB.

Above: Box, atnifreeze/water, Gelatin, Mixture poured into the box

Attendance: Rick , Jim Hiltz, Miles, Jim MacLean Paul

We started work on the mold and casting project.
Small boxes were made to accommodate the piece to be duplicated.
Leo explained that the boxes are made a little larger than the piece and a bottom is nailed on.

(Secure the bottom well: Paul's leaked the Gelatin , which made a mess!)

Shellac is applied to seal the wood.

The Gelatin is made by mixing:

Antifreeze (Ethylene glycol) 1:1 with water and heated in a pan of water. An equal volume of Gelatin is stirred in.
When the mixture is warm, it is poured into the box containing the work piece and let cool

A parting agent is needed- i.e. some sort of material to prevent the object from sticking to the gelatine.
We used wax-brushed on the wooden box before adding the Gelatin

Once the Gel sets the piece can be removed and then the agent you use poured into the gelatine mold
One can use plaster, cement, powdered bronze, epoxy mixed with brass or aluminum.

If it is not used quickly, this mold will shrink as water evaporates.

Rick, Miles, Jim MacLean, Jim Hiltz, Paul, Robert

The members brought in the Wood burl pieces for the CBU exhibit.
They will be displayed for the next month at the Gallery

Leo discussed the art of mold making and we agreed to start a project to make an open mold.
He went over the basic principals involved and demonstrated some to the media to be used: rubber, gelatine, cement

We will each bring in a shape and start the process next workshop