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

Big Bowls !

Rick, Him Hiltz, Miles, Chris, Paul

Some People brought in large blanks for turning.

Leo discussed the various paints: House paint vs Artists Craft paint vs Airbrush paints.
The differences is in the size of the pigment granules which matter as to whether the lines get blocked up in the spray gun.

If you paint using the whiting/bond/paint approach, be sure to start the sanding with coarse grain paper or the result  is a finish that is uneven

Leo demonstrated a simple jig for drilling  a log on the drill press: see photos. The jig is usable as a small stool as well!

Leo demonstrated how to use a jig on the lathe to drill angled holes at even distributions (indexed)

Rick mounted his large bowl using the spider chuck but it was too big for the machining jig-he has to start it using  hand power and a big gouge

Leos'Ammonia finished bowls

Jig to find leg height

Drill press jig-Blank is screwed on from top

Angle drilling using lathe and indexer

Ricks Bowl

Drilling on lathe

Wonders of Shellac

Attendance: Paul, Miles, Chris, Him Hiltz, Jim MacNeil, Rick macDonald

Everyone had a piece of wood and we practiced various methods of staining.

Various approaches can be used to get a good result:


Sanding the wood  to a fine finish is important regardless of methods used.

Coat with clear dewaxed shellac
Let dry: then begin to build layers of stain
Add a WATER based vinyl stain (Clear varnish) :  use a good brush
wait several minutes
wipe off gingerly and let dry
Coat this layer with an OIL based stain, wait a few minutes and wipe off and let dry
Repeat with the WATER based stain until the color is right

(The reason for alternating is because  adding  water based stain over a water based stained layer just results in dissolving the first layer: same for the oil based layer so alternating the Oil and Water based stains gives the best result)

Finally dry overnight and coat with clear shellac by spray gun using a low pressure

Alternatively:

Coat wood with Bond or the Vinyl first
Let dry
Coat with water-based stain;- wipe off after a few  minuted and let dry
Coat with Oil based stain;  wait a few minuted and wipe off- let dry
Re-coat with the water base stain until you get the right color

Finally spray on clear shellac after an overnight dry

Leo put  a piece of wood  immersed in water for 5 days that he had shellaced and the finish remains hard and dry!

For wood with voids:

Coat with Clear shellac
Use a shellac -cabosil mix brushed on to fill in the voids
Proceed to stain as above

Hint:  Adding a little Ammonia to a water stain  makes the stain eat into the wood better when the wood is pre-treated with the vinyl  or shellac layer: Otherwise the stain does not penetrate and will wipe off completely

Leo gave all hands a bottle of  Ammonia
Paul gave all hands a supply of Acupuncture needles.
We might find a use for them in the New year projects

Attendance: Jim Hiltz, Paul, Miles, Wilson, Trevor Pushie (New Member)

Leo mentioned a new invention: Use an electric toothbrush, cut the bristles off and glue on  a sandpaper to make a small rotatory tool

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 : 3 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.

One can make fillers by using a mixture of Cabosil, sanding dust of various colors and the shellac mix.

Store these in jars.

They will harden up in time and you have to add some methyl alcohol to soften it again.

Leo suggested spraying on black paint for the vase project

If brushing it on, brush lots until it is almost dry to avoid streaks. Lift the brush towards the end so that it just touches the surface.

Once done, a water based lacquer or clear acrylic can be used to do the final finish

Staining Cherry: this is hard to accomplish as the stain is taken up too deeply especially in the end grain

Solution: Use a mixture of Tannic acid ( a powder) and ammonia to coat the wood before adding the stain.

We decided to make some chuck jaws for holding large bowls as a next project.

Beech 5/8 thickness is the best wood to use (Hard maple alternatively)

We also decided to start to turn some of the acacia bowl blanks

Make a small bowl for the next sessions and we will practice with the shellac and stain and finish.

Leo's-  Cherry/Maple-Shellac finish

                                     Jim's plane