Esteemed Galoots,

I welcome your ideas on how to treat a wooden work surface to repair beetle
damage.

The backstory . . . 

When I started out I built my bench huge, not just for the weight, but because I
have 4 sons and 3 daughters and was hopeful that they’d join in. That bench was
originally 37”. I’m 5’10” and it made me miserable for planing (carpal tunnel,
neck strain, and a tendency to make the near-side of any given board about 3/64”
thinner than the far).

I cut it down to 35” which was well enough for a while. But an odd thing
happened, when I discovered wooden planes. Every time I use one, my bench grows
about 3”. But I don’t want to cut it lower because it shrinks back to the right
height when I get out a chisel, or a dovetail saw, or my carving tools.

Last weekend I decided to build a dedicated planing bench that stands at the
“classic” wrist height while standing arms loose. I have some enormous oak
slabs, with annual rings literally 1/4” apart, that will someday become bench
tops. But they’re only a year old and still not stable.

So I decided to do a quick job laminating up some 100 year old SYP flooring that
I got from a salvor. I’m quite pleased with the top, which after all the
trimming is about 4” thick, square to 3 sides (don’t crawl under it and judge
the underside) and extremely heavy for its size. It would probably be 15%
heavier if the powder post beetles hadn’t gotten to the stock about 80 years
ago.

Since I treated all the wood with mineral spirits before starting, and since
it’s laminated, I’m not too worried. Even if the spirits left some survivors,
they’ll hit glue which will contain the damage. Just like the bulkheads on the
Titanic. (!)

But the work surface itself has some crawly-holes. I’m of the “laying it on its
side is worse than letting the blade touch the bench” school. I could just call
it patina and not worry about it . . . but I suspect the beetle tracks become
grit-sinks over time. Most of the time my planes don’t sit on the bench, but on
a carpet scrap stapled to a piece of fiberboard and soaked with oil. But I’m
reluctant to use the Titebond-and-sawdust trick because the glue itself and the
grit it attracts are not what I want the irons sitting on.

Hence the question . . . anyone have ideas for a plane-friendly surface
treatment to fill in beetle tracks?

Maybe mineral oil or paraffin….

Mark.

On 2016-08-24 9:54 PM, Mark Pfeifer wrote:
> Hence the question . . . anyone have ideas for a plane-friendly surface
treatment to fill in beetle tracks?
How about POF* epoxy?

Don
* plane old-fashioned

-- 
Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. ~ Winston
Churchill

shellac stick melted in with a soldering iron,  blend in the colour (color,
Paddy)  with Van Dyke solution,  shellac coats to seal the entire top and
beautify it.

R

Is this what you speak of, and what carrier is used to make the solution, or do
you purchase the paste in a tube?  The process you describe is not familiar to
me.

Van Dyke brown, also known as Cassel earth and Cologne earth, is a brown earth
containing iron and manganese oxides and lignites, which are organic substances
from peat or coal. It was first used in European painting in the 17th century
and is still in use today.

Thanks,
John

"P.S. If you do not receive this, of course it must have been miscarried;
therefore I beg you to write and let me know." - Sir Boyle Roche, M.P.

On Aug 25, 2016, at 6:15 AM, "yorkshireman@y...<mailto:yorkshireman@y...">mailto:yorkshireman@y...>"
mailto:yorkshireman@y...">mailto:yorkshireman@y...>> wrote:

shellac stick melted in with a soldering iron,  blend in the colour (color,
Paddy)  with Van Dyke solution,  shellac coats to seal the entire top and
beautify it.

On Thursday, August 25, 2016, John M Johnston (jmjhnstn) <
jmjhnstn@m...> wrote:

> Is this what you speak of, and what carrier is used to make the solution,
> or do you purchase the paste in a tube?  The process you describe is not
> familiar to me.
>
> Van Dyke brown, also known as Cassel earth and Cologne earth, is a brown
> earth containing iron and manganese oxides and lignites, which are organic
> substances from peat or coal. It was first used in European painting in the
> 17th century and is still in use today.
>
>
>
I think he is talking about these

 http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=20071&cat=1,190,42997,42999

Which come in colors, so you may not need the Van Dykes to color match.

Kirk, in the humidity belt


-- 
Sent from my iPad, apologies for the Auto Correct errors.
Kirk

Nowhere did i see how you managed to kill the beetles.  If t not; they 
are probably still there.  Treat with Borax and water.   You could use 
ethylene glycol too but Borax does a fine job

Mark Pfeifer wrote:
" . . . anyone have ideas for a plane-friendly surface treatment to fill in
beetle tracks?"

Sawdust and glue, BLO, or shellac.  Mix up as a putty. Or stuff the hole with
dry sawdust and drip the liquid on. Might have to repeat a couple of times, it
may shrink down into the hole as it dries. Level when dry with a sharp chisel.
Tom ConroyBerkeley

Excellent advice Tom.  One step further, Luthiers take scraps of the various
woods they use and make sawdust and store it in envelopes.  Knowing that the
color always darkens when adding the various liquids, they pick a lighter
colored sawdust that will match the work piece.  A rasp or course file gets you
there in a hurry.  Also a fine line magic marker (.05 mm or less) in the right
color can make convincing grain pattern across a small defect.

Ed Minch

Ah, no

Van Dyke in my lexicon is a preparation of dried concentrated walnut extract
which is made up with water and applied with a brush.  It’s particularly useful
in old work, as it can be washed onto almost anything, and can be made more or
less concentrated to colour (color new work, or you can recoat.  It also comes
mostly off with water, and being a water base, can be overcoated with a thin
shellac layer to even out the underlying colour of finishes.  When applied on
top of an initial thin coat of pale shellac it can be splashed around until
you’re happy, and removed if necessary to restart.

In the present case, where the work had been planed down beforehand, I suggested
some colour as a way of bringing the overall appearance to a a homogenous
colour, and making any filled worm holes and exposed tunnels less prominent.
Mark’s view of what he wants is probably different though.

Anyway - Van Dyke crystals 
http://www.wood-finishes-direct.com/product/vandyke-crystals 

eco friendly. pleasantly old fashioned, and very adaptable. 


Enjoy!

R

Hmmmmmm

Having seen some pix on the intersphere I may just have to give Van Dyke a try .
. . . . I like that it’s “gradable” but having seen some projects that were
“ebonized” with Mann’s VD crystals, I may just go for that look. Not trying to
pull of an ebony workbench of course, but making it look like the ones at Old
Town Salem’s workbench museum, i.e. 200+ years of oxidation, sweat, and work,
where the whole bench looks like an old wooden plane black with mutton tallow .
. . . .

Yep

>> making it look like the ones at Old Town Salem’s workbench museum, i.e. 200+
years of oxidation, sweat, and work,

That’s *exactly*   what I’m aiming for on my bench top.  After being dinged a
bit,  I may plane flat (takes off the colour) and I wash over a thin layer, it
gathers nicely in the dings to add age, and I can blend the new looking wood
into the old,  a spit coat of shellac to seal it all together and no one knows
it  was made yesterday.   I used some on a brand new, softwood pole lathe I made
a few years back, and discovered that a light drizzle before it was dry brought
out a speckled appearance, but repeated outdoors exposure just toned it all
together.

Ebonising and VanDyke will never work.  No way to get a walnut shell extract to
black.  and there seems to be a limit to how deep a colour (color) you can get,
at least on side grain.


R

Here is a technique used on guitar repair parts to age them to match original
parts

http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Trade_Secrets/Mamie_Minch_on_guitar_oxida
tion_instant_aging.html">http://www.stewmac.com/How-
To/Trade_Secrets/Mamie_Minch_on_guitar_oxidation_instant_aging.html

Ed Minch