hard wearing finish for small pieces?

[suckerbobcat]

I have made some attempts in recent times to realise a whole heap of designs I have come up with for some jewellery pieces, such as this one. So far I have only tried dipping in polyurethane (a number of coats) to finish, but as you can see this messes with the detail a bit. Any suggestions? Would a two part epoxy type finish work better? (something like glass coat?? i think it's called)

Cheers

[Andy Mac]

Welcome Suckerbobcat. That's a nice piece of carving there mate! Please fill us in on some details...timber, method of forming etc.
As to your finishing problem, did you shake the excess off after dipping? Did you sand the surface slightly before the next coat. I haven't had any experience with two pack resin finishes, they may work, but maybe less coats so a thinner result. How about oil and a good buffing.? I reckon a thinner finish coat on such a small & delicate item, so it doesn't appear gluggy, especially in corner details.
Good luck, and hope someone else can point you in the right direction.

[suckerbobcat]

Thanks Andy, the piece above is she-oak, mostly I use blackheart sass (the colour works well on small pieces) and various species of eucalypt. My designs are inspired from a range of ancient symbology and the natrural world, cut on a scroll saw and finished by hand with a couple of chisels and knives, it's kindof like the carving equivalent of watchmaking :) I hang them on knotted waxed linen threads (much better than leather strap, or that fo-leather stuff).

As for finishing, after reading the posts on thinning/mixing polyu I think I may experiment with that a bit. It's a bit of a balancing act, the pieces have to be really well sealed (to deal with body oils and sweat etc), but the finish thin enough not to wreck the detail.

[dai sensei]

Love your work. They would make ideal gifts.

Glass coat would probably be Ok. I assume the back of your pieces are flat and you could resand any left-over drip type areas on the back with wet & dry after it is fully set (allow at least 2 weeks I would suggest). Assuming you leave the pieces face up whilst it sets.

Some wipe-on poly may also work as you rub it in with a cloth thus could avoid problems at joints, but not sure how it would react with sweat etc, although it does set hard.

I'm no expert, just giving some thoughts.

Cheers

[JB]

Beautiful work. For a hand rubbed finish Danish Oil would give you pretty good protection; it's a mixture of llinseed oil and ployurethane. It also has a good natural look and feel. It sounds like high protection is a strong prority for you though, in which case you might want to consider lacquer (pre-catalysed) applied with a spray gun. A small touch up gun (sold at arts supplies shops) would do for small pieces, but you would also need a small compressor. Lacquer would be more than tough enough for your purposes—pure polyurethane is overkill—and it comes in matt, satin and gloss. Satin (60% gloss) gives a similar finish to Danish Oil if not applied to thick. Spraying gives you a much more even and blemish free finish than brushing/dippping.

[BobL]

Skin and sweat are actually quite chemically aggressive so even a two pack Polyurethane is not an unreasonable approach for something that will spend some time sitting on skin and/or being handled. I would still consider coating by multiple dipping in a two pack poly but in a very much thinned down solution so that runs off easily. We have coated small complex pieces of metal for use in a very chemically aggressive research chem lab using this method (up to 7 coats) and it has worked well especially in maintaining necessary detail. We hung the pieces from very fine copper wire which we just pulled off afterwards.

The nuisance is you have to accurately mix small amounts of the two pack every time you want to dip. Being in a lab evironment we used small (5 mL) disposable plastic syringes and a balance to perform the mixtures bit I'm sure there are other ways of doing this.

Cheers

[Don Nethercott]

Hi Suckerbobcat,
If you use Polyurethane the best it will look is when it is first painted - after that it is all downhill, and one day the poly will have to be sanded off and redone..

Much of the old furniture from Britain and China was polished with linseed or Tung based oils. The arms of old chairs done with these oils are still highly polished as this part of the furniture has had a steady stream of body oils rubbed into it (from peoples arms) over the centuries and this has only improved the timber and its polish.

Wooden ornaments worn around the neck will attract a lot of body oil and this will only improve the look of the item if originally oiled with a linseed or tung based oil. The user only has to rub and polish with a soft cloth occasionally and this will remove any dirt and skin, and polish at the same time.

The items you have made are beautiful - keep it up.

Regards
Don

[durwood]

I'm with BobL, try some poly and make it nice and thin.
Proper dipping paints are designed to drain off and not leave any dags behind If you do several coats and let each one dry you can build up a good coverage which will work well. If needed a light sand will help between coats.

The good thing about 2 pack poly finishes they are extremely hard and scratch resistant and you should be able to wash and scrub them if you need to. Only draw back is you will have to mix each coat up as you goas bob said.
Some small disposable containers would be the way to go. If you do a few examples at a time you can progress the number of coats. Put the first coat on the last one you make and the second coat on the one before and the third on the one that already has two coats that way you can use one batch to do several items.

[suckerbobcat]

Thanks all for your advice, you've given me some new approaches try. I would like to keep the finish as natural as possible (I don't like gloss on my wood, or chrome on my steel....) so maybe the idea of some sort of oil and maintenance (polishing) would produce a better result than an all out "plasticy" looking sealant. Perhap this wouldn't work so well on the more delicate pieces.... down to some trial and error i think.

Will post the results, when i get time to produce them :)

Anthony

[schaf]

Hi: nice pieces. nice cords. How did weave that lumpy bit following the piece? Also how do you wax it pls? I just hand spun some cotton..looks creamy and yummy..thought it looked like a necklace. Would look good on these pieces too but thicker then your linen. Do you just plait the linen thread, then lay it in hot beeswax? Bye - Schaf's wife.

[suckerbobcat]

Hi Schaf's wife, the weave on my pieces is a simple square knot:

http://jewelrymaking.allinfoabout.com/features/squareknot.html

This is pretty much all you need coz it's easy to get different effects by swapping inner cords with outer, and skipping every second or third knot etc. I bought the cord as waxed linen from a bead shop (i think "the bead shop" on smith st, melbourne, but there are now a few online bead suppliers who would probably have it), I didn't wax it myself.

If you worked out how to wax your own cord I'd be interested in seeing the results

Ant