Best finish for Tassie Oak?

Alrighty then... All finished and here it is. The wife is very happy and I will be moving on to the entertainment unit now!

The WOP and EEE produced the exact finish I was after so very happy and will use this with the other lounge room pieces too. Thanks again to all those who helped with advice here.

Interesting little point, both pics obviously the same table, same camera, but I took the 'yellow' looking pic at night using the flash. The other pic represents the actual colour of the table but was taken on a sunny day without a flash. Just shows how difficult it can be to judge a finish by a picture.

Cheers
Dez

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elphingirl

Hi Dez

I finished this coffee table with Organoil Hard Burnishing Oil. It was easy to work with, smells good, and so far the finish has been resistant to marks.
Cheers
http://home.exetel.com.au/elphingirl/coffee_table.jpg

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Elphing i just come across this thread and this is an amazing looking coffee table:D Please show and tell more:D :D :D

Great stuff Dez, go to it m'man.

Regards,

Rob

I know you are finished now and it looks great, but I found your first choice closest to what I have used.

I used Feast Watson Floorseal on a blue gum coffee table I built from scratch and on a silky oak dining table I restored.

That's all I used and the finish on both is great. I wanted a more matt finish on the coffee table so only sanded to 800, but wanted a high gloss on the dining table to sanded to 1200.

By sanded I went through 100, 120, 150, 180, 240, 360 with ordinary type sandpaper, then brushed on the FW floorseal and sanded with 400 w&d. When dry used 600 w&d dipped in FWF and sanded. Repeated every couple of days with 800 & 1200 with silky oak.

The finish (on the coffee table) is standing up to tea cups and spilt food and my feet when I get lazy.

The magic ingredient is Tung oil. Chinese furniture thousands of years old has been found in good condition oiled with tung oil. I think english furniture done with linseed is in similar good condition. Oils from the human body actually enhance the finish on timber finished with linseed or tung.

Old furniture originally finished with Shellac has been found to have little or no shellac left on it, it has been slowly removed by the maids while polishing, and the finish they now have is the polish they used.

The trouble with poly finishes it that it looks best on the day it was done, then slowly deteriorates. It is also difficult to repair, whereas with oils a damaged area can "easily" be sanded and reoiled.

Don

Thanks Lignum!
The tables (four pieces) were constructed from laminated Tas Oak from Matthews timber in Melbourne. I think the original dimensions were something like 290 x 30. The stuff weighs a tonne, and after loading up the car with 15lm I got a flat tire and had to unload it again (on the street), get the tire out and load it up all over again.

The table is designed so that while the finish heights are different (pretty much because I didn't think I could get all four the same), the bottom of the rails are all the same. Some of the pieces were very hard to clamp, and ended up with 16 clamps on them. I was lucky enough to do this as part of a course, and had a proper workshop to build in.

We've been using them for a couple of years now, and they are wearing well; very hard (for Tas Oak), and the oil finish surprisingly resistant to marks. Because I used biscuit mitre joins though and only a sandpaper arris (a factor of time available) I've had some very small breaks on the mitre edges.

Cheers
Elphingirl

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elphingirl

The stuff weighs a tonne, and after loading up the car with 15lm I got a flat tire and had to unload it again (on the street), get the tire out and load it up all over again.

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Thats funny:D Well not at the time i bet;) . It would be nice to put this coffee table set-up over in the pics section and maybe show us some other pics of it seperated a bit. It realy dose look fantastic. What other goodies are you hiding from us;) :) More pics:D And what was the course? Box Hill, RMIT maybe, do tell

There are a lot more than 3 species that are marketed under the name Tassie Oak and the colour ranges are huge. More variations are possible depending on what grade you buy, from "select" down to "utility". The more interesting stuff is often rejected as they can't seem to cope with too much figure, burl etc. If you can, go down to the sawmill and ask them for the rejects. Try out some samples of what ever finish you are thinking about on some off cuts - it's better to spring for the cost of a small tin than bugger up the whole project. Also try to keep them in whatever place in the house you will have the finished product, e.g. if it is under or by a window, near a heater etc.