Finishing Huon pine

[Charles Castle]

I'm planning to do a chip carving to go in an album of photos for a presentation gift. The carving will be 6 mm Huon pine. The timber needs sealing of some kind. The sealant needs to not affect the photos over very long time. I thought shellac might be best. Does anyone else have any comments or ideas?

[ozwinner]

I would use some of Ubeauts blond shellac, easy to apply and wont darken the Huon.


Al

[ClintO]

pardon my ignorance (I wish I had a dollar for every time I said that) but what is a chip carving
Clint

[ozwinner]

http://home.earthlink.net/~chippings/id1.html

[Charles Castle]

Ozwinner, many thanks. I will go and get some blond shellac.
Clint,
Chip carving as strictly interpreted means a carving done with a knife where small triangular chips are cut out of the work, and this is done repeatedly. The other type of chip carving which I want to do involves using a knife and making one cut, then another so you remove one piece of wood. This of course is a chip, although of variable size. Some of that type of chip carving is spectacular.
Charles Castle

[sandman]

Also check out oil made up in Byron Bay. I use it on Huon as it does not "yellow" the timber.
It's Organiol- Hard burnishing oil.
Gives a great finish & nice aroma.
Regards Sandman.

[ubeaut]

G'day Charles - The Dewaxed White Shellac is definitely the go for chip carving in Huon, it can be gone over after with some Traditional Wax if you like. If you apply the wax, use a clean soft, light coloured, natural bristle, boot or nail brush. Don't use one with black bristles. You could also use a soft tooth brush. Remove the wax with another clean brush or soft clean rag. Pay particular attention not to let any of the wax build up in the points of the cuts. That is the idea behind using a brush rather than cloth.

Sandman - Organoil's Hard Burnishing oil is fine for surfaces that can be burnished (polished by rubbing hard till extremely smooth and shiny) but it is just about impossible to burnish a chip carved surface and would leave a real mess. Most other oils in chip carving will do similar and are prone to attracting dirt and dust with handling, especially on hound pine.

Hope this is of some help Charles. Good to see you are still keeping up with the carving.

Cheers - Neil