Blotchy European Beech

[Ross Lambert]

Hi all

I have just made a hall table out of European Beech. It was sanded to 360 then a wipe on poly applied. Everything worked out sweet except the top that has the appearance of being blotchy. I have re sanded and tried scraping as well but nothing seems to remove it. I have heard that it is a feature of beech that twists in the grain cause endgrain to come through at times. Is this correct? The appearance of the blotching certainly changes depending on where you stand. The middle photo shows almost none. Under the magnifying glass everything looks fine except the colour change. Any thoughts would be good. The photos show the top from different angles but it is hard to capture the blotching with a camera.

Thanks for reading

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[ubeaut]

Under a magnifying glass or similar does it all look to have the same finish and feel the same?

If so it would appear that what you may think of as blotchy could actually be the grain of the timber refracting the rays of light back out of the timber and giving the appearance of blotchiness. This blotchy area should appear to have a deeper shimmery glow when viewed from different positions under different light.

If this is the case there is nothing that you can do to change it as it is inherant in the grain of the timber and in many instances is sought after.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers - Neil

[Mr Brush]

I have had problems with euro beech sometimes absorbing finish differently in patches, resulting in a 'blotchy' appearance. For this reason I usually pre-treat the timber with FW Proofseal before applying wipe-on poly.

However, that doesn't look to be the case in the pictures you have posted, and the finish appears to have a uniform sheen. As our fearless leader says, its more likely down to the grain of the timber. Think yourself lucky - most euro beech I can get my hands on has a uniform and uninteresting grain, and I have to go looking at Trend Timbers to find some more interesting pieces to liven things up !

[Ross Lambert]

Thanks for the replies. I think you are right about the grain feature causing it. My friend who I made the table for loved it so it's all worked out well. Thanks again.