finishing bark

[avengers63]

I picked up a big piece of burl today that my wife immediately wanted to become a mantle clock. She wants all the bark to stay on it. How does one go about putting a finish on it?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Depends on the type of bark.

If the bark is fairly secure, I just brush it down with a toothbrush to remove any foreign/loose matter and then apply the finish as per usual.

If the bark is flaky/loose I'll often flood it with CA first, in the hope the bark will hold it's act together.

On very rare occasions I've also finished very rough or stringy bark, where it'd cost a small fortune to glue it with CA. For those pieces I thinned down the finish to about the consistency of water, dipped the piece into straight thinners and shook to remove any excess - taking care to remove drops built up in recesses - and then dipped the whole piece in the watered down finish. Let it dry, then redipped until the coat was more or less how I wanted. (Usually less, but them's the breaks.)

The reason for the first dip in thinners was to reduce the chance of air-bubbles being trapped in cavities.

Oh... I also lightly sanded the non-bark sections between dips, of course.

[Tonyz]

Thats good idea but Iam having a seniors moment............whats CA

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Sorry, Tonto.

CA = CyanoAcrylate glue. In other words, Superglue. For this sort of work I simply buy the packs of seven wee tubes for $2 down at the local Two Dollar Shop.

[rotten_66]

Tonto,

Thanks for asking, CA had me stumped as well.

I am in a similar position have a large slab of "Himalayan Cedar" with bark on both sides that I want to keep on as well, as a feature.