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Rocking Chair- Part 21 |
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The chair is up on the bench for its final sanding. This is a multi-part process. Since everything has been touched at times with sticky fingers it gets an all-over sanding with 180 grit Abralon on my Festool ROS and by hand where the ROS can't reach. This is followed by 360 grit Abralon in the same manner.
I have found that when using oil as a finish - as opposed to a film finish like French polish, I can get away quite happily with using a ROS as the final form of finishing - I do not need to sand by hand with the grain. And with my Festool, I also find that the finish with a given grit is finer than sanding by hand with the grain, using the same grit. Consequently, where I cannot reach with the ROS I use an 800 grit paper. (I have 1000 grit Abralon on order but not here at the time I was doing this). |
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Here it is after the first coat of Liberon Finishing Oil. There is a surprising amount to cover and I keep finding bits I have not oiled - I will get to these the second time around for I am planning three coats followed by a waxing.
I like the colour. The sapwood I worried about at the beginning has been drawn nicely into the chair by a good decision I made up front which was to use the sapwood for the back legs, using the more highly coloured and figured wood for the back braces, arms and seat in that order. The headrest is inevitably a "bitza", consisting as it does of six separate pieces of wood but these too help bring the back legs into the picture quite nicely.
I am nearly done now - only a little more finishing and then handover to the customer! |
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I just love this tiger strip in the arms as you can see here running at right angles to the grain. It is echoed by a fainter tiger stripe in the back legs and back braces but that is only seen in certain lights (you can just see it in the back braces here)
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