I have a piece in progress at the moment that has some copper embellishments, as well as a copper tone dye treatment. Ms. Keeton and I both liked the color, and while working with the finishing process of that piece (longer than hoped!), I wanted to do another turning as well as use the same color. My inspirations come in spurts, and I have several sketches for turnings, including this little vase form.
This is a piece of very dry silver maple, with some spalting, a little Ambrosia, and more than a couple powder post beetle tracks! A perfect wood for a piece with a little rustic flavor. Some of you may recall a pitcher I did a little over a year ago from a beautiful piece of box elder burl gifted me by Curt Fuller. It had a hammered copper handle, and I thought something similar might work on this piece.
A little under 7" tall and about 4" in diameter, with copper dye - equal parts of Transtint red, yellow and medium brown. This is my first piece using the General Woodturners Finish. As kind of a critique, I will offer the following.
As for viscosity, it is THIN! While this piece of wood would have been like a sponge for any finish, the first coat soaked in so quick you could nearly hear the sucking sound.It remained cool and damp feeling for about 20 minutes and raised the grain a bit. I added another coat that remained wet for about 10 minutes or so. I then buffed the piece by hand with 0000. Another couple of coats were applied - each drying within 5 minutes. I would add our humidity has been in the 20-30% range for the last couple of days and I expect that shortened the drying time significantly. After about 15-20 minutes from the 4th coat, I buffed again with 0000 and liked the look.
This morning, it showed some dull areas as if the finish had soaked in more. I added three more coats, each drying within 5 minutes. I like to level my finishes by sanding with 1200, and usually do that with MS. However, not being sure of the effect on this finish, I sanded dry. With WOP, shellac or lacquer, dry sanding usually results in loaded sandpaper pretty quickly. Pleasantly, all I got was dry powder coming off the finish.
A short session with the 1200 paper, buffed lightly with 0000 and machine buffed with Tripoli resulted in a very level finish with a satin sheen. I feel certain that a more aggressive buffing with Tripoli, followed by White Diamond and wax would produce a nice gloss. I wanted the satin sheen for this one, but I do intend on trying the high gloss finish on the next turning. All in all, I like the finish and look forward to using it on other works. Whether it becomes a favorite will depend on whether I can get a nice, watery gloss from it. Certainly for a satin look, it is a sweet finish!
As always, I cherish your comments - good or bad. The years have calloused me and I handle abuse pretty well!
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Originally Posted by Jim Burr
