rough sawn huon pine

Hello All,
First post here as i am a complete novice at this stuff but its a fascinating learning curve indeed! my question is that i have a rough sawn piece of Huon pine as a hat rack and i want to finish it properly, there is enough info around this forum for sanding and finishing options but my question is what is the best option for the bark? do i hit it lightly with a wire buff then oil it or carefully varnish it ? Any help/info/suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Cheers Lars

Welcome Lars.

If it still has the bark attached you'll probably find nothing will keep it there, it will just naturally peel off.

Posting a pic of the piece might help.

Hello and welcome to the forum. Huon pine can be very temperamental due to it's high oil content. Do not use a lacquer/varnish on it that is turps based or it is likely the finish wont set and stay sticky. The turps based scandinavian/danish oils are usually ok as you wipe the excess oil off after 10-15 minutes. If you have a spray gun some of the single pack thinner based finishes work well but ultimately they are a plastic finish.
That is not answering your question at all :) but might help saving much frustration.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

Hello and welcome to the forum. Huon pine can be very temperamental due to it's high oil content. Do not use a lacquer/varnish on it that is turps based or it is likely the finish wont set and stay sticky. The turps based scandinavian/danish oils are usually ok as you wipe the excess oil off after 10-15 minutes. If you have a spray gun some of the single pack thinner based finishes work well but ultimately they are a plastic finish.
That is not answering your question at all :) but might help saving much frustration.

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I have to disagree with part of this advice. I use a lot of Huon pine and find that an oily piece will not allow single pack thinners based or turps based finishes to dry. It can be very frustrating. The best solution I have found is an oil based finish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TassieRob

I have to disagree with part of this advice. I use a lot of Huon pine and find that an oily piece will not allow single pack thinners based or turps based finishes to dry. It can be very frustrating. The best solution I have found is an oil based finish.

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I did say "Do not use a lacquer/varnish on it that is turps based".
Wattyl Stylewood is a single pack thinners based product I am yet to have a failure with for one, mirrortone is another that seems to work.
I agree that very oily bits of huon are damn near impossible to to finish with anything except water.
Have even had certain bits that have spat back out danish oil and refused to let it work. It is a fussy finisher.

Here are a couple of photos of the piece in question.

Attachment 507706Attachment 507707

I'd use danish oil on that.

as i mentioned that outer bark layer will just naturally drop off, unless you're going to dunk the whole thing in epoxy to hold it together just wire/nylon brush it off now and save the heart ache later.

could possibly even burn/char it if you want the contrast look