Seeking Advice

I have a piece of Tasmanian myrtle burl that i am making into a coffee table and require a lot of help/advice/ideas on finishing it. I am leaving the edges as is (see attached shots) . I was thinking of filling the holes with epoxy and also running it down the side to stabilize the bark. Also thinking of adding a little bit of black stain to the epoxy when I fill the holes. If i go this way what would be the best way to finish the rest of the top, epoxy all over, poly or some other way ? Any advice/ideas other than putting it onto transport and sending it to someone (because I want it :D ) will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Pal

Hi Pal,

You are asking an artistic question and officially, I have no taste, but I like the black epoxy idea. Some of the pen guys use brass or gold powder rather than black, FWIW. I use ZPoxy on instruments and it seems quite good, much clearer the Araldite. I have sucessfully used Hard Shellac over the epoxy. I have also seen a coating epoxy at Carba-Tec but know nothing about it.

There you go, not one transport comment,

Sebastiaan

As Sebastian says it"s pretty much a matter of artistic taste. Do you want a very high gloss finish, even a wet look? Do you prefer flat or satin?
My personal taste for that would be something that gives a soft lustrous look.
I made a a natural edge coffee table from a couple of slabs of King Billy Pine Burl and finished it with Wattyle Satin and Scadanavian oil. Lovely finish but after about 9 years I need to do it again because the timber, despite being well seasoned, is still oozing some sap in places. If I was set up for photography I woul post a picture.
Is it worth filling the holes? why notuse them as some sort of feature?
They could be hollowed out and used as Recepticles for what ever -peanuts come to mind.:D
BTW nice slab>:2tsup::2tsup:

Hi sebastiaan , thanks for the info on Epoxy I was thinking along the lines of some type of clear epoxy filler rather than araldite, perhaps like the epoxy they use for fiberglass,

Artme I have to admit I would prefer the soft lustrous look, not quite sure how to get that all over if I fill the holes , will give your idea not to fill the holes but use them for receptacles some thought, have to admit never would have thought of that
Thanks to both of you for your input it is very much appreciated

Pal

Fill the holes with clear casting resin and embed interesting stuff in them like redback or some gold painted stones, ring pulls from a can, almost anything you can think of. Makes for a great talking point and something a bit different.

I have one I with a couple of lifelike platypuses I carved and embedded in the resin. Have put all sorts of stuff in burl boles over the years.

Cheers - Neil :)

Hi Neil , now we are getting somewhere, redbacks that will keep the grandkids feet off the table :wink:. The casting resin would it allow the finish to be a soft lusterous look?
Thanks to everybody for the ideas and the input they are really appreciated.

Regards
Pal

Just a thought,

Don't fill the holes, finish the timber to whatever you are satisfied with (matt, semi gloss, wet look) then get a glazier to cut you a piece of 10mm glass and place it over the top.

This will do a number of things.

1) Protect the finish for many years from scratches and scrapes,
2) Provide you an opportunity to have a regular shaped table, with an irregular shaped substrate, and,
3) It will be a beautiful piece of furniature as opposed to a novelty piece of furniture.

The depth in the Burl will still be visable, and the piece you have worked so long and hard on will be appreciated by more people over a longer period of time.

Just my 2 cents.

What a great bunch of suggestions from eveyone :brava:hpydans::coolio: -

including mine.:D:D:harhar:

I have to agree with Artme 100% every ones idears/suggestions are great I think I have given myself a bigger headache than I started with all I have to do is decide to fill the holes, enlarge the holes to use as inbuilt dishes, fill the holes and embed an object in the filler or leave the holes and cover the top with a piece of 10 mm glass. OH christ my head hurts like hell.

Big Bird , it could have been 1 cents worth and still appreciated greatly as all ideas are wanted and appreciated, except sending it to some one.

I did the same think to a big slab of myrtle a number of years ago.

I used a clear epoxy to fill in some large holes. The trick is to mask off the bottom of the holes so that the filling doesn't flow through. I did this with a lot of clear packing tape, but the trouble is that it sags over a large hole so it leaves some scraping to smooth it off. A better approach would be to temporarily glue a thin piece of MDF or ply onto the bottom of the hole and it should finish smoother (be sure and cover the MDF with some packing tape or such or else the epoxy will bond to it).

Also, do not use a power sander on the epoxy - I found out the hard way that the epoxy dust quickly burns out the motor. Use a hand scraper followed by hand sanding.

I then finished the piece with normal wood finishing product since I didn't want to epoxy the entire top - I think that detracts from the natural look of the wood.

Hi starr, Thanks for the info did you have bark around the edges, if so did you stabilise that with epoxy , Did you use a matt or satin finish over the epoxy ?

Regards

Pal

Pal - The casting resin dries rock hard and as clear and shiny as glass. You really wouldn't want to knock it back to a satin or it would have been a waste of time using it. You can however get a look on the table as though it is satin or even almost mat when viewed from above. Yet when you view it from a distance or from sitting in your lounge chair, it will reflect everything in the room in the top.

Not hard to do and in all honesty looks a great deal better, cleaner, brighter and classier than a plain satin or oiled finish. Not only would it look fantastic but it would have an absolutely amazing, almost sensual , silky soft, feel to the finish.

Cheers - Neil Ahhhh... :Smoker:

PS that's one really ugly lookin' set of legs you've got on the table :rotfl:

Hi Neil, what's wrong with the legs? compaired with the rest of my work they are a work of art . If you ever need legs of any type let me know will be only to happy to knock them up for you :pop:. Ok so you don't like them, thought I had got away with them, she who must be obayed didn't like them either, guess i will have to think about doing something about them too. Hell more headaches.:stress:

Thanks for the additional info on the casting resin greatly appreciated

Regards

Pal

Once again...probably butting in where not wanted, but if it were me I would use a stainless steel or chrome leg just to give a contrast in materials.

Machine extruded metal legs against a totally naturally formed top I think would make for an interesting piece.

Once again...just my 2 cents worth.

And like i said before Big Bird even 1 cents worth of input is greatly appreciated. The more ideas that come my way the better it is.

Pal

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ubeaut

Fill the holes with clear casting resin and embed interesting stuff in them like redback or some gold painted stones, ring pulls from a can, almost anything you can think of. Makes for a great talking point and something a bit different.

I have one I with a couple of lifelike platypuses I carved and embedded in the resin. Have put all sorts of stuff in burl boles over the years.

Cheers - Neil :)

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Ive got a large redgum slab coffee table, made it before I knew anything and found this site. However we lost some good friends as they still dont beleive the frogs imbedded in the resin holes arent real but from a discony shop.:D

I ran into a couple selling these at a local jamboree. They were beautiful and I asked what they used as a finish. They sprayed on catalized laquer. Looked fantastic and coated the bark too.

Hi cisco, Thanks for the info on catalized lacquer will check it out.

Regards

Pal

Quote From Neil

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You can however get a look on the table as though it is satin or even almost mat when viewed from above. Yet when you view it from a distance or from sitting in your lounge chair, it will reflect everything in the room in the top.

Not hard to do and in all honesty looks a great deal better, cleaner, brighter and classier than a plain satin or oiled finish. Not only would it look fantastic but it would have an absolutely amazing, almost sensual , silky soft, feel to the finish.

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How is this done?
Tim