Finished But Not Finished

 

After catching up on the garden and a mountain of paperwork that it takes to run the life of a family and someone who volunteers perhaps more often than he should, I set my sights back on the dresser project. For the last month and some change, it has been residing in our front hallway. I put it there so that it could live in a temperature and humidity controlled environment while I was away, especially after all the effort I put into flattening the dresser slab top.

With the flattening done, the hard work was done but the time consuming part began, repairing all the defects and sanding. Repairing the defects is relatively straight forward. I used picks and such to remove dirt, debris and bark from the internal cracks at areas where limbs had been at some point in the walnut tree's life. Once they were cleaned out, I applied tape to one side of the board and then after flipping, poured black epoxy into the defects on the other side of the board. The tapes purpose is to prevent the epoxy from flowing through the board and onto the workbench should any of the cracks go completely through the board. Ask me how I know!

Although I use a quick setting epoxy, it still takes nearly a full day for it to cure. Once cured, I use a hand plane to flatten it down to the top surface again. Epoxy is much harder than wood and if one attempts to sand it, you will generally sand down into the wood around the epoxy before you get the epoxy down to the surface level. Then when you run your hands across the surface, you will feel slight waviness which isn't desired.

So by flattening is first with a hand plane and then sanding, you get a smooth even repair. Of course, rarely do I ever completely repair it on the first attempt. Sometimes, the epoxy settles down into the crack after I leave leaving a divot in which more epoxy must be poured. Then there are just other divots and defects that I miss the first time (or two or three) around and have to mix up more epoxy to fix them, costing me another day of waiting for it to fully cure. Then I flip the top over and do the bottom side, mostly because I'm still not sure which side I want to be the top showing surface yet.

Eventually I get all the defects repaired to my satisfaction and begin the sanding process of sanding the entire thing with progressively finer grit sandpaper. This takes way longer than I always think. I round over the edges so they aren't perfectly sharp which besides just feeling nicer, prevents the wood from splintering in the future when something rubs against it. When it is just perfect to my fingertips all over, I spray water over it causing the grain to pop up in places and feel rough again. This step is done so should water get on it in the future, the grain should resist popping up again and feeling all rough. Once the board has dried and the grain is all popped, I sand it one last time to smooth it down to a glassy smooth feel.

Then I can at last apply the finish which I use a hard wax oil. The oil penetrates into the wood causing a good bond and the wax cures into a hard protective finish. Above and below are closeup of some of the defect areas I repaired with only one coat of finish. I'll likely put three coats on the side that I deem the top because it looks the most pleasing to my eye and leave the other side with just one coat. Once all those coats have cured (it takes a full day between coats to fully cure), I'll apply a hard coat using another product over the entire surface for further protection and to bump up the sheen just a bit. Once everything is fully finished and cured, I will carry it inside while I complete the rest of the dresser and until I can permanently attach it to the base. I am quite pleased with how the top looks and I know I made the right decision in my choice of material.