Little project for a friend
Hi,
This is something I've been spending some time on for a mate back in Europe. My partner rescued a clock from a charity shop; it was pretty beaten up but under the mess actually a beautiful burl that is far more valuable than the $20 she paid for it. Excuse the phone quality pictures; I'll get a proper one done when it's completed:
This is it as we received it, sans movement and hour markings (you can see the scratches where they once were). It was finished in Poly from the looks of things.
This is the backside of the clock. When I was using an orbital sander on the from I nearly snapped it in half as there's a natural gap in the wood. To remedy this I began filling the crack with PVA glue. This took AGES to do as I had to build it up in layers. Once applied I let it dry and repeated the process. I'm actually quite proud of this part of the job, it was like stitching a cut up. It's much stronger now. The black lines where was I was going to stick some wood to give it strength (as the original person had done) but it's no longer necessary thanks to the glue.
This shot is of me applying Tung oil. Prior to this I'd sanded the wood from 60 grit all the way up to 1500. In between coats of Tung oil I'd smooth it with 0000 grade steel wool. This really bought the natural beauty of the grain out - to think I was considering staining it! Glad I didn't go there.
This is it with around 4 coats of beeswax polish worked into it. Since then I've done another 3-4 coats and it's not getting any shinier so I think this phase is complete now. All that's left is to get a Quartz movement and some suitable hands. I'm thinking of some plain white ones, I don't want anything to take away from the beauty of the wood or over do it. BTW I've since carefully picked out the bees wax that built up in the cracks using a dentists plaque scraper. Final picture to come.
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Nice work. Well done.