Restoring old Redwood- resin removal and live edge help

[Nick Ahrold]

I have come across an old redwood bar that I have since taken apart and begun to work on. The biggest piece is the piece I am most excited about as well as the squared looking piece. I am going to list the problems I have with the pieces and then the questions I have.
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Problems

The pieces have this terrible resin on them that is hard to remove. I destroyed the back of this piece and am planning on using the opposite side which is just as good. However I want to remove all this junk to have a nice finish.
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On this bigger piece, I have a really cool live edge that I am planning on utilizing, but I need advice on getting rid of the rot and cleaning it up 345062
On the smaller square piece I have a cool live edge and am interested in making prestiene.
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QUESTIONS

How do I remove the resin
How to I preserve my life edges
How should I progress through sanding
A lot of the pieces have a natural curve on the surface, should I make them all perfectly level surfaces? or keep the natural curve.
Please trow any ideas you have at me. I need advice and tips to help make this project killer.



Below is the stack of wood from the leftover bar. Ideas are welcome.......
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[Paul Girouard]

Resin as in a finish sone one applied?

Find a wide belt sander to run the thing thru and grind it off?

On the rot , pressure wash it off , or have it soda blasted ?

For the sake of wood , I'm thinking you meant "stack" , Live edge shelving ? Clock faces , re-saw to get a couple out of each , trivets / hot plates, again resaw to get max use of stock?

[Paul Girouard]

A sawmill / band saw could re-saw a slice off each side to get rid of the resin / finish. Or a slab flattening jig to use a router to flatten get rid of the resin / finish . See FWW for the slab flattening jig if you don't know what that is.

[Nick Ahrold]

Paul,
The belt sander wont get the details on the side of the piece.
I should pressure wash, but any other methods?

I want to keep these pieces as big as possible. Maybe a desk, and a coffee table. iron hairpin legs...

I just need to figure out how to get the most potential out of these edges without having to jigsaw them off.

Thanks,

[Paul Girouard]

Paul,
The belt sander wont get the details on the side of the piece.
I should pressure wash, but any other methods?

I want to keep these pieces as big as possible. Maybe a desk, and a coffee table. iron hairpin legs...

I just need to figure out how to get the most potential out of these edges without having to jigsaw them off.

Thanks,


Is the resin finish ? I think if you break the seal off the faces , the live edge "finish , or resin" may break down a LOT easier if you can get lacquer thinners or even MEK , Acetone or the like to soak into the now degraded finish.

So IF you can sand the top and bottom , you can then attack the "resin" that's on the live edge is my thinking.

[Nick Ahrold]

NEED HELP WITH THESE LIVE EDGES
how do I go about sanding and finishing. I have no idea where to begin.,..
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[Nick Ahrold]

The "resin" (its more like a flakey plastic at this point) isnt the huge issue.
I am more interested on how I will sand these live edges and make this a presentable piece.

Thanks!

[Paul Girouard]

The "resin" (its more like a flakey plastic at this point) isnt the huge issue.
I am more interested on how I will sand these live edges and make this a presentable piece.

Thanks!


I don't think you will "sand" the live edge, maybe you can wire brush it , after or while you soften the "resin / finish" that been applied to it it.

Good luck.

[Joe Jensen]

What about a handheld power planer to remove the resin surface? If it doesn't easily chip off I'd try the power planer.

[Allen Jordan]

Maybe a wire wheel to remove any bark or soft/rotted areas (knotted for really aggressive, straight for regular work), followed by a small power sander (flap sander in a drill maybe, or the edge of a flexible ROS pad).

[Prashun Patel]

I would just use a wire brush and scrub those edges firmly. This will remove loose dirt and bark. Wash it with soap and water, let dry, then finish. Personally I wouldn't alter the edge or try to improve it in any way. I would break and smooth the edges with 150 grit sandpaper. I'd aim to remove edge sharpness not surface texture.

[Chris Padilla]

I agree with Prashun. You mostly just want to clean the live edge and remove any loose pieces. You could also shoot it with compressed air and/or a sharp stream of water from a hose. Generally speaking, it looks pretty clean so you may not have much work to do. I assume it'll be a side, coffee table kinda thing? What kind of legs are you thinking?

[Pat Barry]

The live edges should be dealt with via a stiff wire brush first. If that doesn't do the job you might need to find a sandblaster so you can carefully blast away and smooth out the edges. I wouldn't advocate a powered grinder or sander unless you really don't want the live edge character

[mark mcfarlane]

Could the resin be poured on polyurethane or epoxy? Would a heat gun and scraper help to take that stuff off? I've never tried this, just a thought.

[Nick Ahrold]

I was thinking about doing simple iron hairpin legs. That is a whole additional topic; what I had planned was to use a router to carve out the inlay of the base of the leg.