Finishing curly shedua?!

[Wade Lippman]

I made a clock out of a beautiful piece of curly shedua. I sanded to 600 and put wipe on varnish on it.
On the workbench it looks great, but on the wall there is no curl! The clock looks good, but where is the curl?

Any suggestion on how to finish it after I sand the varnish off?

[Harriet Beauvais]

I'm really new, both here and to fine wood finishing, but it happens that I've recently been reading if it's possible to over-sand a piece. I'm wondering why you sanded with such fine grit? Isn't it more common that you use really fine grit between coats of varnish or shellac?

Personally I'd get the finish right on scraps before you even start to strip your clock so you know what you're working toward. I have read that a common finish on figured/burled walnut is Danish or tung oil before applying varnish. And seriously, consider sanding the wood itself only to 220. I think you may need an extra touch of color actually within the grain of the wood itself to bring out the holographic effects.

[John TenEyck]

If it looks good on your bench but not on the wall then it must be the lighting. I don't know how to correct that but if lighting is the problem then I'm not sure redoing the finish is going to solve the problem. Try moving the clock to other locations to see if the curl is more/less visible. I'm not suggesting you find a new location, only as a means to confirm/refute that lighting is the problem.

John

[Wade Lippman]

I'm really new, both here and to fine wood finishing, but it happens that I've recently been reading if it's possible to over-sand a piece. I'm wondering why you sanded with such fine grit? Isn't it more common that you use really fine grit between coats of varnish or shellac?

Personally I'd get the finish right on scraps before you even start to strip your clock so you know what you're working toward. I have read that a common finish on figured/burled walnut is Danish or tung oil before applying varnish. And seriously, consider sanding the wood itself only to 220. I think you may need an extra touch of color actually within the grain of the wood itself to bring out the holographic effects.

The backside is only sanded to 120, and it looks pretty much the same as the front side when held up on the wall.
Years ago I make a cabinet out of curly cherry and it came out blotchy with BLO. I "think" I read that oil wasn't good on curly wood.
But you are certainly right about trying scraps first.

[John TenEyck]

The backside is only sanded to 120, and it looks pretty much the same as the front side when held up on the wall.
Years ago I make a cabinet out of curly cherry and it came out blotchy with BLO. I "think" I read that oil wasn't good on curly wood.
But you are certainly right about trying scraps first.

BLO caused blotching on the cherry specimens I tested it on.

Arm-R-Seal on the left. ARS over SealCoat shellac in the middle. ARS over BLO on the right. Most surprising to me was that putting ARS over SealCoat looked blotchy to me compared to ARS alone.



John

[Stan Calow]

Wade, check out the musical instrument sub-forum here, and see the post "My first telecaster" the second guitar body there is shedua, looks like some figure. Maybe the poster can help answer your question.

[Tom Bender]

Hi Harriet
For someone really new your advice is really solid. Welcome to the forum.
Tom