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Redwood Burl Table I Refinished this Week | Recent activity9425 of 74935 |  |  |
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Posted 2 months ago
ho2cultcha
(536 items)
The last picture shows what it looks like after i started to peel off the many layers of bubbled up varnish. i really love these tables. i refinished it w/ many layers of furniture wax and now it's in my living room. hopefully, i'll stop banging my shin against it soon!
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TablesTables are sometimes treated like the poor cousins to chairs, which have ca…
This is an amazing piece, you've brought it back to life, the colour & detail are fantastic.
Well done!
Beautiful piece!
scott
Fabulous table!!!!!!!!! Fabulous restoration job!!! (The legs look perfect the way they are - original finish?) Bravo, ho2cultcha!!! : 0
stunning my friend:)
thanks everybody. i did refinish the feet too. they are from redwood as well, but different ages - probably roots.
Gorgeous wood. I love to look into the grain of the redwoods I work with but must be time to crash as I had a hard time spelling "gorgeous". Do you wash out the grain between sandings? That really gives depth.
This is really beautiful Ho2cultcha. Great job!
thank you blunderbuss2 and nldionne. how do you wash out the grain tween sandings, blunderbuss? i added one more coat of wax after taking these photos and it darkened it a little bit too much. i think i'll put it out in the sun one day to lighten a little more. i just sanded it w/ steel wool 000 between coats of wax. i came across so much different and contradictory advice on what to do on the net, that it just confused me. so i kept it very simple and have my fingers crossed that i don't regret something later.
When you have a good grained wood that you want to get that "look into the wood" 3D effect follow this. As you sand, part of the fibers lie down & the pores fill with sawdust. After each sanding, take the wood & wash with high pressure like with a hose with a nozzle. Let it dry & you will feel that it has gotten rough feeling again. Those are the missed fibers that lay down. Repeat this until when it dries it is no longer rough. The pores are now cleaned out & you get that beautiful 3D effect. I even use a brissle brush while washing to reay raise tthe grain. Takes a lot more time & effort but well worth it on beautiful wood. Alcohol will dissolve wax it you want to go back to sanding stage.
thanks blunderbuss2. i had read on several sites to never thoroughly wet the redwood or i'd never get it smooth - because of the way that it absorbs the water and holds on to it. have you used this method on redwood before?
Ho2, if you are talking about soft redwoods that is probably true. Where I live, redwoods means HARD wood. Your piece looked like burle. Our redwoods are dry in 10 mins because they don't absorb. If you are dealing with soft western U.S. red woods, forget my method as I'm referring to real wood. Our redwoods you can drill, tape with a machine thread & tighten a machine thread bolt into. In other words, it depends on the closeness of the grain of you wood.
Amazing!!!
thanks bratjdd.
redwoods only grow within 50 miles of the coast of california and southern oregon [except the dawn redwood which is found in a remote section of china]. although redwood seems hard [particularly burl wood], it is considered a 'soft' wood and is very absorbant - but only if it enters the end grain - and burl wood has grain in every direction. redwood 'breathes' over time also - which is why using polyurethane on it is not a good idea and is what causes bubbling and peeling over a long period of time.
All the hard red coloured woods from Central & S. America are grouped under the name "redwoods" or "Bois rouge". I'm sure it would come as a surprise to many people in the U.S. that there is a whole world out here.
in english, we call those woods 'rosewood'. there is only one 'redwood' [one word].
The wife and I were looking at one made of cypress that looked almost pale yellow/white like driftwood that they were asking $2500 for recently. You have a beautiful table and the new colors look great.
thank you jayhow. redwood burls vary in color from red to pale yellow to almost black - sometimes all in the same piece. the legs on this piece are made from redwood roots - which are often the pale yellow you describe. yes, they are very expensive to purchase now. this one was a yardsale find for $40. i've probably invested $200-250 into it plus a lot of elbow grease!
I would say byu the look you have now that it was well worth the elbow grease and $$. I think its beautiful. Do you have any idea what it is worth now that you have redone it all. I would guess considerably more now.
from what i can tell by comparing w/ others of the same size and quality, between $2000 and 2400 - retail.
i saw some comps for over 3g, but i think that's exorbitant. the main thing which drives the price is the availability and demand for redwood burl wood - which is increasingly rare and difficult to find.
Really a beautiful table, the Redwood also goes up and into British Columbia. A new friend who died had the nicest one I had ever seen to this day, wish I would have been left that table. Looks like you sure did a nice job on the finish !~
Still to give the best finish, use my method. Phil, "A new friend who died"? Did you think he had left the table to you in his Will? LOL
redwood doesn't grow naturally up in british colombia - nor washington. the furthest north it grows is in southern oregon. it's almost entirely found in california.
If it is, or could be grown in B.C., bet the gov't wouldn't allow it to be cut as others do. Not exactly a candidate for reforrestation like pines.
The new friend was a girl not a guy blunderbuss. The Sequoiadendron giganteum does grow in b.c. but not the Sequoia sempervirens species which is the coastal one.
Hi phildavid.... Sequoiadendron giganteum only grows naturally in California as well.