Just another log

Some friends of ours invited us to their cabins in the high country of Colorado late last summer (just getting ready to winterize them, so we were lucky to be able to go). There was a country store nearby where I noticed the number of burls the support columns had. Our friend mentioned he had one under his deck that his brother had sawed in half many years ago (he told me his brother got the better half), and was wondering if there was anything I could do with it. After bringing it home and looking more closely at it, I saw so much dry rot, I wasn’t sure it could be saved. Much later, after a whole bunch of grinding, filling cracks and voids with a glue/sawdust mixture, and filling the largest void with rocks covered in epoxy resin (not quite filling the void in order to make it look like water streaming over river rock), I began the finishing process. Because he wanted to have it outside in some of the harshest conditions imaginable, I decided on a spar varnish that, hopefully, will be able to withstand the elements. I also wanted a “wet” look to highlight the “stream” of rocks on the side of the piece. The first three coats of varnish went on well, but were taking a whole lot longer to cure than I was happy with (patience on finishing is not one of my stronger virtues). I did some research on the good ol’ Internet and discovered that by diluting the spar varnish with 50% mineral spirits, not only would it cure faster, but I could hand wipe it on to get more smoothness. After at least five more coats, I’m pretty happy with the results. Hope he is, too. The log is pine beetle lodgepole pine. The glass table top is an optional piece I thought he might be interested in. Thanks for looking.

TZH

-- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead-Wood-Renaissance/361417090585685