# Some things that I've learned about finishing. Some of them I also use.



## Karson (May 9, 2006)

*Using Scrapers*

Sharpening and using a scraper.

When I suggest that you should use a scraper in your woodworking. Some are going to say "What?" Others are going to say "I've tried it and it doesn't work!" And maybe others are going to say "I use them every day!" To the latter I'd say "Get a life!" To the previous I'd say "Hang on and we'll fix your problems!" And to the first I'd say:

Scrapers have been used in woodworking for a long time. It is believed that the earliest scrapers were made out of pieces of handsaw blades that had fulfilled their usefulness of sawing. Today we have many kinds of scrapers.

Not this kind 









They are used for paint scraping. They are also useful for getting glue off board glue-ups. The carbide blade scrapes away the glue from the joint. Use them for that. They work.

Not this kind









They are used for scraping out seats in a chair. Getting rid of punk wood on that slab you are going to use for a table top. You can sharpen them on a grinding stone and put a lot of pressure as you make them work. They work, but they are not for finessing wood they are a rough cutting scraper. Others may quibble with that, and I'm OK. You can use a tire iron to work on a lathe, but that might not be the correct tool. But if it works for you, I'm not here to tell you to stop.

As I've said these are things I've learned, others might have had a different teacher. Or they learned their skills at the school of hard knocks.

This is the scraper that I'm talking about. 









They come in different sizes, different shapes, and they come in different thicknesses.









They also have a different hardness in the metal structure. They are somewhere between soft (they wouldn't have a very long life) and hard (be impossible to sharpen)

They will rust









If you leave sweat on them when you are finished and you just leave them on your bench.
First thing you want to do if you purchase a new shaper is (Open the package) LOL. What you want to do is get the edge flat. Clamp the scraper in a pair of wooden jaws in your vise and with a fine file go lightly down the edge to make it nice and flat. Look at it and make sure that there are no high spots.









Then I take the scraper and slide the edge over some 600 grit silicon carbide sandpaper. To keep a flat straight edge, bend the scraper with both hands, maybe a ¼" curve and then slide it down the sandpaper. It's tough for me to hold it with both hands and take the picture. So this is a one handed bend and slide.









After you've done that a few times and the edge is nice and smooth, you want to remove any burr that might be on the edge. So now slide it on the edge across the same sandpaper.









Do that on both sides of one edge.
It might be good for me to tell you this bit of knowledge. DO NOT SHARPEN both edges of the scraper. You are going to be holding this with your dainty fingers and hands and you don't want to be holding razor blades and squeezing them tight. Blood messes up woodworking projects.
Now you have both surfaces of one edge nice and smooth and no burrs. As you use a scraper you will have to periodically re-true it up by doing the above steps over and over again. That is not a one-time when I buy a scraper function.

Take the first finger of your right hand (Do it right now, I'll wait) Take that finger and place it in the valley between your right ear and your head, just in behind your ear lobe. At that point on your body you have an over-abundance of oil. Slide your finger through that oil filled valley and then rub the same finger down the edge of the scraper. You have just lightly lubed the surface of the scraper so that your sharpening tool will slide easily. Notice you don't need a quart of 10W-30 motor oil for this function. Ear oil is enough. I failed to mention there is another spot that contains the required amount of the aforementioned oil. That is the valley between your nose and your cheek. Not the little hole (were not using bugger material for lubrication). The spot where all of your pimples started when you were a teanager.









Place the scraper on the edge of your bench, table saw, kitchen counter, some place where you have a solid edge. Then use a screwdriver, engine valve stem, hardened steel rod, if you use a screwdriver get one that doesn't have chrome plating on it. Just a nice hard shiny metal rod. Slide it across the edge, by drawing the shaft of the screwdriver toward you. You want maybe a 5 degree angle on the hardened steel rod. What you are trying to do is to slide a microscopic edge of metal toward you. On that nice smooth edge you just made you are now creating a razor sharp edge, which is sliding toward you. You should slide that hard steel rod back and forth a few times, continuing to pull the metal toward you. After you do this a few times you will know when to stop.

If you continue until the edge of the scraper looks like a knife edge, I can tell you this, "You have gone too far!" and "You have pressed too hard!"









Now you want to take the scraper and put it back in the nice wooden jaws of your vise. You want to take your hardened steel rod and bend that curl of metal you pulled to the front edge and curl it to the side.









I now will now show you some of my artistic ability, Not!









The top picture is placing the behind the ear oil on the scraper. The second picture is drawing the metal on the edge toward you. And the third picture is forming the curl unto the side of the scraper. You can put the curl on both sides of one edge. If one is not sharp then rotate it and use the other side. It is OK to sharpen like that, just don't put it on the opposite side of the scraper. If you have 3 or 4 scrapers when you sit down to sharpen them it goes quite fast and you put off having to work with a dull scraper until you are really tired of it. Just grab another one and keep trying until you find a sharp edge.
The burr that you make is not the size that you see in the picture. It is quite small, but you can feel it and if you run your fingers down the edge, they will cut.

To use it hold the scraper in two hands, give it a slight bow, maybe 1/8" and with your thumbs in the middle, and your fingers on the outside push it down the board. What you will get is dust. What you are supposed to get is shavings.


















You will notice the scraping dust on the board just above the scraper edge.









This occurs when you are not holding the scraper correctly. You will remember the burr that we turned on the edge of the scraper. What you want is those burrs to cut wood not scrape along the surface of the board. You held your hardened steel rod at about a 5 to 10 degree angle as you turned that burr. You now want that scraper to be held at about the same 5 - 10 degree angle. So it is almost straight up and down.









If you've tried this before and it didn't work. It's either the burr was not made correctly or you didn't hold it correctly. That's all there is. Nothing fancy. It makes a surface on the board that you can't get with sandpaper. It's glassy smooth. You can get rid of planer snipes and washboard surfaces. Hold the scraper at a 45 degree angle as you move down the board so you don't follow in the valleys. You want to cut the tips off all of the high places.

You don't want to be like a boat riding between waves in the ocean. You want to be like a pier that cuts across all of the waves.

A couple of other things. Single edge razor blades make great scrapers to remove paint and varnish runs. Let the finish dry and then just scrape the blade down the high spots to level the finish out with the rest of the finish. Hold the blade like you were taught to hold your scraper. Don't cut the finish off, just scrape it away gently.









You can also buy holders for scrapers. They are handy it you are trying to scrape a log slab that you are making into a table because the scraper will get hot enough to be uncomfortable.


















You use the center knob to put the curve into the scraper.









You hold it in both hands with your thumbs in the indentions and push. Again holding at the correct angle.

















You can also buy jigs to help you file and sharpen your scrapers. I've got three different kinds.
Do it like I showed you here, that way no matter where you are you can sharpen a scraper. You won't have to say, "If I had my jig I could sharpen it!"

You always Have your ear, or someone else's. You can find a screwdriver. And you can get away without the sandpaper, but, it is better with it. You don't need the jig to hold it, use your hands. You just might have to cut up a perfectly good handsaw to get your scraper material though. Too big to carry in your billfold, you might have to start carrying a gym bag though.

Updated next morning:

I noticed the picture of the sandpaper where I had been cleaning up the edge of the scraper after using the file. If you noticed that there were black marks in rows which meaned that this previously planed board had an uneaven surface. So this morning I thought I'd take a picture again after I'd done the practice scraping picture taking. Here is the new picture with the sandpaper from the earlier sanding.










There is still an uneaven surface but it is definetely smoother from when I started. I don't recommend using this technique to tell when the board is smooth. your hand is usually close enough.

(C) Copyright Karson Morrison 6-22-2007, 6-23-2007 All right reserved.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Great info Karson. I'm more in group too. I really need to get my skill up.


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## Treefarmer (Mar 19, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Great blog Karson. I need to get a set.


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## Frank (Nov 19, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Hi Karson;
--what a well and informative article you written here!

Also thanks for the detail pictures you have taken, this part of picture taking as I go along in the shop is hard for me, as when I'm in the heat of the process I find it hard to stop and take pictures.

Thanks for taking the time to write, photo and share this wealth of knowledge with us….
GODSPEED,
Frank


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## CarverRog (Jan 31, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing this helpful scraper blog, Karson. I already knew the process of sharpening scrapers but I never gave it a thought to show others this process, I guess I took it for granite everyone knew how. Wrong! You explained it very well and used well thought out the pictures. Nice!


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## oscorner (Aug 7, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


*Blood messes up woodworking projects.* Does this apply if you are planning to stain it red? LOL. Very good point, not to sharpen both sides of the scraper. Your blog is very informative and those fine shavings are a testiment of you skill.


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## furnitologist (May 31, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


That was really good….........2 things stuck out most for me.

1. the ole straight razor in the finishing room. Difficult to find by me, just spend a morning this past week looking, ended up having to buy a scraper handle in order to get that 5 pack of blades.

2. Karson….......your comment on having to understand that .."you may have had a different teacher" in mentioning differing approaches. This maybe why I like LumberJocks so much…..the open mindedness of differing techniques…....to me; an indication of woodworking maturity.

I enjoyed your post….............Neil


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info Karson. Great photos too. I am trying to learn to use this tool.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Thanks guys for the comments. Rog, I've read a bunch of articles and still made dust, then one day I tried it again and the scraper stopped sliding. It had dug into the wood. WOW says I. I pushed harder and had shavings. It's the skill in holding it that makes it cut shavings

You can run a scraper out of the package across the wood and get dust. I do do that when I'm finishing shellac or varnish. Don't sand the surface to make it smooth. Run a dull scraper over the surface and all of the nibs on the surface disapear. And you still have your gloss.

Mark: Red stain coveres just about everything so in that case it's OK.

As to prices of scrapers, one of the packages that I had shown was a pack of three for 12.95. Not the most expensive tools in your finishing drawer. Definetely cheap enough to try. No other excessories required. Except a fine file and sandpaper. But everyone should already have those items.


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## doyoulikegumwood (Jun 21, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


hey all just some food for thought if you wince at the thought of scrapers when was sand paper invented and what did they use befor sand paper


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


I'm sure that the cave dwellers used rocks and other sharp things to smooth off the logs that they used to sit on around the campfires. Scraping devices have been around a long time.


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## mot (May 8, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Great tutorial Karson! A definite favorite thread.


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## Caliper (Mar 12, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Indeed. Just favorited. Thanks Karson.


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## dennis (Aug 3, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Mine is always in use…usually for those harded to reach places and that missed glue spot. Good job Karson!


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


I agree Dennis. They are so handy to use. Do you use them for smothing nibs off your finish. I find that they are so great for that. Put on your varnish with a brush and then make it smooth with the scraper. Or smoth the overspray.


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## CarverRog (Jan 31, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Karson, do you have any stainless steel scrapers? One day at work I had to pick up some metal at a sheet metal shop and I noticed some stainless scrap cutoffs under their shears and asked if I could have a few pieces and the answer was sure. I got all different shapes of scrapers. The shears makes a natural bur and it is straight. They will not rust and up to now I haven't had any need to re sharpen them, ss is very hard. Just a thought at how to get some cheap scrapers that have and edge that lasts very long.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Using Scrapers*
> 
> Sharpening and using a scraper.
> 
> ...


Thank You Rog. If I lived in NJ still I made a stop at the salvage yard once a month. I haven't found one here yet. I'll have to find a fabricator. and look for scraps.

It's a great idea.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

*Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*

Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.

When you go through the catalogs and look at all of the finished that are available, you will not see this tip.

They sell you Pumice and Rottenstone to be used as a buffing and polishing agent to bring up a gloss on the surface, but no one tells you about using it as wood filler. The interesting thing about Pumice is it is basically transparent so if you use it as wood filler it doesn't contribute any different colors to the wood that it's being used on. The Mfg version of Oak wood filler might not be the same shade that your board is, so what happens is you fill the pores of you wood with a different color wood. Maybe this is what you want, maybe it isn't. The Rottenstone on the other hand is black wood filler. It is great for use on Walnut and other dark porous woods. It makes the grain lines visible. Remember you don't use wood filler on cherry or maple because the pores of the wood are not present. Where red Oak and walnut have a porous surface. If you want a smooth gloss surface you want to fill all of the pores.

I took a finishing class taught by Jeff Jewitt and this was one of the tips that he gave us in the class.
Here are the materials that you use.









I use a salt and pepper shaker to store the working Pumice and Rottenstone. Just don't put them on the picnic table or get them to your kitchen. It could mess up a bunch of food. I believe that they make a FFFF version of Pumice. The number of F's equate to the fineness of the grit in the polishing compound. It doesn't make any difference which one you use. I use Butchers paper as a work surface because it has a plastic surface on the paper.

The tools are:









I use the metal putty knife to mix the Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) and the Pumice or Rottenstone. I mix it on the board that I'm going to use it on. I use a rubber spreader that I bought at a Professional Automotive Finish store. It's used to spread body putty in damage of cars. I've also used a small window squeegee and I've used the putty knife. I stuck a small piece of Formica because it could also possibility be used.

I used BLO for this demo but I might also try Danish Oil because it dried harder than just BLO. A homemade version of Danish Oil is 1/3 or each Mineral Spirits, BLO (Deft says that they use Teak Oil) and Varnish.
Dump some oil on the board and then dump some rottenstone on top of it. 









Mix it up and make it thick. Remember though that the oil soaks into the wood so it will continue to get thicker as you use it.









Spread it over the board and force it into the pores of the wood. I'm now using the rubber spreader.









Note I'm using a sample of Red Oak and Walnut. When you drag the slurry you want to pull it across the grain. You don't want to go with the grain because you might pull the slurry out of the pores.









It will slip over the edges, but if you are doing a piece of furniture, you might only want to do this on the top because that's where the pores would be most visible. 









You will also note that the rottenstone also darkened up the sapwood of the walnut piece. Use masking tape and paper to keep it from where you don't want it.









The next sample will be using Pumice.









Pour your oil.









Then mix in the pumice.









Force it into the pores. NOTE: I'm not using the rubber block on the pumice because the abrading effect of the pumice could actually cut some of the black rubber into the slurry. I didn't want that.
Do the final pass to force the slurry into the pores and clear off all extra.









All done with the pumice demo pieces.









Now the control pieces. Just the BLO and no filler materials.









Now finished these pieces.









These are the three sets of the boards. I'll let them sit for a couple of days so that the finish will harden some. It's this time where the Danish Oil would be faster. The Rottenstone is on the left. The Pumice is in the middle and the control piece with only BLO is on the right. These boards are after 12 sitting but still not wiped off.










I'll continue this in another blog in a couple of days.


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## CarverRog (Jan 31, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Thanks Karson! I learned something new today. Now can I go to the house for supper? LOL!


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Rog: Glad to contribute to your base of knowledge. And, also allow you to go eat.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


isn't that interesting!!! 
"across the grain".. makes sense!


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## FMOmbr (Mar 21, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


My wife wants to know when you took Jeff Jewitt's class; she took a class with Jeff on finishing @ Marc Adams School and uses this technique on mahogany with much success. You have been generous with your knowledge. Thanks.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


I took this class

Hand Applied Finishes
By Jeff Jewitt 6/22/2002

At Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology

The host of the class was Steve Latta who was the administrator of the woodworking program at the university. Steve is quite well known for his Federal Period woodworking, and writes a lot of articles in woodworking magazines.


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## Sawdust2 (Mar 18, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Thanks, Karson.

I've been using pumice and rottenstone for years and never saw this as an option.

You can teach an old dog new tricks!


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## oscorner (Aug 7, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


I prefer the pumice application because it doesn't affect the original look of the wood grain. Of course, I am sure there are times that the rottenstone effect of the grain would be desireable. * Karson, you are doing a wonderful job of sharing this information.* I never knew about using either of these for a wood filler. I usually use wood glue and sawdust to patch and avoid wood fillers because of the fact that it is almost impossible to match the wood to the filler.


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## TheGravedigger (May 20, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Sweet technique! I especially like the way rottenstone brings out the grain in oak. This would be really interesting after fuming white oak in the Mission style. Hmm…something to play with.


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## furnitologist (May 31, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Hey Karson….....SWEET…......Danish Oil and the Pumice…...super tip…...never knew that…....THANKS!!!!

Neil


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## cheller (Feb 24, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


I just tried a similar method, from an article in FWW (I think I'll have to look). The method in the article had you sprinkle the pumice on the wood then rub in with a rag soaked in boiled linseed oil. While working on it I decided it would be much easier to mix the two first and apply with a putty knife - which is of course exactly what you showed here. I do like the look of the piece so far. I've got a second piece (foot stool) to do and I think I'll try your method. Results will be posted later.

Incidentally the article also suggested plaster of paris as an alternative wood filler which would, of course, lighten the grain. It was suggested mostly as a quicker alternative.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Cheller: I've done something similar to what you suggested but it was done while veneering. In that case you used Shellac and sprinkled the pumice on the French Polishing pad and you rubbed the surface. It then placed a combination of wood dust and pumice into the pores of the veneer along with the shellac. It is used as a surface filler as you do the French Polish.

The boards that I pictured above were placed outside today in the sun. The oak board with just the BLO started to weep a little oil to the surface as the board heated up. The Pumice Oak board had a couple of spots and the Rottenstone version had none. That might also be a case where the Pumice and Rottenstone soaked up any excess BLO. Or, it's a case where the slurry was thick and not as much BLO soaked into the surface anyway.

The walnut boards had no oozing at all on any of the boards.

The pores on the two boards that had the filler are completely full while the BLO versions still have open pores.

I was (and may still today) make my own Danish Oil and try the pumice and rottonstone again on the oak. I got lots of pieces like the ones shown. They were from the toy club and I was going to make 800 wheels with the boards. I can still use them for that because I only put the hole saw part of the way through and then use a resaw to free them up.


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## cheller (Feb 24, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


I took a look last night and the article I mentioned was by Jeff Jewitt from FWW May/June 2005.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Yes same instructor, for the class I took. Jeff also has some books on finishing. Here is his website


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## Zuki (Mar 28, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Interesting. I just finished watching the Wood Whisperer who did some grain filling as well. He showed two approached . . . one using oil and the other using a commercial grain filler.


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## JRedgate (Apr 11, 2014)

Karson said:


> *Home made wood fillers, Pumice and Rottenstone.*
> 
> Pumice and Rottenstone as wood filler.
> 
> ...


Hi Karson.

Were there ever any updates on this experiment? I am refinishing a late 19th century oak table and I would like to grain fill using period techniques. How did the BLO and pumice end up?


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

*Wood filling and finishing*

The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.

I let the BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil) harden for 1 week on the boards.
This is my spraying table that I use. The bottom is on a lazy susan swivel so that it can turn 360 Degrees. I made a block that I can set on top of it that has a bunch of screws through the plywood so that I can put items on top of the screw points and not have the wood sitting on the flat surface and get finish creep under the boards.









The spray gun that used for this demo is shown. It's a gravity flow sprayers and it is not HVLP. I probably had the pressure at 100 lbs. Because I forgot to set it lower.

The walnut boards that had BLO and rottenstone (Left), Pumice (Center) and just BLO on the right were sprayed with Zinsser sanding sealer shellac. 2 lb cut - thinned about 25% so it was probably a 1.5lb cut.









The pores on the rottenstone were very good. Almost all of the pores were filled with the rottenstone. I used a walnut board with a lot of white wood to show the effects of the rottenstone on the color of the pores. 
You can see that the pumice board is quite smooth and all of the pores seemed to be filled. The board on the right was just the BLO and the pores are quite visible. In the picture. The darker walnut looks a little better to me with the rottenstone than the pumice, but, if sapwood is visible I'd go with pumice.

This is a set of Oak boards with Rottenstone and BLO (Left) Pumice (Center) and just BLO (Right). These boards were also sprayed with the Zinsser sanding sealer.
No sanding was done on these boards after the application of the Rottenstone and Pumice. I did use a scraper to lightly remove all excess surface materials. I did that after about 24 hours before the BLO setup hard.









The pore filler of the rottenstone is quite visible and quite dramatic. With stain it might be a great combination. The pumice board is a little darker than the straight BLO board. The pores are not depressed on the filled boards like it is on the straight BLO board. It could almost be possible to do a second coat of the filler, but, it's not really necessary. If you sprayed it and then sanded it flat, it would be possible to have a totally smooth oak board. The pumice didn't darken the oak board enough to make it appear strange.

I made another test that I didn't report in an earlier blog in this series. I stated that I might try Danish oil instead of BLO because it would dry faster. So I made my own Danish Oil. !/3 BLO, 1/3 Varnish - I used some flooring Poly that I had left over from a flooring refinish job I did a couple of years ago. And 1/3 Mineral Spirits. I mixed about 1 oz of each into a plastic squeeze bottle.









Again the rottenstone and Danish Oil (Left) Pumice (Center) and just Danish Oil (right). Some of the slurry that was visible on the ends of the boards was a little harder on the Danish Oil versions of the boards than the BLO versions. The Danish Oil Versions of the boards were sprayed with Deft thinned about 50%.
The rottenstone board looks like the BLO version, the pumice board is a little darker almost as if the board got contaminated in some way. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I didn't use a rubber spreader on the BLO version of the boards. I might have used it on the Danish Oil versions, so what you might have here is some rubber that was ground off while spreading the pumice/oil slurry and forcing it into the pores. I made a point of using a putty knife to spread on the BLO versions, but I might have failed to do it on the Danish Oil Version. Or the board was a little darker. The difference between the Danish Oil/Pumice boards is a lot darker than the just Danish Oil board. So I would attribute it to Operator and not the finish.

This is a little closer close-up of the Pumice/BLO and BLO only on Walnut. The pores are quite visible on the board without the filler.









A close up of the BLO/Rottenstone Oak board.









The BLO/Pumice Oak board.









The Danish Oil/Rottenstone Oak Board.









The Danish Oil/Pumice Oak Board.









This is a board that I finished in a French polish class that I took. 









I used the BLO and Rottenstone Slurry on this board, but because of time constraints in the classroom it was only on the board for about 1 hr, so the full effect of the BLO hardening did not happen. The pores were finally filled with French Polish. Put down a coat and then use 600 grit with mineral oil and sand it. It finally filled all of the pores with shellac. It was over 30 days before I got all of the pores filled. Now what I'd do is fill it with Danish Oil and Rottenstone, let it dry for a day. Scrape off the surface and if additional filling was required I'd do it again. Then lightly sand to get the surface clear of rottenstone slurry. Spray about 4 coats of shellac. Use a scraper to smooth the surface and then sand with 400 grit and then 600 grit with Mineral oil and then start the French polishing. Fill all of the left over pores with shellac and then level the surface with sanding and get on with the finishing.

Post any questions you might have. 
Someone asked how I spray shellac. It's just like any other finish that I might spray.

Let me give this note, in case you might not have read my blogs on French Polishing.

NOTE: If you are going to sand shellac or possibly any finish with mineral oil and sandpaper. It is a requirement to put an oil finish on first. BLO - Danish Oil - Tung Oil something. The reason being that you will have voids in the finish when you do some of the early coats of smoothing and what happens is the sanding oil seeps through those voids and you end up with splotches in the wood, because some of it will have an oil and others will not. It's best to make it all have oil prior to putting on the top coat.

Again I say if you sand with oil , have oil on the wood before the first finish coat. If you don't sand with oil, this doesn't apply to you.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Thanks Karson. Lots to absorb here. I will also have to go back and read your french polish blog.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Dang I may have opened my mouths (fingers typing) too soon. I gave a demo on french polishing for my Woodworking club and Martin asking me to Video it. (Right)

But I though that I had put together a bunch of picture on the process. If I can't find it I'll make one up.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


LOL. The worst part is I thought my memory was failing me. I did not remember you making a french polishing blog and was going to go looking for it. I would thought I would have remembered. Learning to french polish is on my to do list. I want to use the technique to finish plane handles on the planes I am restoring.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


OK. I'll put it on my list.


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Thanks Sir.


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## David (Jan 26, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Karson -

Thanks for the great finishing info - lots of detail to absorb - just the kind of blog entry I like!


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## Don (Dec 18, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Thanks, Karson. Lots to digest, but most informative.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


wow.. great resource!!!


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## oscorner (Aug 7, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


That board you did in French polishing class is awesome. Thanks for the great information. Did you flatten the screw points to prevent accidental scratches? How many coats did it take to get that glass shine on the French polished board?


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the comments.

Mark: That's one of the problems with French Polishing you can't count the coats. It might be 1000 coats to do that finish. But that number is not what counts it's the number of sessions.

A session is when you sit down to do some work on the piece. You go over and over and over and over the piece putting down a miniscule coat. So you really count the sessions instead of the coats.

Let me teach a French Polish class via blog so that you can understand the process.

In this blog I thought that I'd already done that and I was wrong. I was going to get Martin to move the French Polish Blog into this series and i couldn't find it. I also don't have any pictures on my machine so it was not done.

I will continue on this series.

Mark: No I didn't flattten the screw points.. I wanted a very small contact point on the finish when i turned the piece over to spray the other side. But having a lot of screws give you not a lot of weight on any one point.


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## Treefarmer (Mar 19, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Lots to absorb…..

Finishing to me is the scary part of woodworking. You pour your heart and soul into a piece, and then hope the finish looks good. I really need to study. Thanks for the blog Karson. I look forward to the continuation.


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## woodspar (Mar 6, 2007)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


I agree with Bob, finishing can be nerve wracking. So far I have only used simple finishes. Thanks Karson for the information.


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## depictureboy (Jun 5, 2008)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


karson, when you scrape off the excess with your cardscraper do you go with the grain or against it still? i have some boards that I have done, and i did it mostly like you said, but I used an itunes giftcard as my squeegee, but then i went back over and evened it back out cause it left drag marks across the board so I still have a light coating that I have let sit all night and day…i can feel the pumice with my fingers and can see the roughness when i hold it across the light…so i want to *lightly *scrape it with a card scraper.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


I go probably in a 45 degree swipe across and down the boards. I want to kind-of cut it off and not pull it out of the pores. So going sideways some tends to allow it to be cut in the short grain and not in the long grain of the pores.

Doing it lightly with a card scraper that doesn't have a burr would keep you from cutting away any wood and just remove the surface pumice and dried oil.

Good luck.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


Here is a cabinet that I made for an LJ contest that required that no nails, screws or glue be used in the construction. In this blog I'm using my Danish Oil blend to finish the walnut cabinet. I used a random oribital sander and using the sanding dust and danish oil to make a slurry to fill the pores. The top finish was also my danish oil blend. In final use it didn't work out too well because the surface was not totally sealed and in a bathroom with steam the finish had a lot of raised grain. So I had to sand again and I used a conversion varnish that I bought for the kitchen cabinets that I was making as the final finish on the Shaker Cabinet.

This cabinet won first place in the contest.


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## GPDMTR25 (Jun 21, 2010)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


I had read Jeff's article in FWW magazine called Finishing Mahogany, where he discusses using rottenstone as filler. 
I was searching the web for any other articles on using rottenstone as filler when I came across your article. Great Article!
I didn't know the rottenstone would make the pores black. I'm doing a mahogany TV stand and have tried several different wood fillers but haven't liked the way it dyes the wood so I thought I'd use rottenstone. After reading your article I might try pumice. I was worried that pumice wouldn't be fine enough.

Here's a link to Jeff's article with Fine Woodworking Magazine. You must be a FWW member to read the article.

You have some great blogs. Do you have a website?
Thanks
Angela


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Karson said:


> *Wood filling and finishing*
> 
> The continuation of the Pumice and rottenstone as wood fillers.
> 
> ...


I don't have a web site other than LumberJocks. Thanks for the comments. I found Jeff article in my FFM DVD. I hadn't seen it before.

When I took Jeff's class he had a piece of Mahogany Plywood that had a worm hole. In the class he used super glue and sandpaper (many times) to fill the hole with sanding dust and super glue. He then used his fine artist brushed to simulate the grain across the filed area to match the regular mahogany.

He was a real artist. I guess I need to practice that technique, because I have some Mahogany to practice on. But I guess you could simulate the hole with a finishing nail. But any darker color left by the critter wouldn't be there.

Did you see the practice piece that I did in Jeff's class. I used rottenstone with boiled linseed oil and then used Shellac / French Polish to put on the top coat. The rottenstone really darkened the pores of this piece.










I applied the veneer to a piece of junk plywood to take to the class for practice pieces. I took a dozen or so pieces of different woods. Jeff used some as demonstration pieces during the class.


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