# shou sugi ban wire spindle with photos



## beachbum2014 (Dec 7, 2014)

Aloha folks!

I'm finishing an old table made from a wire spindle that's been sitting in my friend's front lawn.









I sanded the table down and burned the wood using a shou sugi ban method.










Washed and brushed:









I then nearly put a quart of BLO into the table, it just kept soaking it up.here it is after I rubbed it out:










I've been letting the table dry for a few days now and I've noticed that in some areas the grain is nice and shiny, some areas it's not.










Any idea why this is? I spent hours sanding the wood down with an orbital sander but realize now that I needed a belt sander to completely wvwn out the wood. I didn't mind the grain sticking out a bit, since it's an old wire spooln I thought it gave the table character.

Do I need more BLO?


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## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

This is going to happen with pine, the harder grain will be shinier and the softer spots will be less. Dont have any technical terms for you but I believe it has more sap in the harder spots. I dont know how or if you can fix it. I'm sure someone on here has a better answer for you. 
I have used steel wool to take the shine off the shiney parts to get more of a happy medium.

I will be interested to see what others have to say.

Bill


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

It looks like the difference between early wood and late wood on the annual rings. The early part of on annual ring on a conifers grows faster with spring moisture and the cells are larger with thinner cell walls. As the season progresses through the summer there is less soil moisture and the cells get tighter and smaller with thicker cell walls and the wood is denser with more resins. There is no fix for it that I know of. Very common in the pines and Douglas fir. It looks like your burning is affecting the early wood more than the late wood and that is leaving the grain raised and more pronounced.


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

Happens to me with cypress. I just keep putting coats until it builds.


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## beachbum2014 (Dec 7, 2014)

Thanks for the great replies folks. I guess next time I'll need to put more BLO on it, but I don't have time to let it dry out for a few weeks this time around as I'm moving out of state. I'll have try really, really saturating on the next one when I can let it sit for a month.

In the future I'll try and stay away from pine (unless I don't have a choice, like these spindles). Sure is a lot of BLO though, maybe I'll need two quarts per table…


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## beachbum2014 (Dec 7, 2014)

Thanks for the great replies folks. I guess next time I'll need to put more BLO on it, but I don't have time to let it dry out for a few weeks this time around as I'm moving out of state. I'll have to try really, really saturating on the next one when I can let it sit for a month.

In the future I'll try and stay away from pine (unless I don't have a choice, like these spindles). Sure is a lot of BLO though, maybe I'll need two quarts per table… or just try something else.


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