Author Topic: Red Oak Board to Stave build-a-long (Finished Page 3) (Read 6885 times)

Pappy · « **Reply #30 on:** March 17, 2021, 08:58:17 am »

Looks good Ryan, thanks for taking us along.

Pappy

Marc St Louis · « **Reply #31 on:** March 17, 2021, 09:12:18 am »

Nice build along

RyanY · « **Reply #32 on:** March 20, 2021, 04:35:19 pm »

Thanks Pappy and Marc. Finally getting into a good flow of how to easily post pictures.

Decided to shoot it in to make sure it doesn't blow up in my face! Notice the safety glasses.

Tested the vinegar and steel wool stain on a scrap piece and figured the color was okay. A carpenter I follow on instagram has posted some beautiful work with that stain and I know he gets it pretty dark. I decided to really soak the bow with the stain to get it as dark as possible. Super stoked with the color and how dark it got! Interesting finish because it takes a bit of time to darken after its applied. Will now wait a day or two for it to dry out before adding linseed oil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAYurDyKm0A

(video is not monetized)

Allyn T · « **Reply #33 on:** March 20, 2021, 05:02:57 pm »

How long did you soak the steel wool?

RyanY · « **Reply #34 on:** March 20, 2021, 06:00:59 pm »

Kept it in there since the last time I posted so about 4 days. It’s remarkable how the vinegar is still somewhat clear and how much it darkens the wood. Fun stuff!

Allyn T · « **Reply #35 on:** March 20, 2021, 07:08:43 pm »

Yeah it reacts with the tannins it's nuts how much it works.

RyanY · « **Reply #36 on:** March 21, 2021, 06:01:11 pm »

Applying boiled linseed oil (BLO) for the finish for this bow. After letting the vinegar stain dry for a day it has a grey milk paint 'esque look to it which is kind of cool. For a BLO finish, I'm of the mindset that since it's a penetrating finish, I want to get as much into the wood as possible. I mix in a bit of mineral spirits to thin out the BLO. I apply with a shop towel till it seems like it can't soak in anymore, wait about 20min, then reapply and repeat till the wood no longer appears to be absorbing the BLO. The pictures are in order and show the look after the first application and after waiting. After the last application I wipe the bow down with a shop towel. I always make sure to dispose of my BLO soaked towels in a tin just in case. Over the next few days I'll continue to check on the bow and wipe it down periodically. In my experience with red oak, the ring porous early wood likes to release some of the finish/stain which needs to be wiped away. I think I had about 2tbsp of finish to start and used about 3/4 of that on the bow, minus what the towel soaked up.

RyanY · « **Reply #37 on:** March 21, 2021, 06:03:02 pm »

Pic 1: First application
Pic 2: After waiting for oil to soak in. Notice more of a satiny look to the wood.
Pic 4: Finish after last application and wiping down with a shop towel.

RyanY · « **Reply #38 on:** April 04, 2021, 05:59:16 pm »

Finally finished up this one. Sorry for not taking many pictures of the last bits of the finishing process. A bit too much experimenting and not enough motivation. After the linseed oil dried I wrapped the handle in some jute twine. If I recall this is the super cheap stuff from the grocery store. I died it with black rit dye I had on hand to match the color of the bow. It's more loose than I wanted to we'll see how it holds up. I applied paste wax to the bow and the handle wrap.

The bow is 60"ntn and 32#@27". It is 11.7oz in weight and retains about 1" of reflex. I was surprised to see that the tips didn't look whip ended at all. In fact it appears to be a fairly circular tiller. Bottom limb looks a bit stiffer but this will probably even out over time. If I had to do anything differently I would have been more careful with thinning out the tips and heat treated it a bit earlier in the process. I love how the vinegar stain turned out with hues of red coming through. Will definitely be using that again. Hope you learned something from this one. Thanks for looking!