Kitchen worktop de-oiled

Followup on https://jansenendewaal.blogspot.com/2017/11/aanrechtblad-olien-kitchen-counter-oil.html

One of engineer Jansen’s less great decisions was to *not* wipe off any excess oil after oiling the kitchen worktop. It was so nice and shiny:

A few years later the punishment comes, as the excess oil transpires out of the wood and becomes a sticky goo, worse than chewing gum. Covering it with clingfilm makes things even worse, as scraping it off gets even more difficult. Your lord in heaven has been called a few names this morning.

All this to prepare for a new and shiny inox sink.

Scraping off the goo, and the clingfilm

Sort of de-oiled the worst part.

The table, sanding, oiling (25 June 2021)

 The table, sanding, oiling.

The Doors - study R (2)

This was the worst door. Broken. Eaten. But, work, polyurethane glue and some metal reinforcement can do a lot.

Basic construction is nice heavy planks, with thinner wood panels. Hole-and-pegs in the corners.

This door was varnished, stained, or whatever, with a dark brown stuff. Took that off where necessary for reconstruction, but left part of it in place because I do like the darker colour. You can use wood oil with a colour, but I don't have pigments for oil. So, all natural here. Some hidden edges still have some nasty green paint. Left that there for posterity.

Where there are a lot of holes from wood nibbling critters I have not spared the filler paste with fibre.

This one needed some reconstruction...

The Doors - the bathroom (1)

There are quite some nicely made old doors in this house. Real craftmanship, heavy wood. But, also: old, nibbled at. One even broken apart. Here's our bathroom door, one of the 5 doors that need(ed) work.

Apparently largely untreated, un-varnished, un-oiled, un-whatevered. Have I just sanded away the patina of two ages? Well, I won't try to sand away all old scratches and dents.

Who knows what these doors have witnessed. Life, death, sex, murder? They're more scratched at the lower half than above. Probably they were kicked or bumped into quite a few times during the ages.

Finished:

Work in progress:

Cave cupboards

The cupboards in the cave. As the plaster needed replacing this was the opportunity to do up these.

Of course, ansteystyle. What did they do? First they made the cupboards, mounted them on the floor and wall, no back or side panel where the walls are. And only then they plastered the cave walls. So, these cupboards were a few to 5 centimeters into the wall. The walls are curved. So, I now needed to take (saw) off some of the back of the cupboards to make them fit the newly plastered walls.

Sanded the woord (heavily, grain 50/80) to take off the stain that was on there. Then 120. Two tung oil treatments on the inside, 4 on the outside. Before the last two treatments grain 400. And lo! SHINE!

Aluminium tape between wood and walls, for protection.

Another job well done by engineer Jansen.

The folding bear chair

Nearly 25 years old. In the past these red cedar chairs were sort of protected with Weizonol conserveergrond, but that comes off in 25 years. It has survived quite well. Only the horizontal plank at the front needed some aluminium support, because some of the wood was really soft. And, the ends of the lower beam of the backrest needed some aluminium, because they too had become very soft, and could simply be sanded off.

The whole chair was disassembled (dissembled) into parts, that were all coarsely sanded, finely sanded, and very finely sanded. After four coats with tung wood oil and about a week's work I'm almost satisfied.

I'm very happy inox screws were used for the backrest and the seat itself. No rust!

It's sister we had to leave behind in Amersfoort, as it was completely rotten. It had spent many years at the bottom of the patio in Amsterdam, in the shade, and never properly dried up. Sad.

Homework2

When you remove the plaster from a 200-year old house you are bound for surprises. Like old openngs in walls that were there in the past. This one is in the back wall of the house, and a lucky one. We wanted a new ventilation opening for the toilet,
as we used the old one for the pellet stove exhaust pipe, just around the corner at the same height. If only we'd known!

This we'll use as the toilet ventilation. And a nice big cap stone! Perfect!

Same with the front wall. We want a solar air heater there, that needs a pipe inside. That needs a hole in the wall. And it's already there! Near perfect spot!

Other surprises are that some people use old cement bags to "fill" holes, and simply plaster that over.
We call that "ansteystyle" work, after the previous owner, who used this kind of "finish" in more places.

Also at the back of the house: the donkey ring. That was used to tie your donkey. And that happened often,
as the ring is well worn. And see how it is attached to the wall? Smithy work around a pebble, and that set in mortar. Sorry the pebble is broken while removing the plaster.

I'm using the opportunity to treat all woodwork of the windowframes that are now accessible, with the plaster removed. Permethrin against termites and woodworm, and a few treatments with tung-oil for protection against water and humidity.
Around all window frames there's actual plaster (gypsum). That is traditional here, but also a bad idea. Gypsum is not waterproof. On the contrary, it attracts water. Lucky we have a dry climate here, and all woodwork is in very good condition. One exception is the lower beam of this window frame. It has been nibbled in the past. Now it has permethrin on/in it, and every termite or woodworm that sets its teeth in it will be taught a lesson.

If you look carefully you can see there was a door here, once.

The wooden beam is still in the wall. Just a bit of tree trunk, complete with bark. The bark is all gone (eaten), but the center wood still has some strength.