The table, sanding, oiling (25 June 2021)

 The table, sanding, oiling.

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.

Kitchen counter oil

Sanded, more or less lightly.

First layer tung oil. Pity the shine vanishes the moment the wood has absorbed the oil. Only after many layers the shine stays.

What a pity, it did not "hold". Apparently the previous owner did not use oil but some teak varnish or something, not oil. Dickhead. Some heavy sanding to gt it all off is in order. Not a great job, this is iroco wood, and very tough.

This is the fourth(!) treatment. Not layer. Oil does not really build up in layers. It sinks into the wood. Another layer tomorrow.

And the sink was put in place first, only then the counter top was treated. Under the rim just silicone. Because, what you don't see does not matter. Sigh.

Oil part 4

This was worrying, after the 100% tung-oil coat, that I did not wipe afterwards.

The lesson learned I think is that you better use a diluted tung-oil, so you cannot put on too much oil too easily. And later applications of 100% tung-oil only rub the oil in lightly with a cloth, and properly wipe it later.

After a new coat of 50%-50% tung-oil - Xylazel this is the result. There are some dull spots left, but I'll remedy that later.


 Great web site/shop about tung-oil, and even the "boiled tung oil": http://www.hout-olie.nl/

Oil part 3

The day before yesterday was spent oiling and oiling. Today it is wind and possibly rainy, so we need the windows back in. But, the 100% tung oil is not the big success I was hoping for. Where did my shine go?

I should have applied it thinner, and I should have wiped the oil off after half an hour. But, I was lazy. Now I need to wait a few days till it has cured a bit more, then scrub, a light sanding, and back to my 50-50% mix of tung oil and Xylazel. Grmbl.

The wood is of course properly protected, but it's not as beautiful as it was.

Putting the windows and shutters back was today's job. I'm exhausted. Pff.

Oil part 2

This morning, up at 7 for the second coat of oil. Yesterday it was too warm, so no progress there.

← Look, it was like this a few days ago, behind the mosquito net.

And this is today, after the second coat oil. (First layer a full tin of Xylazel, topped up with tung-oil (+10%), the second layer is half that tin, topped up again with tung-oil, so more than 50% tung-oil.)

And the window itself.

And the other windows and shutters, in the workshop. See how they rest on their hinges on the floor, and with a knob to the wall, or with their glass onto something else.

Destaple part 2

> "Oil tomorrow. Tung!"

Well, no. There are quite a few more window frames that are in need of first aid. Apparently the house was plastered over later with quite a thick layer of plaster. Even over the edges of the wooden window frames. And, over older staples, that were left behind in big numbers. They were swines, to mistreat such beautiful wood by simply putting in staples, leaving them behind, rusting. They leave behind dark stripes and dots (holes!) that are hard to sand away, if at all.

So, I am chipping away the plaster, and removing the old staples, Then sand, coarse and fine. The edge around the windows is quite soft chalky material, I can remove it with an old screwdriver easily. The wood that was hidden has not suffered. No rot. Just a bit greyish. Nice wood!

I'll oil it till it can take no more. Then I'll restore the chalky stuff.

I'm in doubt whether I should stain the wood a bit dark(er). There is quite a colour difference between the areas where I removed the tired sun-dried top layer and the areas that were not in the sun. The old layer seems to have a dark colour of itself. My Tung oil and friends have just a light honey-colour. My first priority is to protect the wood again, but still, the appearance is important too.

Destaple

This house has a lot of wood. Wooden windows, wooden shutters, wooden window frames, wooden cupboards, a wooden work surface in the kitchen of about 8 meters, wooden doors, etc. The state is alright, though not terribly well maintained the past few years.

Like here, on the sun side. And we have a lot of sun. But maybe I have said that already.

On the outside it's not better. Au contraire. It is quite worse, because quite some windows have mosquito nets stapled to the outside. As mosquito net material does not last long that has been repeated a few times. And you obviously do not remove the old staples. So now I encounter them. All of them.

And, as each window in Spain has a thick iron racks ("rejas" in Spanish), it's not so easy to reach them. But I can, with a tiny mirror. And a knife to pry the staples a bit, a small screwdriver to do more prying, and a big screwdriver for even more prying. Then pliers to do the actual plieing.

And then you get this.

Admit it, this looks better already..

A surprise is that at the outside, between the stone wall and the window frame wood there is a cavity of about 1 cm, that was filled with something like gypsum or lime mortar. It was brittle enough to fall out here and there by just using the sander, which I have cunningly stuck through the rejas. The remaining stuff in the joints I could easily remove with just a small screwdriver. Which is nice, as I can now treat the wood that was behind this white stuff.

So what should I put back? Lime mortar? Gypsum? Those who dare to mention silicone sealant will be severely punished.

Oil tomorrow. Tung!

Tung

Tung oil. Made of nuts from trees in China. Well suited to treat wood with, instead of paint or lacquers.

And it so happened.