Replies

1. 
   lat_axe | Dec 05, 2020 04:09am | #1

   Heh.

   Have a read of this:

   https://blog.lostartpress.com/?s=finishing

   It's a blog by that Christopher Schwarz about why he didn't finish writing a book about finishing. It relays an opinion I've long held - that there's too much attention and effort paid to " ....how much toddler can the varnish on this table take? One toddler? Perhaps 2.3 toddlers?"

   There's lots of other discussion, not least about the prevalence in the US market of finishes containing lots of dangerous volatile substances. And the liking for consumables that look like cartoons of themselves.

   ********
   A kitchen or a dining table is a good example. The basic question is: do you want this as a functioning table (to prepare food on or to eat from) or is it a decorative object, like a fancy vase you never use to hold anything? Another question is: do you want it to look like a real functioning object or like an ideal thing from outside of Plato's cave (i.e all shiny and straight-from-the-factory look)?

   The subject comes up regularly here. There are two main camps.

   The dominant one is the US traditional camp: put on lots of protective coats then lots of make-it-shiny-and-tough coats. (4 toddler-proof & idealised-object approach).

   The other main camp is: use an easily-applied finish that's not very toddler-proof but is easily repaired without having to remove the whole finish if a little bit gets scratched, so the thing always looks "nice".

   There's a third camp: a minimum finish (e.g. a coat of wax) or even none, since bare wood has it's own charm if kept clean; especially on a highly functional item.

   Lataxe, failing to answer your question. :-)

2. 
   lat_axe | Dec 05, 2020 06:21am | #2

   PS That's handsome wood. I wish we had such stuff here.

   Wiki tells me it's a member of the legume family, with relatives such as Laburnum, of which there's tons around here (West Wales). But I've not seen Laburnum used as a furniture timber except in the form of decorative "oysters" - cross sections of smallish tree trunks that have nice grain patterns and colour variations.

   Lookit all these down just one little back road! In Spring there are thousands of them in the hedges, blooming mightily.

   The seed pods are said to be toxic when uncooked. Many farmers in England root out laburnums in case their sheep and cattle eat the seeds. But there is lots of sheep and cattle in West Wales too, along with the thousands of extant and blooming laburnum trees. There doesn't seem to be a stock-poisoning problem here. Perhaps the Welsh Dollies and Ermintrudes are wiser than the English ones and so avoid the black pea pods?

   Lataxe