Raised panel doors and yacht varnish tips for the weary.

[D_W]

two handed scraper. I used this on the floor as you can let the long end drag on the floor and it will burnish smooth, then one hand on the top of the plane iron and you can sit and "row" with it, so you can literally do it for hours straight without a break.

this would work well for a door. It's just ground shallow then honed around 45 degrees with sandpaper on a board and the finish will burst to dust and come off in front of it as the edge and burr fracture it and blast it off.

Pulled askew across joints and with the corners cambered slightly, it will not tear anything out or gouge. The bosch dual mode sander with extremely coarse paper couldn't come close to matching it, even if it wouldn't have gummed with shellac.

When this is sharp, which sharpening becomes part of the work rhythm, you could put it on the flat panels in your doors and literally have no border area left - the finish will come off cleanly immediately where you start a stroke (no reason to turn it askew inside of a panel).

when the honed area starts to take too long to refresh quickly, then the grind is refreshed and you can repeat the whole process until the next grind. A grind occurs about once an hour and that's about it. Since it's HSS, the grind can be pretty heavy handed.

 

[D_W]

the blade is affixed to a large flat piece of cherry branch stuck over a wide dowel. the method to affix it is just a large washer and a lag bolt.

These irons are dandy for this stuff, they're hard and pretty tough and about $10 on alibaba. You could refinish 5 houses with a single one of them.

 

[Ttrees]

the blade is affixed to a large flat piece of cherry branch stuck over a wide dowel. the method to affix it is just a large washer and a lag bolt.

These irons are dandy for this stuff, they're hard and pretty tough and about $10 on alibaba. You could refinish 5 houses with a single one of them.

Be nice to get some HSS for the flat work, best stuff I have is likely a plane iron
honed @90 up the sides which I use for heavy work.
A divil for the unaware as it will gouge the underside of the cap fairly lively,
so I try and not work to the business end of that beater plane.

Made two blank profiles yesterday, the blu tack transfer was out by a country mile, lol!
But at least it gave a rough estimate on where to grind and file.
Next time I will use some masking tape so I can get the most important part done easier.
The vertical lines if you will is the most important, where the lines drawn on the masking tape would come into play,
then it's just a matter of getting the flats right, and finally the curves to fully seat the tool into the work,
Find a gap, flats and curves again.

It took me an age to make the first one, as I was learning a few things.
A really interesting study to honestly shape various profiles,
rather than think of things being like radii of differing diameters, this teaches one the hard lessons about profiles for one isn't used to making anything but roundovers.

I suppose this kinda thing is bet into someone studying in architecture, and that long round (in between the o's on "doors") was the most interesting to me,
A conflict of sorts for one not used to anything but a radius.

No abnormalities on the doors, although the tool needs skewing on some,
as you can move about panels in doors quite substantially, which I forgot to mention earlier whilst I was trying to get those tenons to seat home.

Time to make the tool now, and even with a perfectly shaped master,
the tool was still out by a lot.
I suppose the master is the profile, and then another tool made to copy this but
should be smaller by whatever percentage, so one can quickly make another tool in a few mins, as it took a half hour to make the second from scratch,
and still required the work to be done in hand at the scribe and profile, rather than in the vise.

The needle file assortment's, knife file and the half round was mostly used for the entire job.
Went heavy handed with the grinder and can report the marker ink lasts and doesn't require re-doing.

Done the guts of an hours work scraping today,
This would certainly be difficult to do by another method,
unless one has access to the real nitromorris in large quantities.

Cannot really show the tool working with one hand,
Only learning yet, seems possibly best procedure is to do the long grain first,
as not to wipe out the edge on the end grain with splits and whatnot.

Seems pretty inconspicuous ATM, maybe that will change when the end grain gets somewhat visible.
Going to see how the tool lasts and do a rough job of all the long edges like below,
and then end grain.
Should the tool require a touch up, then I can revisit some areas where the tool wasn't as keen to remove the old varnish afterwards.
Not too worried about the flats as a chisel could do that easily.

Not going to be fun using the tool with these upper panels, might need something better than a chair.

Tom

 

[thetyreman]

nice work with the custom profile, that looks like the hardest part out of the way.

 

[Ttrees]

nice work with the custom profile, that looks like the hardest part out of the way.

I was hoping so Ben, but this is proving to be a bit of a slog.

Hard work on the wrists even doing an upward swipe, and I've only started on the end grain today which is a bit more awkward.
I might change tack yet and make an individual profile for the long curve on the mullions, as those seem to take the most work, not sure why though,
Maybe these got a heavy going over with a sander or something, and the panels got
the Nitromors.

Then again it could be my scraper wasn't as accurate there either,
but I'd imagine it shouldn't be that off, as it is working good for some, admittedly
"some" being only about 40%,
and that's with a bit of skewing and whatever I can do, David's term "directed pressure" is being utilized here to some extent aswell, but still not getting down to it.
I do know that the base of the raised panels wasn't getting down to most, but a chisel will do that better and easier anyway.

Still haven't sharpened it, as it is still going an alright job, but did remove a bit of the wings/lands/whatever you call them, on the sides to allow for more skew without contact with the flat work.

Another strange thing is I'm finding the odd bit of filler mainly on that long curve but not enough to speculate that these got a rough going over.

Perhaps I should have tried getting my hands on the Nirtomors beforehand.
Might have to bite the bullet yet, but will try and get away without as I'm a bit skint.

Will keep up the pics to give an idea.
Looks like a dogs dinner at the moment, but thankfully still a bit invisible
and not standing out like work is being done on them.
(in my opinion)
Even if it is more obvious than I reckon, it might appear that the paint stripper was applied by say the landlord and just left for a while,
and I have nothing to do with any sort of woodwork at all.

Tom

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I was hoping so Ben, but this is proving to be a bit of a slog ...

Tom

This is what happens when you attempt to polish a cowpat.

 

[Ttrees]

Not sure if you've kept up with the thread @Phil Pascoe, but I have conceded defeat regarding getting all the finish off, as those gaps wouldn't close.
I will be staining again before a hefty coat or two of the clear yacht varnish.

I'm just trying to get all the loose stuff off, guessing the real Nitromors would have been the professional way for those who do this kinda thing.

Hoping the MS-11 goo will make an fairly inconspicuous join regarding the gaps.
It's likely the best colour match judging from the bottom of the tube.

Still not sure to apply beforehand or afterwards?

Tom

 

[Jacob]

Not sure if you've kept up with the thread @Phil Pascoe, but I have conceded defeat regarding getting all the finish off, as those gaps wouldn't close.
I will be staining again before a hefty coat or two of the clear yacht varnish.

I'm just trying to get all the loose stuff off, guessing the real Nitromors would have been the professional way for

Nope. The professional way would be a few coats of paint. It's well past the point of restoration - mainly due to poor maintenance from the start.

If you varnish it will show up all the defects more clearly and obviously.
But varnish should take paint OK so all is not lost!

 

[rogxwhit]

Still not sure to apply beforehand or afterwards?

I'd be tempted to stain first - it'll act as a primer for the sealant. Then go over the lot. But exterior stain products are normally self-sufficient, so I'm not convinced that varnish is necessary. I don't think that having it is enough reason to use it ...

On the other hand, my experience of stains is that they are pigmented enough to be translucent, but if you build up coats the opacity increases until it looks like paint - which somewhat negates the point of using a stain in the first place, since you lose all sense of the wood grain. I've seen re-coated stained joinery that looked as if it was covered in a layer of chocolate ...

One thing at a time, see how it goes ...

 

[Ttrees]

Thought I'd do an update regarding possibly advancing the tools effectiveness
as I still cannot seem to get to some areas like the walls of the copes.
Right or wrong, one thing is for sure that using a scraper like this at 90degrees
doesn't seem to work very well, though bearing in mind still that I have hacked a lot
of filler off, and done most of the scraping by now,
so perhaps I am being a bit hasty to jump to that conclusion.
It's obviously not the right shape for getting into the corners,
but that may not be of concern for someone who is making their own stuff.

Regardless, the tool if sharpened at roughly 90 wants to cut when about this mocked up one handed angle,
Being in good form today, I will try and see what I think now, knowing that this seems the way to go.
Whether that be for a big greedy complete profile swipe, or for a specific area which is kinda what I've been doing, being a bit of a numpty me thinks, and wasn't having a good time as it was inaccurate and taking a long long time.

So with the intention of having the tool angled, say somewhere between 45 and 55 degrees, when I make my mind up,
This brings me back to the tooling for the job.

At least being a galoot about the job made me figure the nicest way to sharpen it,
that the bottom flat of the tool needs good attention in regards to not bottoming out but still getting down to the bottom of the profiles,
and also highlighting that it is nice to have another door to keep an eye on the tool also.

I'm guessing with any template some error, or just some sharpening will require one to do it on the fly, rather than going back and fourth on the vise, and then it hit me, that the template should possibly be a negative instead for a better transfer.

Now with the knowledge of how much better the tool works whilst angled back, it makes two reasons for making another template, lol.

Perhaps a bit OTT to make another for a door job as there is more to this than that,
and I'm not sure if it would have been better off to copy the whole profile at that leaned back angle, rather than trying to achieve this using the negative
likely with the help of a good light or whatever, and sighting whilst passing both plates
to check for fouling.

Back to the doors again this seems not the tool for endgrain as you can see,
going to back off going past the finish, and use some sandpaper here.

So I've seemingly learned something regarding making some profiles up on my own
but there is another dimension which I've yet to solve in my brain
and that is the panels, perhaps when I get to a finer stage, I can tap the mullions and panels to get the tool into, but if not, I've yet to figure out what even the best, even if just theoretical plan might be.

 

[Inspector]

I think you should have approached the scraping with several shapes to do the complex profile as several simple ones. The one you have made is almost like the ones used to scrape a profile in raw wood when you make small projects. You can buy the scrapers or make your own and put each blade shape on its own handle to make switching fast.

https://www.amazon.ca/Allway-Tools-...ocphy=9001240&hvtargid=pla-313102784140&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/CHILI-TOOLS-...s=triangle+scraper&qid=1661528277&sr=8-2&th=1
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15506324...pxD5qF3AO8ewphZdwmfzlQic6O|tkp:Bk9SR775ga3bYA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W65L7...&pd_rd_r=c84ff0d3-44a5-42d7-b97e-1c5e7b33de69
Pete

 

[rogxwhit]

Good heavens, that looks suspiciously like - IROKO! ;-)

 

[Jacob]

Good heavens, that looks suspiciously like - IROKO! ;-)

Er - yes my thought too!

 

[Ttrees]

@Inspector This certainty has crossed my mind multiple times,
and might well have been the best approach to making these scrapers.
No shame in admitting that I'm spending way too long , a lot longer than anticipated, trying to do something which is an approach for a differing job,
but I still feel like squeezing as much pay off tips as I can, for more sensible things down the road.
I may well end up using the edge of a cheap chisel for those bits, and maybe some more individual shapes with the saw plate.


Hard to know if a variety pack of scrapers would be of use for other things,
it's kinda of the reason I haven't gone that direction yet, as it could mean making many.

@rogxwhit hopefully I can get it half decent and still apparent that it is actual timber, as I will have to stain it to make the colour match the MS-11 brown.
Pity there's still gaps an whatnot, as it is lovely looking in the sunlight, I'd like the colour as is
Yes I'm under no illusion that this will end up looking like a new door, but be nice to get it somewhat alright looking at a glance.

Cheers folks
Tom

 

[Ttrees]

I meant to post back earlier, but the job ended up not going so smoothly lol.

Used a few chisels to get the rest, not great results doing cross grain scraping, but
tolerable enough for the end grain

Followed by as much scraping with the grain as one can after

This bit of round stock was the best fit, but also used a slightly thicker rod also

This work was carried out too late for doing things the easy way, so I had to make a screen whilst I got the rest done.
Took quite a bit of head scratching to use something which wasn't metal, and found just enough waste pipe to do the job.
This was not a good idea, I shoulda made something decent before turning the shed upside down instead, grand for scraping, just about..
but not for the staining job.

Made up the sharpening station at hand

That shape seems about right for the job

Not sure what you wanna call this, rotting, spalting, weathering, whatever,
but no matter how much I scraped, I couldn't get down to clear timber,
and you wouldn't believe how many dustpans of shavings were produced from the job.

First bit of sanding, I think it's 80 grit, it made a nice job of it,
as some of those profiles were soft and brittle,
gave it back a bit of structure again getting down to the hard stuff.

Likewise with the end grain flat portions of the panels

 

[Jacob]

It does look like Iroko! What a waste of expensive hardwood! Maybe there was a local surplus and everybody was using it? Off back of a lorry?
I'd oil it with raw linseed, then paint with linseed-oil paint.

 

[Inspector]

Man I never would have put that much work into a place I was renting unless the landlord was going to give me many months of free rent. Come to think of it I wouldn't have put the effort into my own house.

You might not ever get them looking new but they look much better.

Pete

 

[rogxwhit]

It's good to see such dedication, even if it makes me feel slightly exhausted. ;-)

 

[Ttrees]

I was just about to start staining when I opened the door, and one of the weatherboards remained with the storm guard strip

These will need to be remade in future

Right, onto the staining of these doors.
Having to do something which wasn't so basic, I learned a lot as a first timer,
since I was looking for a dark appearance to hide the brown sealent to be used after staining,
and the fact the timbers had some weathering, which needed a bit of artistic work.

Firstly do it in good time during summer weather, as I found out to my disappointment,
The temporary screen (which ended up being not so temporary at all)
likely didn't help with drying,
Terrible idea it was as when it became stormy, the flappy plastic decided to stick,
which took a bit more Bob Rossing to sort

It was half alright before that, (pictured underneath before disaster)

I ended up getting some string and making sure that wouldn't happen again,
which turned my screen into a kite for all of one second before dismantlization.

Not to say this would have went smoothly if above didn't happen,
Only so if the screen were well made and easy to place and unplace,
as one would find it easier to do the frame, not to mention,
being covered in stain after doing so,
It does one no favours in regards to using raking light from a lamp to actually see what one is doing.
A horrible sceanario I made for myself, and will have to revisit this next year.

Might as well mention some things which I was none the wiser about.
Rightly or wrongly
I liberally coated these doors with a rag using white spirit, and it was nearly
dry before applying a Sadolin original stain, thinned at a ratio of about
3 parts white spirit, to 2 parts stain.

The above picture before disaster, was what one could say is
a coat and a half.
This was because the consistency of the mix changed, and the colour was off between doors.
I should have divided the mix into two equal parts before starting.
The paint brush sticking was more noticeable than the colour change at the job,
quite evident here, so something needed to be done,
which added about an extra fortnight of drying time.
I got fed up with it, and started other jobs, and might have noticed the pressing issue of the plastic if I were not distracted.

Going back to the mix again, worth noting that three parts w/spirit, to two parts stain,
is about as light as one can go, in regards to running,
Lighter than this, and the white spirit moves the stain off the work (when vertical anyway)
Possibly I went a bit light on the stain, as I want brown but still obviously a timber appearance to match sealant, even though those upper panels below are a lovely colour, they don't match.

Hopefully it'll be alright until next summer.

 

[Ttrees]

It does look like Iroko! What a waste of expensive hardwood! Maybe there was a local surplus and everybody was using it? Off back of a lorry?
I'd oil it with raw linseed, then paint with linseed-oil paint.

I've still got this tin of yacht varnish, so that will hopefully provide a durable clear coat without too much bother (in good weather, I might add.)
Just getting the shed back to normal, as I've got lots of iroko from doors and the likes.
It's near exclusively used here for outdoor applications, since how ever long,
a lot is from demolition work, rather than decay, not that I haven't came across some rotten examples, its usually neglected and glass doors if it is.
I'd sooner use it for indoor applications, as I think it's quite nice most of the time,
some mineral deposits can be unsightly though, and with that much colour variance so I suppose selection is key.
Bit "tropical" for some folks taste, as in industry has likely pillaged the forests
of the Ivory coast and Ghana for it,
but not so guilty if you salvage it from skips before it gets turned to pulp.

Man I never would have put that much work into a place I was renting unless the landlord was going to give me many months of free rent. Come to think of it I wouldn't have put the effort into my own house.

You might not ever get them looking new but they look much better.

Pete

It's all part of life as a tenantworthy occupant who's worth keeping around.
Got a bit of landscaping done for lawnmower storage,pushed meself bit too far with the barrow, so best take it easy for a bit, and do some more organizing.
Looking forward to getting the workshop a bit more practical, if even for just getting the doors opened in summer.
Cheers
Tom