The Pudding

as in "the proof"

Here are some pictures showing the results of the glue up process that I described in the recent video. Early in my chair making, I discovered that I could get the grain pattern to become pronounced and visible through the paint, so, even on painted chairs, the patterns were important. The effect is cause by raised late wood fibers.

The glue lines that make up this 3 piece seat are obscured by the growth ring pattern on the seat

The pine seat has two densities, the hard dense early wood and the soft late wood. By the way, this is opposite of the ring porous hardwoods. When scraping the pine seat, the softer wood compresses more than the dense wood, which shears more cleanly. I scrape the seat, then sand it with 150 grit sandpaper, and then scrape it again to get rid of the scratches from the sandpaper. This process limits the sanding (huge plus in my book) and because the last action was scraping, the softwood is compressed. Later, when I use milk paint, the water in the paint causes the compressed softwood to puff up a tiny bit which reveals the grain pattern. After the first coat of paint, I sand the seat lightly with 220 grit to knock down the coarse fibers but am careful not to sand out the ridges. I like this look a lot. I don’t leave tool marks on my seats, wanting to focus the viewers attention on the shaping, but I also don’t want a homogeneous bland surface. I like the way that the grain pattern helps describe the shape of the seat, like a topographical map.

Careful scraping and thin paint helps reveal the layering of the growth rings

In case my droning on while scribbling on a piece of scrap wood in the video didn’t make sense, here is a pic of the board orientation for the glue up.

The only drawback that I’ve come across when using this technique is that the fibers where the glue lines meet ascend from the board at opposite directions, but cutting cross grain and taking light cuts tames the issue.