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[Full Video] - Spare Parts #14 - French Polishing A Piece Of Red Morrel Burl

That lovely chunk of wood has kept me busy this week, and here's a bit of detail on the finishing process. The full clock episode video will follow in a few days.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Full Video] - Spare Parts #14 - French Polishing A Piece Of Red Morrel Burl

Comments

I just put this one live Paul; please share away :)

Clickspring

Thanks! I know how those sort of issues can be. As long as you weren't thinking of leaving this as a Patreon-only video, that's all I need to hear! Good luck with your struggle!!

Paul Grodt

Hey Paul, I'm having some issues uploading the main clock video at the moment. My home internet keeps dropping out every 12 hours, and the video needs at least 24hrs to upload - I've spent the last 4 days just trying to upload it to YT, but still no luck. My original plan was to get both of these new videos to patrons first, and then release them both at the same time. I'm having another crack at it tonight, so will keep you posted.

Clickspring

I've been thinking about it for a couple days now, and I sincerely think there are a couple subreddits (/r/woodworking, /r/finishing) that would get a particularly big kick out of this one. Any chance of making this public any time soon? I'd love to share it; it seriously is just gorgeous.

Paul Grodt

I've tried french polishing before but I didn't get anything like the incredible result you have achieved. Brilliant work Chris!

John Creasey

Cheers Al :)

Clickspring

Yes spot on with the fly cutter PJ, it did a great job, but a bit messy!

Clickspring

Beautiful finish on a very nice piece of wood. It will be a nice complement to polished brass clockworks. thanks!

Al McKague

Incredible finished piece Chris...could look at that for hours and the perfect match in color and style for your fine time piece. The top and bottom surfaces appear to be really parallel. Did you fly or surface cut the top and bottom surfaces on the mil also or just sand/plane?? Breath taking...Thanks Much! ~PJ

PJ

I got my fix.......I will be OK now..........just awesome craftsmanship

kevin todd

Chris, that hunk of wood looks fantastic. Totally in keeping with the rest of the clock.

Rob C

Chris, that is another fantastic video. I've been a (very amateur) woodworker for decades, but learn about a very traditional technique from a machinist. Thanks for being such a good teacher.

Charlie Robinson

A gorgeous piece of timber to complement your clock mate and really good work on the french polishing. Ive only used the technique once when i made a guitar but i know what you mean by time consuming! That burl really glows now that you have it polished, what a perfect finish!

James Finniss

Thanks! Just finished the vid. Your technique is fantastic; a delight to watch. You covered what I spent hours researching my first time pretty much completely in just a few minutes. I love it. And that burl absolutely EXPLODES when properly finished. I think I'm going to have to track down some of this stuff. I expect I'd probably hate french-polishing if I was a professional, but as a hobbyist, I find the process to be extremely satisfying. As always, keep up the incredible work!

Paul Grodt

Hey Paul - It came to me approx 18mths from cutting so reasonably dry, but I suspect it was still a bit away from being totally dry. I took the feed very slowly, so its giving off some nice chips on the side cut, but it was mostly fine powder coming off the top surface. We'll see if it keeps moving, but I think it will be ok.

Clickspring

Whoa, hold on a moment! I'm a woodworker, and I'm writing this comment while paused at 0:20. Now I _love_ french polishing (even if it does have a slightly over-hyped mythos), so I'm very excited that Clickspring, the master of build-vid cinematography is doing a vid on the topic. But I've got questions before you jump into that process! I guess, mainly: how have I never heard of red mallee burl before?!? I've never seen wood burl even close to that stuff! It looks incredible! A web search tells me it's an Australian wood, and that's a pretty long distance to ship to the US. But, for example, we import tropical woods from deep South America and Africa all the time. Why don't I ever see this at my specialty wood supply? No fair! The way it is machining in that brief footage is mind-blowing. If you were to try that with burl-walnut, it would tear to shreds, but this stuff is machining like a slab of wax! What gives? Is this stuff vacuum-impregnated with resin or something? It has to be, right? The only other explanation would be if it was green-wood, and that wouldn't make any sense to work with... OK, now that that's out of my system, I can watch the rest of this vid.

Paul Grodt


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