Expert: Jamie Yocono - 12/9/2007

Question
QUESTION: i just bought a hemlock aged beam for my stone, wood burning fireplace replete with dents and other minor imperfections which I find desirable. It will be 8' long, 14" deep, 3" thick. It's dirty from lying around the "yard" for who knows how long and I would like to have a finish that is not too dark and not too light. the "yard" guys took a sample, cleaned it up a bit, and poly'd it and it came out quite dark. I think the wood's over 100 years old. It has a great patina to it but it's a bit dark for it's surroundings.

1. Can I/should I wash it with soap and water to clean it?
2. How much sanding?
3. They said to just put a poly finish on it with light sadning in between coats.
4. I saw your other posts suggesting an oil finish. I'm all ears on suggested cleaning and finishing ideas.

Any help greatly appreciated.

ANSWER: Hi Edward,

Hi,

Sounds like a great piece of wood you've got there, I'll try to help.

I'm guessing, but the wood is probably in need of two things- a good cleaning, and then a good treatment to protect it. For cleaning, I would use something that's a little oil-based, like Murphy's Oil Soap. You can find it in most places - grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. I would buy the full strength version, and then follow the directions on the label, using something a little abrasive to scrub it. A soft brush, or even one of those 3M scrubbies would work. You want to deep clean it, to get all the dirt, dust, and grime out of the pores.

Wipe it clean and let it dry, and you're done with the first step.

As for finishing, I think it's pretty much going to do what it wants to do - meaning you're going to be stuck with the color, whatever it is. It's the character and the "feel" of the wood that you will be able to control. See, there are two types of finishes - surface finishes simply sit on top of the wood, and protect it like a sheet of plastic. These include polyurethane, shellac, and lacquer.

But oil finishes penetrate - as you've probably read in my past answers. Oil soaks in, and protects from within. Along the spectrum of oil finishes, some are more durable than others, some dry better, some protect better. I think for your situation, just about anything will do - you just want to have some protection and keep it from drying out. See, if it's been in the yard for a long time, it's probably got a high moisture content. So once you clean it and bring it indoors, it will start to lose it's moisture and fry out. This will probably cause some cracking, and it could get bad.

So here is my suggestion - I would use a combination of oil and poly. Oil is for color development and deep restoration and rejuvenation to the wood cells. And the poly is to protect it from losing moisture too quickly.  

When I was in college, I took quite a few sculpture classes.  One class was to carve something functional out of a freshly cut log.  In order to slow down the moisture loss - because a freshly cut piece of wood can be like 80% water - was to coat the ends of wood (where the log will lose most of it's moisture quickly) with poly. So every time I would carve it, I would re-coat the freshly cut places with poly. It worked very well, I had very little checking and splitting with that log, which I turned into a small desk. Wish I had a good picture of it!

Anyway, going back to your piece - you want to slow down the moisture loss, so after oiling it - you need to let it dry and cure, probably a week or so. Longer if it's in a cold area, like your basement or in a garage. Then give it a couple of coats of poly. If you do it carefully, you might be able to just coat the ends in poly, because that's where you're going to get the majority of the moisture loss.

As far as sanding, I would only sand as much as you need to. So if there's an area that's particularly splintery, then of course, sand it. But it's not going to be in an area where it will get a lot of "traffic" so it's not like a rough surface will hurt anything. Unless you want it ultra smooth, the finest grit I would use would be around 100 grit.  But this really depends on you and your tastes.

Anyway, a couple things to remember - you can't apply the poly over the oil without letting it cure. So allow enough time for the oil to dry thoroughly. You might want to thin the poly down - it will absorb better and not look so visibly different from the oiled sections. I would apply 2 coats of oil, about a day apart. Then 2-3 coats of poly a week later.

OK, that should be enough to get you started. Good luck, write back if you need any more help. Happy holidays,

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Jamie, very helpful. The beam was apparently kept under roof and is quite dry. I couldn't believe how light it was (to pick up). It has it's share of cracks already and we cut those pieces out from a long section of the stock. I'm cool with the cleaning. I was just going to use warm water and a stiff brissle brush as it's quite dirty but thanks for the Murphy's oil soap idea...I have lots of that on hand.

We just built a new house in the country french style. It's not rustic but it's surely not modern. I would call it comfortable. I guess pictures would be worth a thousand words but I'm trying to find a finish and tecture that plays well with the room.

My fear is oversanding or not sanding enough. I'm trying to find that happy medium. I agree, the color is what it is. It's shades of light and dark depending on the bumps and bruises and some of the grain. The original patina is quite dark, almost black in some areas when a test oiling is applied without much sanding. But now I guess we're in the realm of customer preference.

I'm inclined to sand it down ultra smooth. I get a honey color which looks quite nice. Again it's an old piece of Hemlock. Am I taking it too far by oversanding?


Answer
Edward,

I think you're over thinking this piece of wood, I hope it's OK to tell you that. If you want it ultra smooth, then by all means, you should sand it well. But it's possible that sanding it might change the character of the beam, it certainly will affect the patina.

The really dark sections are probably caused by water damage. Wood with high tannic acid in it's make-up will react with water (moisture) to cause black spots. The black stain usually runs pretty deep, so sanding doesn't help a great deal. I refinished an oak floor, where a houseplant had leaked over time, and the black stain was really difficult to remove. I ended up using wood bleach. You might want to Google "Wood bleach" and read about it, it might help some. It's probably available at a good paint store, I bought some recently at Sherwin Williams.

Honestly, it's up to you - but I think after the beam is in place, you're not going to be that affected by whether you sanded it well or not. So if you want to do it, by all means, grab that sander and put on a dust mask! No telling what sort of microbes are in that wood. Don't breathe it!

Good luck, happy holidays,

Jamie Yocono
www.wooditis.com