Ok, I admit I am a relative newbie to wood. My timber framing class (week long) is coming up in two weeks. The extent of my wood refinishing is sanding down a shovel handle and applying some minwax stain and some polyurethane. When I start with small timberframing projects after my class (I have reclaimed 100+ year old pine barn timbers and some 5 year old white oak beams), I know I will want to finish them with something. Even if a beam is rough sawn, I may want to keep the surface finish but apply something that will smooth the surface like the polyurethane does. What type of products should I experiment with? I also would probably like playing with color (stains) but then want a smooth type of finish over that. There was mention of Land Ark Oil in one post. What is that? Does it give a smooth finish or only color?
How would you finish these hewn beams? I would want to keep the hewn look but smooth over the wood to create a smooth splinterless feel to the finish.
hewn timbers
Oh I should also mention that I have been doing auto restoration and body and paint work for many years so I do have a level of skil in applying finishes. I do understand that many are done by hand on wood though. Any information or advice welcome.
Thanks, Brad

Each to their own, but I consider hand hewn beams and posts to be finished. Adding polly or paint may trap moisture. For a really smooth finish sharpen your pane iron razor sharp with a slight crown to the cutting edge and give it a go. Pushing the plane at a 45 deg. angle across the grain will leave a smooth scalloped surface to work with.
The biggest reason I don't like adding finishes is I just don't like doing it.

kfhines

Any finish that creates a coating that will seal the wood will seal in moisture. The wood will rot from the inside, it has been said.
Wood needs to breath.
Only apply poly to completely dry timbers, if ever...
If you want smooth timbers then don't work with hand hew stuff, work with planed stuff, or re-work hand hew by the method mentioned above.
Most timbers are just oiled, for color and preserving....
Just my opinions....

Good info to know. Thanks guys. Any other comments welcome.
I was at a store called Rockler last night just checking it out. I looked at the finishes. My retired uncle in another state works part time at a Rockler store. I was looking at the oil based stains and water based ones. I assume stains would let the wood breath too? Do you then oil after staining if you wanted a certain color/look?
I also noticed Shellac. What is Shellac used for?
Is tung oil the same type of product as the Land Ark oil?
Poly and other sealing finishes are applied to furniture all the time, and I don't think they rot from the inside? Isn't a timber frame like a big piece of furniture? I understand that you wouldn't want to seal a green timber. But I would think on a well seasoned timber...it would probably be ok, no? Maybe if you sealed it on three sides or left some area exposed for moisture to leave or enter? I'm thinking about kids getting splinters if it's not smooth. I appreciate any knowledge, experience or opinions you may have for me.

Todays flavor was gray oil based porch floor paint with a floor sander

Jim is right, film forming finishes can make a composting bag for green timbers, Sikkens is particular about being under 19% for that reason. I've seen it and poly come off green timbers in sheets, the vaporizing moisture blew it right off.

Shellac would qualify as film forming. Sanding, not finish build, is how to smooth wood. An Osborne brush does a pretty good job of smoothing hewn or rough sawn wood without removing the character. It is a cup type brush like a wire cup with abrasive embedded nylon bristles. I used one to clean up an old log cabin and was quite pleased with the results.

Land Ark is pine rosin and other "natural" resins and oils that make a breathable finish that is water repellant. What you are shooting for normally in large timbers with unknown moisture inside is a finish that will repel water droplets but will allow water vapor to escape. In log construction where the timber is exposed, bulk water can often enter through a check. It takes alot of "breathability" to let that amount of vapor back out before it raises the moisture content of the wood into the danger zone. Any of their finishes should do a good job on a timberframe also.

If you know a timber is dry and will stay that way, your old barn beams in an enclosed structure, then there is reason to use a tough film forming finish. Mrs powderpost beetle can't bite through the finish to uncap cells to poke her ovipositor in.

I tried linseed oil, and boiled linseed oil. The idea of using a natural (or somewhat natural product in the case of boiled linseed oil) appealed to me. Unfortunately, both seemed to leave us with timbers that always feel a little oily to the touch, even though it may not be putting any oil on your hands. Worst part though is that it seems virtually impossible to wipe greasy/grimy fingerprints off of timbers that have been treated with linseed oil. We are in the process of sanding the linseed oil off of most of our timbers and applying polyurethane. (Following the lead of a friend who treated his timberframe with nothing but polyurethane, after the frame was raised and dried in) No small task, but the difference is like night and day... in terms of appearance, feel, and clean-ability.

I had planned to wait about 6 years and simply go over top of the linseed oil with poly, but our timbers were just too dirty for us to move in and follow through with that plan. Our timbers measured about 21% with a moisture meter before we started the conversion to polyurethane. Meter was the type w/o pins/probes - I assume it was measuring only the first inch or two of wood. Most of the timbers were sawed about 2 years ago and have been kept dry since then. Of course, now that the frame is "dried in", most timbers have 1 or 2 faces that are unseen/unfinished... as well as multiple checks, so it would seem to me that any remaining moisture will be able to escape. The loss in effective surface area possibly offset by inevitably "dry" heat the first winter we move in. (this winter!?)

Maybe I'm crazy? Anyone LIVING in a raw-wood timberframe, or oil treated timberframe who is able to speak for the "cleanability" of these types of finishes?

-Thomas

Great discussion. Exactly what I was looking for. Hope it continues.

Did not cut the oil with turp. Did not apply it hot. Have however dipped my bee hive boxes in boiling paraffin (sounds almost like french fries when they go in)... the hives are still in good shape 4 years later.

Good point about oily rags. I hung around our house site late one evening just relaxing and witnessed a smoking linseed oil rag. It might have gone into flames had I not been there to carry it outside - it was black inside and hot enough to burn my hand. Rag fires are for real. Now we take every rag outside and lay it out flat on the dirt or a rock. When I was a kid I watched my neighbor's house burn - oily rag was thrown in the trash can. Recently, a local newly built log cabin caught on fire... they were in the "finishing stages." Hmmm, I suspect oily rags there as well. We take oily rags very seriously.

question still stands... anyone living in a house with raw or oiled timbers? what happens when you touch them with a greasy hand? can the timbers be cleaned? (mine could not, short of sanding)

-Thomas

Around here RLO ends up black usually, BLO fares a little better. You can kick it a little harder with japan dryer, that's basically more of the metals and whatever nasties they use to "boil" it.
I kinda like danish oil with Waterlox over it, which is really just hand rubbed cut varnish. Easy to repair, poly is a bit tougher and tougher to repair.

I've had close calls with rags too, homeowners are the most casual. I've had to be pretty blunt with our current clients a couple of times when they have "helped" over the weekend and left rags inside. We typically take em out and torch them at the end of the day just to be done with the potential.

Has anyone used Livos? It's a linseed oil based product made in Germany.

With any oil-based finish, do you coat all 4 sides of everything? (Joinery, post bottoms and tops, surfaces covered by paneling or facing into wall cavities, etc.)