Silver Birch WIP questions....

[ChrisF]

Hi, posting this here as it's a WIP rather than a finished piece.....

Two questions if I may:

1) How stable is the bark likely to be over time?  i.e. does it need some sort of stablisation or should it be ok left on its own?

2) Sanding is a pain....there's a sort of coating that looks, and to an extent feels, like emulsion paint (magnolia, if you're interested), which does seem to sand away to leave the more (what I think of as) typical light brown colour, but not all over.  The inside is particularly 'bad'.  Is this just part of the natural colouration?  I'm not sure what's going on or whether I should be trying to sand it away....

[john taylor]

Thin super glue and soak both the inside and outside.

The reason I say this is that I have had bark on silver birch come off in the past so now I always make sure it is well glued on.   If you have a poundland near you go to their DIY section and they now sell a range branded Tommy Walsh, part of this is a 20g bottle of thin super glue, excellent stuff.

I have had discoloration like you mention on a couple of pieces sanded them down and on one it partly came back on the other it was never seen again.

john

[seventhdevil]

the bark will come off if the sap had risen when the tree was felled.

bark usually stays on when the tree is dormant so if you can find out when the tree was felled that would help you alot.

to the best of my knowledge the bark on silver birch should shrink at a comparable rate to the wood so no stabilisation should be needed.



the colouration you are referring to appears to be natural and if the wood is not 100% dry then you will get unusual colours in some timber.

[ChrisF]

Thanks guys, it came down last October so hopefully will be fine.

Chris