Clean Wood

Not a ton of exciting stuff this weekend, but more just pure elbow grease of finishing up the woodwork in preparation for staining. I left the room with most of the woodwork washed down with TSP. There were a few window and door moldings that needed a final TSP scrub down so I hit those with a Brillo pad and brass brushes to try and get all the remaining white paint off the wood. After all the TSP scrubbing is done, the next step is washing everything down boiled linseed oil soap. Not sure the soap really does anything but since I’m about to apply boiled linseed oil, I assume this will be a bridge between the stripper/TSP/boiled linseed oil.

Wood washed with TSP and then boiled linseed oil soap.

After the wood dries I then give it a quick sanding with 150 grit and then 220 if it’s still rough and then apply a 50-50 mix of turpentine and boiled linseed oil. This darkens the wood a bit. I hear the oil “rejuvenates” the wood, but that may end up being bullshit and sounds like some hippie talk.

Applying the boiled linseed oil. Pro Tip: Leave the rags soaked in boiled linseed oil all bunched up to provide a free heating source during the winter.

Finished applying boiled linseed oil.

I tried sealing the gas pipe with Floetrol, but that failed and immediately afterward all the rust reappeared. This time I’ll try boiled linseed oil as a rust prevention. First I re-apply the Rustoleum rust dissolver and the after rinsing that off, I use the oil.

We’ll see if the oil keeps the rust away this time.

I have enough time to also get a coat of paint on the ceiling with the woodwork now drying from the oil. I go back to the clay paint I bought for the bathroom since that worked OK and will let the plaster breathe.

It has a butterfly on the label so it must be all natural.

Painting the ceiling. Not a huge difference in color between the natural plaster and clay paint.

Painted ceiling.

Last up is more tinkering with the shellacked door. I rubbed out the door using fine grit sandpaper along with steel wool. It is nice and smooth but the shellac finish is a little hazy from the rubbing. I want it to be a satin finish but not hazy so I looked into some solutions eliminate the haze. One thing I saw on Youtube was putting a rag in a jar with some alcohol in it to let the fumes soak into the rag. Then rub out the shellac with the moist rag. The idea is that the alcohol will remelt the shellac and get rid of the haze. I try this, but it doesn’t make a big difference. Plan B is to go with a French Polish approach and make a rubber with cotton and a cloth. Take a ball of cotton fill, wrap a rag around it, and then load it up with some diluted shellac. Then vigorously rub the shellac out with the rubber loaded with shellac. This seems to work a lot better and it seems like the haze is gone. This technique is used to give a glassy surface so I don’t go nuts with it and after 1-2 applications I’m happy. Now I will try applying paste wax with steel wool to see if that de-glosses things without haze.

Rubbed out door using a French Polish technique.

Less white haze.