Spice of Life

That would be variety.  It's the spice of life.  Anyway, I guess that's my awkward way of saying that this post is not about sewing or knitting or any other craft that I do on a typical day.  It's about WOOD!

A family friend brought me a slab of elm from a tree that was cut down.  He figured I'd come up with something to do with it.  

He was right 

(Coffee Table.  Duh.)

but first it sat in my garage for over a year.

It had to dry plus I just didn't know where to start.  

So much advice out there but so many of the finishing options were just too toxic for me.

My husband brought home some heavy duty caster wheels but still...it sat.  

Finally, I lost my patience with myself. I started yapping about it to anyone who would listen (all part of my process).  

A co-worker told me about a woodworking store in town - I must have passed it a million times but never thought of going in.  I'm so glad I finally did, all my good free advice came from there.  

They were very helpful and told me that Tung Oil is the goo for me.  It's really good for porous surfaces - which, I learned, Elm, totally is, and it is petroleum distillate free.  It actually hardens the wood from the inside - whatever that means.  It lets you see the wood as it actually looks, not darkened and it's water and alcohol resistant.  It's advertised as  "one of the first 'Green' finishes" on the website.  

Oh, Tung Oil, you had me at petroleum distillate free. 

I wish I had some 'before' pictures.  Bad blogger.  

I do have a couple of progress pictures.  

This is right as I started when I finally thought of taking a slightly before picture.  I spent two days removing the bark (that part was easy) and sanding (that part was soooo time consuming).  I was ready to move on.

That's it, though.  I took these picture only moments ago.  I've got coat one done and and will move on to coat 2 in...40 minutes.  I'll keep going every hour till I get tired and then get back to it tomorrow.  I'm a little nervous about the wheels being even.  Do I need to be?  I guess this would be learning by doing.

I'll post some more pictures as I get further along.  

Sometimes it's nice to be easily distracted.