Burnishing - Strive for the Best Surface Before You Apply Finish.

[@davidhrutfiord2537]

Think of the cellulose wall structures of the cells as a bunch of rooms in a building. When you cut them off you end up with shiny floors and cut off walls. Burnishing wipes out the half cut walls, leaving only the flat floors. You might find that grain orientation maks a difference when there are no flat floors. Hope I didn't loose you there.

[@MrPod15]

I used shavings and sawdust to burnish when an apprentice! Now I have a little more experience and expertise (40+years) I use my cherished burnishing bars and rods. Depending on the species and grain I use either Mahogany, Oak, Beech or Ebony. I would recommend not burnishing before staining or colouring as closed pores prevent any depth to your finish. I recommend a therapeutic practice to decide on the finish required before staining shellacking varnishing or French polish. Enjoy your your new skill.

[@michaeldoto4673]

I think we need to divide this into two categories: burnishing and polishing. Polishing uses an abrasive compound ranging in grit size sizes from course to extremely fine. The finer the grit, the higher the reflective properties thus giving it a shine or polished appearance. Burnishing accomplishes the same end goal, but does not use an abrasive. Rather, burnishing compresses the surface fibers with a material equal to or harder than material to be burnished. This is why bone, stone, steel, or wood fibers (brown paper) all work to burnish wood. As the surface is continuously compressed, it’s reducing surface scratches and imperfections until it reaches a point where it’s surface takes on a reflective appearance. I think this is why the terms polishing and burnishing have become synonymous-they achieve the same end result (within reason) although by different methods. I hope this makes sense.

[@RavensViewStudio]

Good vid mate. I always use brown paper before I add a finish... but, I also use it to burnish up after using an oil. Adds to the shine quite nicely. Jay

[@vincenthunter465]

Always learn something from you. You're a good teacher. Thanks, Shawn.

[@CNKXU1]

Pecancrete. Love it. Always great to see the different timbers you have available as it is just not econimical in Australia to use anything but local timber. But the techniques are universal. Thanks for the tips.

[@danieltomasjr.5871]

Thank you for the master class in every video you always give us. You are a master and I follow every lesson. Thank you sir.

[@greggerstner5599]

Picked up this tip from a spoon carving vid as well. A British woman carver in my case -- perhaps she learned from your source. In addition to polished stone, I've tried bone, antler, shavings, paper, and a small-ring chain mail pot scrubber. Works beautifully and these methods put a wonderful tactile finish that you couldn't get with micromesh. A customer showed me a red cedar spatula thing that he'd carved decades ago. Not much to look at, but the texture! -- decades of daily handling and at the time I knew that I could never achieve that feel with sandpaper. Burnishing comes very close. Trying to sand less and less. Hate sanding. And now you should invent a power burnisher for big flatwork projects. Awesome video, and good on you for putting out yet another game-changer.

[@johnnyb95678]

As always, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. Thank you for sharing!

[@loucinci3922]

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing

[@orellinvvardengra6775]

I know you said your mic didn’t pick up the sound all to well but I could hear the difference when you were rubbing your finger across. This was a nice video, thanks for the information!

[@soofihasan]

Thank you sir, you teach me the most interesting ideas and amazing tips. Thank you and God bless

[@garyfoster3076]

You are the MAN. Nice job❤

[@sixsigma1000]

Just luv your films/vids❤

[@puddinggeek4623]

Excellent video as always. I have used the brown paper truck for a while, ever since I saw Steve Ramsay WWMM do it. Keep up the great work.

[@markduggan3451]

Great video, with lots of information.

[@OregonOldTimerWOODTURNING]

Thanks for this. I'll be trying it today.

[@dpmeyer4867]

thanks, good info

[@1Dataware123]

Great Video. Thanx!

[@SnakeAndTurtleQigong]

Thanks very much

[@gregshoopman9170]

Thanks Shawn

[@thomashverring9484]

Great video! Thanks, Shawn :^)

[@ernestoalonsoYT]

Very interesting and mind opening. I knew about this, but I always thought it would affect the amount of finishing the wood would absorb. Great explanation as always. Thank you, Shawn!

[@medic472]

Thanks for the tip. I usually water pop in the final stages of sanding. I wish I was good enough at the lathe to go right to finish. I'll try burnishing to see if that gives me the results I'm looking for.

[@AffordBindEquipment]

White Scotch Brite (1000 grit) does the same thing. Or start with light grey (800 grit) and then white. Changed my turning finishing completely. Sandpaper just wasn't getting gloss enough.

[@changefortanzania]

I have put a few wood chips on the white scotch.Bright pad on my wood turning and use it to burnish it very well. Then my last step is to use the scotch.Bright pad with no wood chips. Then I finish it with ob.Shine juice and final step is hard wax and then polished. Best finish I've ever gotten. And it only takes a few minutes. On my wood turned items.

[@etcher6841]

Thanks mate!

[@yotamgosh]

I know that traditional clay pottery uses smooth stones (especially very hard ones) to burnish the clay pots before firing them Also, is the spoon carving burnishing you mentioned a video? Is there a link?

[@WhoOwl-o4f]

Fine sandpaper works well also

[@wortheffort]

Boat same, see video.

[@HansWurst12345]

for non porous wood like beech, burnishing with fine steel wool is the best ive yet found. Result feels almost like injection molded plastic

[@ianpearse4480]

Have you ever tried Agate? I have used it to burnish gold leaf, now I am wondering about wood prep.

[@wortheffort]

Nope. Do it and tell us.

[@Exodus5K]

If you're going to burnish large flat furniture parts, why not try using a straw burnisher (otherwise known as a French Polissoir)? Although I would be interested to know if it impacts the ability of the wood to absorb oil finish.

[@williamno.1450]

For spoon carving, you can use anything hard, such as the back of the knife you were carving with, I have used antler/bone, or some sort of ceramic.

[@msifert]

It's like in working with concrete on floors you can , power trowel it , and it becomes harder. If you "hard trowel it", 3 times longer than power troweling, it starts to turn black and shiny, this makes it slippery when wet and brittle on the surface. This surface is nice in a woodworking area because it's easy to sweep up dust from.

[@skipjames8437]

I'd say burnishing (& sanding) is pretty much done by ear (& feel). You only look at it to see where to put your hands, ( & to admire your work when you're done).

[@qapla]

Burnishing can make a vast difference on a lathe ... try using #0000 or finer steel wool (they do make #000000) followed by paper - doesn't have to be a brown paper bag, newspaper of copier paper also work (newspaper should be used without the print unless a little ink transfer doesn't impact your project)

[@mypony891]

So if you put a stain or oil on the project should you still burnish afterwards?

[@wortheffort]

burnish before finish. its prep work.

[@executive]

it makes me wonder though, if burnishing lays the fibres down, does applying a finish (eg. oil) are they just going to stand back up again

[@wortheffort]

Burnishing isn't really laying fibers down. Which is why I demonstrated on sliced wood not sanded (abraded).

[@bryanlloyd6024]

Is burnishing meant to be a replacement for sanding or something you do before sanding?

[@changefortanzania]

It is something I do after sanding to 800 or 1000 grit sandpaper.

[@meriscz]

What Hello, then what is the difference after applying oil for example? I don't know if I can compare, but for a "smooth" surface, I learned to spray the wood with water (sometimes isopropyl alcohol) and then run a few times in all directions with 400 sandpaper. The liquid "builds" the fibers, which the tool did not "cut", but pushed into the product. In the end, it will probably be the same principle as in the video.

[@wortheffort]

That works if you abrade (sand).

[@meriscz]

@@wortheffort I did not realize that. My fault.

[@DonsWoodies]

I recently purchased a Polissoir to burnish wood panels. It's a pretty time consuming process. I wonder if it has the same effect as you mention about not affecting the oil absorption since it puts a lot of localized pressure on the wood? I've also heard about but not tried using a piece of deer antler as a burnisher.

[@wortheffort]

Polissoir does same thing.

[@williamno.1450]

Burnishing is compressing and laying down the severed wood fibers.

[@skipjames8437]

Like what you do to a corner miter.

[@jimhyslop]

Is burnishing instead of, or in addition to, the oil/poly/wax/etc. finish?

[@marcusrobinson1778]

In addition to oil/wax. Poly isn't really needed

[@dranob]

Love this vid (as I do a lot of your others) - always something to learn. Speaking of learning - I don't know if you have an opinion on this topic, but now that I've dipped toe in the woodworking world, I see a lot of ads coming to me for subscriptions to industry sites/magazines. $1.29 for a year! Education, videos! Are any of them 'worth the effort'? I know it's only a couple bucks, but as a hobbyist I only have so much time to go down the rabbit hole and want that time to be well-spent. Are any of these memberships of value, or are they just money grabs and could be teaching me things 'wrong' that I'll have to unlearn? Would love your opinion. Thanks again for the great video - keep them up!

[@wortheffort]

I don’t know what those are.

[@michaelnorman5640]

I joined the woodworker guild of America if that’s what you are talking about scam almost everything there is already on KZbin for free he just condensed everything down to about 40 pages you can choose from videos that when you have a question or I seen many others say videos were incomplete with the plans as well I would go with a HARD PASS they are hoping you don’t cancel so they can hit you with the premium charge! Go luck my friend and just find a builder with plans buy and follow you will do fine!

[@fionam3554]

I think you are compressing the grain a bit. Patting it down like cement with a trowel, not cutting or hammering? Before baseball bats were as machined (and expensive) as today, players used to rub a bone along the grain to harden the bat. Usually a cow femur or the like.

[@wortheffort]

didn't know that about bone.

[@calebkirkbride8439]

Answer to question at 5 minute mark: you're filing in the pores of the wood with its own shavings so they are more stable and less likely to be crushed.

[@patmash]

I use a paper bag crumbled up to burnish.

[@arthurbrands6935]

Roy Hobbs burnished his torrified ash bat with bone.

[@marcusrobinson1778]

I believe it bends over the fibers. Imagine you had grass if you laid a sheet if plywood on it for a day then moved it it would be all bent over and laid down. Pottery uses burnishing too and it packs the crystals tighter on edge grain you are smashing them flatter. Grain is the flowem and phyllum of the vascular plant with lignin and cellulose.

[@wortheffort]

that would be the case if it was abraded (sanded) but not when sliced.

[@marcusrobinson1778]

@@wortheffort I'm confused. Burnishing isn't slicing. It's essentially 0 grit sanding. I have access to a scanning electron microscope at my university if you want me to take a look

[@marcusrobinson1778]

@@wortheffort also sorry if my comment was confusing. I got half way through it before doing something else and had to put it down then posted it half complete when I came back. I didn't proof read etc.

[@archiehebron8944]

Bulap