Refinishing a wood sculpture

Back in 2000 I finished a large wood sculpture - about 5' tall and 2' wide - for a show in New Jersey. I started with a large cherry log about 2' in diameter, cut it clean in half vertically, carved out the inside of the logs to create a curved space, then matched the line of the outside of the logs so they match. You'll have to see it, but imagine the flat, inside part of the log facing out, and the curved outside part of the log facing each other.

After years of being outside and moving around the country, this piece is in rough shape. I started refinishing it, and thought a description of this process might be interesting to someone who is trying to figure out how to refinish a wood piece. The process is simple - start with low grit sandpaper and work your way up. I started with 50 grit and worked the whole piece for about four hours.

This is one of the support cleats that held up the tree.

A fantastic knot

After the 50 grit, I moved on to the 60 grit. It might not seem like a big jump, but getting the bigger cuts, scratches and tool marks is really important. With each grit you need to sand until the only marks on the piece are being made by the tool you are currently using - perfectly smooth at each level of grit.

60 grit

Carving wood or stone, each tool leaves its own mark. The chisels you use leave a mark not only on the surface itself, but below the surface as well. This is especially clear when you work with marble, but you can still see it when working in wood. What happens is these tool marks will show up later as you refine the surface, and if you don't work each layer of sandpaper enough, you will end up going back to fix things. There some great philosophical foundations here...

I jump to 80, 120, and then 220, working each level for about 2 - 4 hours. I did have to back up off of the 120 on one of these pieces, tool marks started to show.

120 grit

For this piece, I will use Tung oil as the finish. Tung oil comes from the nut of the tung tree and creates a beautiful, rich color. It is non-toxic, easy to clean up and fun to apply. It doesn't change color like polyurethane, and you can easily apply another coat later on without stripping the whole thing back down to bare wood. Great stuff!

I'll post more when I have this piece closer to finished.