Hello,
New member here, although close reader for some time. I recently purchased a listed 14th C. cottage. In the main bedroom the beams were many years ago coated in a horrible shiny black material. I had these beams dry ice blasted. It worked reasonably well and I don't regret it. I am well aware of the on-going debate on the forum about the pros and cons of any form of blasting. It was not a perfect solution, some of the timbers took a big hit with loose bits coming off. But overall as I said, its acceptable in my view. It did however destroy the plaster (which was not in a great shape to begin with). So, I also thereafter had the plaster stripped out and re-done, all in lime as it was before. A bunch of the panels had all the original wattle and daub which of course we retained and where this wasn't present, we stuffed with sheep's wool.
My dilemma now is what to use as a "finishing" treatment/product on the beams (if anything at all!). The beams have now been cleaned up nicely (using lots of small sharp pointy gizmos and brushes of various types) and are beautiful, golden brown bare wood. All very solid but of course not a perfectly flat smooth surface in most areas. It's been a pain staking process over many weeks. Total beam length of all the beams in the room is easily 100 meters. Anything I do apply to the wood would have to be a liquid applied with a brush due to the surface texture. As I see it, my options are:
1. Shellac. It sounds nice, but I probably won't go down the Shellac route. I don't think the uneven, rough surface of the beams are conducive to shellac. I'd also have to do several layers and lightly sand in between (again, the surface of the beams makes even light sanding not practical)
2. Linseed Oil. Whether boiled or raw, neither are attractive. I've heard too many cases where it overly darkens the beams or becomes sticky.
3. Tung Oil. Perhaps. It's probably the best of any of the different wood oils, no?
4. Limewash. This was the recommended course of action given to me by both SPAB and my local conservation society (who it seems also default to SPAB advice). Suffice to say I won't be going down this route either. I don't fancy having white-ish internal beams in the room.
5. Liquid beeswax. Available pre-made as a liquid (seemingly only through Liberon, have not seen any others) or made from scratch at home. This was the alternative option recommended by both SPAB and my local conservation society.
6. Do nothing at all! The beams colour-wise do look fine in their bare naked form. Hundreds of years ago people probably often didn't apply anything at all. Cheapest option and also the easiest option to just leave it all as-is!
I'm leaning towards options 5 or 6.
Any thoughts, prior experience or recommendations would be immensely welcome. As others have said in similar posts, this topic does seem to be a sort of holy grail. Whatever route I go down, I will be moving forward in the coming weeks and will post some before and after photos in due course.
All the best, SLR
New member here, although close reader for some time. I recently purchased a listed 14th C. cottage. In the main bedroom the beams were many years ago coated in a horrible shiny black material. I had these beams dry ice blasted. It worked reasonably well and I don't regret it. I am well aware of the on-going debate on the forum about the pros and cons of any form of blasting. It was not a perfect solution, some of the timbers took a big hit with loose bits coming off. But overall as I said, its acceptable in my view. It did however destroy the plaster (which was not in a great shape to begin with). So, I also thereafter had the plaster stripped out and re-done, all in lime as it was before. A bunch of the panels had all the original wattle and daub which of course we retained and where this wasn't present, we stuffed with sheep's wool.
My dilemma now is what to use as a "finishing" treatment/product on the beams (if anything at all!). The beams have now been cleaned up nicely (using lots of small sharp pointy gizmos and brushes of various types) and are beautiful, golden brown bare wood. All very solid but of course not a perfectly flat smooth surface in most areas. It's been a pain staking process over many weeks. Total beam length of all the beams in the room is easily 100 meters. Anything I do apply to the wood would have to be a liquid applied with a brush due to the surface texture. As I see it, my options are:
1. Shellac. It sounds nice, but I probably won't go down the Shellac route. I don't think the uneven, rough surface of the beams are conducive to shellac. I'd also have to do several layers and lightly sand in between (again, the surface of the beams makes even light sanding not practical)
2. Linseed Oil. Whether boiled or raw, neither are attractive. I've heard too many cases where it overly darkens the beams or becomes sticky.
3. Tung Oil. Perhaps. It's probably the best of any of the different wood oils, no?
4. Limewash. This was the recommended course of action given to me by both SPAB and my local conservation society (who it seems also default to SPAB advice). Suffice to say I won't be going down this route either. I don't fancy having white-ish internal beams in the room.
5. Liquid beeswax. Available pre-made as a liquid (seemingly only through Liberon, have not seen any others) or made from scratch at home. This was the alternative option recommended by both SPAB and my local conservation society.
6. Do nothing at all! The beams colour-wise do look fine in their bare naked form. Hundreds of years ago people probably often didn't apply anything at all. Cheapest option and also the easiest option to just leave it all as-is!
I'm leaning towards options 5 or 6.
Any thoughts, prior experience or recommendations would be immensely welcome. As others have said in similar posts, this topic does seem to be a sort of holy grail. Whatever route I go down, I will be moving forward in the coming weeks and will post some before and after photos in due course.
All the best, SLR