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Check Out Finished.: The Art and Science of Wooden Surfaces - Lost Art Press

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 8

I’ve known for years that softwoods and hardwoods were different, but I had been told a few different reasons for why, and the details of how they were different never really clicked.

One of the things I enjoyed learning about the most was in digging into the “why” of this question.

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 6

This caught is by surprise! Absolutely honoured!

blog.lostartpress.com/2025/05/05/c...

Shane Orion Wiechnik, a furniture restorer and conservator based in Sydney, Australia, along with Liz Duck-Chong, a carpenter, freelance filmmaker and

blog.lostartpress.com

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 5

On the origin of wood.

Andy did a dig into lignin and the convergent evolution of lignins by different plants.

Some day I will have to talk about that more, because it’s so cool.

In the meantime, learn about old trees that sound like dinosaurs and softwood cells!

youtube.com/shorts/dLeJt...

The origins of wood

youtube.com

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 5

Thanks Ben!

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 3

I don’t blame you one bit! A lot of trees should probably not have been cut down as carelessly as they have been.

youtube.com/shorts/xJJY_...

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 3

How trees make wood! Check out the full episode on our channel!

WOOD: It comes from trees | FINISHED ep.1

youtube.com

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · May 3

Let's talk about wood!

youtu.be/RNAgyHCZz2E

youtu.be

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Reposted by Shane Orion Wiechnik

Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · Apr 21

Renewables were 92% of new power added in 2024. Low carbon sources now accounts for 41% of worldwide electricity.

Though, I can’t help but look at this graph and think about how much better it would look if we weren’t retiring nuclear plants so much faster than we’re building them.

A graph of low carbon sources over the last 20 years. Nuclear 9% (down from 17 in 2000) hydro 14% (very consistent) solar 7 and wind 8 (up from basically zero)

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Apr 20

Been working hard on this project for over a year. Glad to see it starting to come out!

youtu.be/fJDMRPnaMcA?...

Introduction to Finished

youtu.be

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Reposted by Shane Orion Wiechnik

Shea Alexander @sheaalexander.bsky.social · Feb 15

Let the enemy rage at the gate; let him knock, pound, scream, howl; let him do his worst. We know for certain that he cannot enter our soul except by the door of our consent.

-Saint Francis de Sales

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Feb 11

Recently fascinated by negative thermal expansion materials which actually shrink when hotter or in contact with water.

I was pondering the possibility of making a filler for wood that expanded and contracted with rh in an opposite way to wood.

I emailed a scientist on a whim. Loved the reply

All things pale and cloudy - FineWoodworking

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 26

Doing some work on my video series on wooden surfaces.

The first video will be on wood and trees. The last part of which involves talking a bunch about ebony and making some drawer pulls out of old piano keys.

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 25

This is going to sound so stupid with everything going on, but ikea hacks are something I think should be enshrined in a museum if ikea furniture is ever placed in a museum.

Additionally, the idea that someone would undo an ikea hack to “return it to it’s original design” is deeply upsetting to me.

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 21

Trying to bring some of
My nerdy thoughts and experiences to more people:

www.finewoodworking.com/2025/01/17/a...

In 2022 when I was in France working with furniture conservators Nelly Koenig and Marine Prevet at Atelier Kopal, they had a large mid-century French cabinet in the workshop. It […]

www.finewoodworking.com

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 20

So his solution, which he found out through experimentation, is simply to overload the initial clear coat with too much fumed silica.

This will mean tiny porous gaps, and the silica will diffract light in pretty much exactly the same way that degraded lacquer will.

It’s perfect.

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 20

3. Fumed silica is a mostly clear powder that is used as a matting agent and appears white on its own because of the way it diffracts light, but appears clear when fully saturated by a coating.

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 20

2. There is a critical point in a pigment binder ratio where once you have more pigment, the result will be porous and have tiny gaps.

A sophisticated approach to watching paint dry

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 20

A colleague of mine just revealed a trick he found for replicating aged foggy lacquer coatings, and it’s goddamn brilliant.

To understand why, I want you to understand three things:

1. The cloudiness in aged lacquer is due to micro-cracks and tiny gaps between the coating and the timber.

🧵

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 9

I’m so excited to dig into this. The details of oil curing with different catalysts and treatments is one big remaining mystery to me.

In a paper in Macromolecules, researchers at the University of Amsterdam’s Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences present detailed insights into the polymerization process of drying oils in pain...

www.uva.nl

Bioinspired Living Coating System in Service: Evaluation of the Wood Protected with Biofinish during One-Year Natural Weathering

Reposted by Shane Orion Wiechnik

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · Jan 9

I am a climate scientist and this is correct ⬇️

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · Jan 9

Occasional reminder that there’s no, “it’s too late, its over” for anthropogenic climate change. Every molecule of CO2 that doesn’t go into the atmosphere makes a difference. Preventing 0.1 degree of warming makes a difference. Every bit of climate resilience we build together makes a difference.

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Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 5

I was trying to understand how olive oil breaks down in wood and I came across this paper on using olive oil or linseed oil to intentionally encourage fungal growth on exterior surfaces to create a protective biofinish. Has anyone heard of or tried this? Thoughts?

www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/11...

The service life performance of timber products exposed to natural weathering is a critical factor limiting the broad use of wood as an external building element. The goal of this study was to investi...

www.mdpi.com

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 2

The main difference and obvious first concern is that oil paints use a drying oil, and mayonnaise uses other food oils that undergo rancidification.

But now I’m digging in to try and better understand exactly the degradation process that could occur and it’s risk to furniture.

Shane Orion Wiechnik @shaneorionwiechnik.bsky.social · Jan 2

So mayonnaise is a common home remedy for removing white rings in furniture. The arguments for its use seem to be “I did it. It looked great”, and the arguments against are “what? Gross”.

Given that some mayonnaise recipes have a lot in common with egg tempera/oil paint blends, I need more details.