Polishing burl/resin place mats

daveflutes

daveflutes

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I've been experimenting with making some place mats with burl slices and resin. I have bubbles, thicker resin where I've filled gaps, wood sticking out etc to clean up, but I'm worried if I start sanding they'll never be clear again!
Any tips on polishing these? Just very fine grit?

place mats.webp
 
Oh, use mesh instead of regular sandpaper. It is much easier to unclog. Just take it off shake it and keep going. Good for sanding green wood too. Mirka abranet is what I know. Could be others. It’s probably worth it to check 3m.
 
I recently finished casting a set of beetles I'd collected in Panama many many years ago. I got help from some guys on here and bought a Novus kit for polishing resin. It worked really well and I was able to do it all by hand (no buffing wheel, etc). Check out Novus. I think like Frank said, it's not much different than kits you can buy to polish headlight lens on autos.
 
Any plastic can be clear and shiny once sanded, but the amount of work will vary with the coarseness of grit used.

If they were mine, I'd probably see if I could remove imperfections with 220x or so paper. I'd start there and if necessary, go down one grit. After you have them to your liking, work through the grits up to at least 600-800x.

From there, try the first step of the polish and examine the mats carefully. If you find deep scratches, go back to the sandpaper and repeat.

I'd also second two points made above. Wait until fully cured, and then some. Also, mesh paper is the way to go.
 
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  • #8
Thanks to you all for your advice, looks like I have a plan! I can get the abranet and Novus here easily and try the mesh player on my orbital sander. I've got a couple of early efforts to try out the method on. I've made a bunch of hybrid knife scales too.
 
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  • #9
I tried the Novus on a couple of hybrid knife handles and it worked a treat! Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't tried it on anything the size of a place mat but I'm confident now that it will work.

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Absolutely love the Ulu!!!!

Knife handle, not so much.
But that's just me. I much prefer opaque sparkly resin over see through.
That's my fav kitchen knife blade shape though.
 
daveflutes said:
I tried the Novus on a couple of hybrid knife handles and it worked a treat! Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't tried it on anything the size of a place mat but I'm confident now that it will work.

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So i assume that is a chef hat in the knife handle. Was there a reason it is upside down? When I first saw it, thought is was a strapless dress like Betty B. had.
 
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  • #13
Mr. Peet said:
So i assume that is a chef hat in the knife handle. Was there a reason it is upside down? When I first saw it, thought is was a strapless dress like Betty B. had.
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shh don't tell anyone! Yes it is upside down, I just haven't done knives for a while and I forgot:) I've given that one to a friend, who loves it, so all good.
 
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  • #14
Spinartist said:
Absolutely love the Ulu!!!!

Knife handle, not so much.
But that's just me. I much prefer opaque sparkly resin over see through.
That's my fav kitchen knife blade shape though.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I just adore the ulu as well. I've done a full set of kitchen knives so I needed something different. It was hard work finding one in Damascus that would ship to the UK though.
I've just done two opaque ones that I'll try next. The silver one is planned for a beautiful silver/white blade. I ordered like a dozen blades and I think I got away with it. I'm still waiting for the tap on the door... Christmas presents might be sorted though

IMG_20260921_171655.webp
 
daveflutes said:
Thanks! I just adore the ulu as well. I've done a full set of kitchen knives so I needed something different. It was hard work finding one in Damascus that would ship to the UK though.
I've just done two opaque ones that I'll try next. The silver one is planned for a beautiful silver/white blade. I ordered like a dozen blades and I think I got away with it. I'm still waiting for the tap on the door... Christmas presents might be sorted though

View attachment 293534
Click to expand...
If you’re willing to go the hand forged route I can refer you to some UK based smiths. I can guarantee their quality. The good thing about smiths is that they are willing to do custom stuff. (And ship blade only) Also, they really pay attention to the details. And every piece is unique.

They do tend to be somewhat more expensive though.
 
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