Wood rim finish?

[chitown]

FTW,

You can use just the tung oil and skip the wax. This would only benefit the wood by keeping it from drying out and possibly cracking. Old wood can get pretty thirsty after 100 years. But even if you were to add the wax to it, it would be very easy to clean and prep for a full resto in the future by using mineral spirits and steel wool.

You can get a nice antique look without "looking too nice" by hand buffing with a piece of wool (retired wool socks work great). I think the varnish would be used only if you were doing a full resto. One thing I would suggest also is to stay away from those pre-mixed tung oil finishes at the local hardware/big box stores. They usually contain hardeners and varnish in the mix which you don't want in this case.

Pics look great. I love seeing the fork tubes made from sheets folded and brazed. Nice torrington box also!

Chris

btw Yeti was my dream bike when I was racing back in the day. Nice to see you on the forums here.

 

[ftwelder]

FTW,

You can use just the tung oil and skip the wax. This would only benefit the wood by keeping it from drying out and possibly cracking. Old wood can get pretty thirsty after 100 years. But even if you were to add the wax to it, it would be very easy to clean and prep for a full resto in the future by using mineral spirits and steel wool.

You can get a nice antique look without "looking too nice" by hand buffing with a piece of wool (retired wool socks work great). I think the varnish would be used only if you were doing a full resto. One thing I would suggest also is to stay away from those pre-mixed tung oil finishes at the local hardware/big box stores. They usually contain hardeners and varnish in the mix which you don't want in this case.

Pics look great. I love seeing the fork tubes made from sheets folded and brazed. Nice torrington box also!

Chris

btw Yeti was my dream bike when I was racing back in the day. Nice to see you on the forums here.

Thanks for the kind words and advice.

The whole frame is made of rolled tubes. This has been an amazing project, I really enjoy the old machines. I have found a lot of help locally for this project. The saddle will be recovered using a 100 year old leather duster and sewn on a machine of the same vintage.

 

[chitown]

The saddle will be recovered using a 100 year old leather duster and sewn on a machine of the same vintage.

Pretty hardcore restoration there. Now if only you can find a 100 yr old abandoned nickel mine to use for re-plating.

 

[pelletman]

Preserve don't restore wherever possible. Rims were painted and varnished in the day

 

[ftwelder]

I just ended up using fine steel wool to remove the loose finish. I then did two coats of tung oil. They look stunning.

27 048 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

27 046 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

I now need eight more spoke nipples like this.

27 043 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

 

[chitown]

Looks fantastic. The frame and parts look great all stripped down too. Heck just coat the frame in tung oil and wax to show off those rolled tubes! Who needs paint!

Good luck on those nipples... I'm sure someones got a drawer full of those things, it's finding that person that is the joy of the hunt... and the frustration of the hunt as well.

Any thoughts on adding some wax?

Chris

 

[ftwelder]

Looks fantastic. The frame and parts look great all stripped down too. Heck just coat the frame in tung oil and wax to show off those rolled tubes! Who needs paint!

Good luck on those nipples... I'm sure someones got a drawer full of those things, it's finding that person that is the joy of the hunt... and the frustration of the hunt as well.

Any thoughts on adding some wax?

Chris

Yes, on the steel parts I used a wax based coating but it seems to stay tacky and attract dust. I might rinse it off and re-coat using Butcher's brand bowling alley wax. It goes on easy with a solvent that evaporates leaving a hard wax finish.