Vectric Customer

I’m still playing around with my hand mirror project. I’m trying to perfect my techniques.

This mirror was done in Birch. I figured this was a nice, fine grained wood. Coming off the CNC the finish felt beautiful. Attached is a copy of the finish toolpath. Very little finishing was needed.

The finish on it is Walnut Watco Danish Oil. I cured it in the oven with the light on for about a day, then buffed it out.

My question is about the end grain… It seems a problem mostly on the top left, but in other places, also. There is a slight taper from the center along the vertical. Since the toolpath was 90°, would I be better off cutting 135° or 0° to take a sharper cut on the grain. Or, do I simply have a finishing problem? The finish definitely made that end grain stand out.

Thanks,
Gerry

It is a finishing problem.

End grain on maple, birch and other light colored woods soak up more finish and get darker.

One of the solutions recommended is to sand the end grain to a much finer grit. Not sure exactly why that works but it does.

That problem really gets apparent when someone stains a wood.

thanks..