Lacquer for rough sawn wood

[MG312]

Hi. I’m cladding the interior of a garden building with rough sawn pallet wood. We love the rustic look but also want to reduce the rough feel and therefore less chance of splinters. I don’t want to sand it as each plank is a slightly different colour and sanding would lose this effect.

Does anyone know of a lacquer I can apply to smooth the surface?

 

[foxhole]

Light sanding has no effect on the colour .Then a coat of decking oil is cheap .

 

[Odds]

You could try strickling over the wood with a spokeshave. That'll catch up any splinters without smoothing the surface down.

 

[Munroast]

difficult to know what the OP is trying to achieve - may be a wire brush to remove loose stuff that are potential splinters

sanding won't change the colour of the wood, but any form of varnish, oil or lacquer will - as @foxhole says decking oil (a neutral / none colour) could work

try a wire brush then decking oil

 

[Deleted member 323070]

Absolutely - wire brushing.
Use a wide brush in a drill. It's a lot easier to brush each piece of timber before it's mounted.
Then it doesn't need a lacquer and the rustic look is maintained.

Protect your eyes! it's not only bits of wood flying off there is also a chance of bits of wire from the brush flying about.

It's potentially a very dirty and dusty process, so a mask is also essential, and gloves are recommended.

 

[foxhole]

Wire brush is useless on pallet timber , it removes soft material resulting in a rough texture and does nothing to smooth rough edges.
Have used pallet timber on many projects , plane it for smooth finish, sand for basic finish.

 

[Why Not Indeed]

Absolutely - wire brushing.

Use a wide brush in a drill. It's a lot easier to brush each piece of timber before it's mounted.

I think you would struggle to get an even finish with a powered wire brush. The OP is likely to end up brushing out more than expected, giving a patchy finish.

 

[Odds]

If the op wants to retain a rustic look to the wood then planing would remove that texture as does a wire brush, especially powered by a rotary drill. A spokeshave would take it slowly, only removing loose flakes, or he could run an iron bar across the face of the wood to catch any splinters up. Any loose chips that go too deep can be chiselled out.

 

[GhostIntMachine]

Hi. I’m cladding the interior of a garden building with rough sawn pallet wood. We love the rustic look but also want to reduce the rough feel and therefore less chance of splinters. I don’t want to sand it as each plank is a slightly different colour and sanding would lose this effect.

You can't lacquer splinters flat. Lacquering them will actually harden the "points" and give you a finish akin to sandpaper. Far better to very lightly sand the surface with a belt sander fitted with something like a 120 or 150 grit belt. And I do mean VERY lightly - just enough to smooth the surface slightly to the touch and remove the splinters but not so much that you end up with it all as smooth as a baby's bum. This shouldn't change the colour much - you'll probably get more colour change by just applying a "clear" lacquer. This approach is taken on bar/restaurant fit outs where a "rustic" look without splinters is required

You also seem unaware that your planks will darken and yellow over time in any case due to the effect of UV light and atmospheric oxidation on timber, and that the colour and tone will more than likely become much more uniform over time.