Still Shuttering

It's still sunny, and I'm still doing the shutters.

This pair shows the before and after stages, but it doesn't do full justice to how well the wood comes up with sanding and varnishing:



The one on the right is the one seen in the previous post, and its finished surface would be suitable for a table-top, smooth and with a very interesting colour to the grain, given by 80 years of weathering. What has been taking a lot of time has been the state of the mortises. They are broad and cut all the way through the bottom or top of the side uprights. But in a number of places the wood beyond the mortise has split right through, allowing the joint to open up like a crocodile's jaws. So in these cases I've dismantled the framing entirely, cleaned out the inside of the mortise and the tenon edges, and put it back together with glue. I've held the joint together with as many clamps as I could find, while replacing and gluing-in the wooden pegs. This has reconstituted the mortises quite well - we'll see how long they last. Where wood is missing entirely I've replaced it with a resin-based filler.

For the average shutter I've needed all the clamps I have, so I can only glue one at a time. And the glue needs 24 hours to set.

When it comes to the final coats of weatherproofing "varnish", I can do two shutters at the same time, and I even have a way of doing both sides without waiting for the first to dry:



There's one last pair of shutters to go. I will then be able to stop inhaling powdered oak for a while: it really is a very dusty job, though I have been able to do a lot of it outside, giving me slightly cleaner air some of the time.