April 2, 2012

We've changed our name!

Land Ark Northwest has changed the name of their business and renamed their wonderful Land Ark Natural Wood Finishes to
Heritage Natural Finishes
!

As of April 1st, 2012, we are operating under our new name. We have a new web address as well. You can get information or order online just as before but now at www.heritagenaturalfinishes.com.

All ofour previous web traffic that went to www.landarknw.com will be automatically directed to the new site. All of our contact information basically remains the same. It is:

Heritage Natural Finishes, LLC
P.O. Box 1507, Boulder, UT 84716
(541) 844-8748 phone
888-526-3275 toll free
(435) 213-2232 fax
Email: info@heritagenaturalfinishes.com
Web: www.heritagenaturalfinishes.com

We will create a new blog and actually use it more, so stay tuned! If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thanks so much!

March 21, 2011

Land Ark Northwest is moving to the Southwest!


Land Ark NW is moving our operation to the breathtakingly beautiful Boulder, Utah later this week! We will be closed March 24-31st while we relocate and should be fully operational by April 1st in our new town. While very remote, shipping still happens there, so you'll be able to get your product as regularly as you do now- if you live on the east coast or Midwest, you may get your order a day or two sooner. The Northwesterners will have to plan a day a head to get theirs (sorry guys!). Freight shipments will go out weekly- probably Fridays. Here's our new contact info if you're keeping track:

Land Ark Northwest (keeping the same business name, though our region will be SW!)
P.O. Box 1507, Boulder, UT 84716.
Phone is the same: 541-844-8748.
New fax# 435-213-2232.

All the best, enjoy your Spring and find something to smile about today!

February 9, 2011

Furniture Surface Repair Videos

One of our fine furniture builders here in the NW, The Joinery, has put out two great videos of how to repair dings and heat rings in furniture surfaces, plus fixing the finish. Since they use Land Ark on all of their furniture, we thought these would be helpful for the rest of our customer's as well. Hope you find them useful!


How to Fix a Heat Ring from The Joinery on Vimeo.

How to repair a heat ring in solid furniture with an oil finish.



How to Fix a Dent from The Joinery on Vimeo.

How to repair a heat ring in solid furniture with an oil finish.

December 16, 2010

Online Shopping Cart now up and running!


Yes, you can now finally order all Land Ark products online! Visit our site at www.landarknw.com and check out what's new. We have a lot of new information, our MSDS, tips and more available on our new website. We are still available to you by phone, but if you'd like to manage your account, sign up for occasional newsletters or place an order at 1am you can! We are still in the process of adding more articles, uploading product photos and more, so stay tuned.

October 14, 2010

Land Ark Earth Floor Finish meets Claylin!

Our long-time customer and friend Sukita Crimmel of From These Hands, LLC, has just launched her new earth product, Claylin. A pre-mixed, bagged and palletized, ready-to-go earthen floor. All you add is the tamping labor and finish with Land Ark Earth Floor Finish! As far as we know, this is the only product of it's kind on the market and we thought worth mentioning. Our finish goes hand in hand with a beautiful and resilient earthen floor. Simply apply 3-6 coats of Land Ark Natural Earth Finish (or Concentrated Finishing Oil) and top coat with a thin layer of our Liquid Wax End Sealer. Visit our webpage for more information about ratios and how to calculate how much oil to use for your floor.

July 10, 2010

Home Grown Frame Raising

This is down-home creativity at its best, folks. The timber framer who submitted this is Aaron Larson, from LeFarge, Wisconsin, an ambitious owner-builder I met when I worked for Goshen Timber Frames many years ago. (Plug: He's also a happy Land Ark user!) He rolled in to learn how to timber frame at Goshen's week-long beginning framing workshop that I was helping at. Many years and endless trials later, with no more formal training than a week, he milled his own timber off his property in Wisconsin, cut his own frame, then he and his friends and family (with little to no timber framing experience) erected this wall section, with the rest of the house following soon.

We see raisings and photos of all types of projects, from multi-million dollar timber lodges, to the humblest home-owner backyard woodworking forays. All beautiful, wonderful and inspiring. We love it! This is one of those inspirational projects that really captures the original spirit of timber framing. Enjoy Aaron's 6 minute wall raising video and may it inspire you. Thank you for watching and Aaron and Lisa, thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work and happy hammering!

-Autumn


July 6, 2010

Finishing a Timber Frame

by R. Michael Baugh, of Land Ark, Inc.

Although a timber framed structure is often compared to a fine piece of furniture, the finishing requirements and objectives for heavy timbers and quality furniture are quite different. The finish itself should be different as well.

Varnishes, lacquers, and urethanes work well on kiln-dried, dimensionally stable furniture-grade lumber, but these same finishes would be impractical on timbers, whose fibers and cells must "breathe" and move, due to varying moisture content and stresses within the wood. Green timbers seek moisture equilibrium, and the escape of moisture along with the chemistry of green wood will break down or oxidize a finish that seals the wood completely. With re-sawn material the same factors occur in reverse: the dry fibers need moisture and suppleness from the finishing oils to reduce further checking and brittleness, as new stresses and movement from re-sawing and re-joining come into play.

For either green or re-cycled material, there are three goals in the finishing process. The first is to reduce the checking, drying, and shrinking process in both the timbers and joinery. The second is to enhance the beauty of the particular species of wood that is used. At the same time, the finish must be easy to apply, and simple to maintain and re-finish over the years. Last, but certainly not least, the finish should be relatively safe to both the users and the environment.

Most commercially available finishes cannot adequately accomplish all of these objectives for several reasons. Nearly all of these finishes contain metallic driers which speed up the drying time of the finish, necessitating the application of many thin coats that only serve to seal the surface of the timber. The wood simply cannot stay wet long enough to allow the oils to be absorbed into the cells, fibers, and checks of the timber. These driers, although used in small quantities, are quite toxic. Also, most available finishes are 70-80% solvent, leaving very little protective material on or in the timber. Re-application only serves to seal the timber further because of the rapid polymerization due to the driers. And the higher the solvent ratio, the higher the VOC (volatile organic content) level in the shop. Some (but not all) finishes out-gas aldehydes as they dry, although water-based finishes are much safer in this respect. Typically, touch-up work, reapplication, and periodic maintenance is a time-consuming process.

A good finish for timbers must be drier-free in order to allow time for penetration and absorption, and to prevent rapid breakdown of a finish that merely seals the surface. (On timbers, finishes that seal the surface only are more prone to UV degradation, as well to oxidation for the previously mentioned reasons.) Without driers in the finish, if properly applied, the finish will definitely reduce checking and shrinking, even in green oak.

Secondly, a good finish for timbers must be able to be easily and rapidly applied due to the large surface area of the frame. The excess should be easy to wipe off without leaving lap marks and a gummy build-up on the surface. The optimum solvent-to-solids (oils, waxes, resins) ratio is about 50/50. The ingredients should be the purest grades in order to discolor as little as possible over time. Such a finish is flexible, "living" in and not on the timber, and is easily replenished through the years as needed without a lot of surface preparation. I recommend application of one good heavy coat, filling all surface checks and coating all joinery, prior to raising; and touch-up and cleaning after drying in the frame, using more finish and a rough pad where necessary to remove scuffs and abrasions, dirt, dust, and paint, and of course, the inevitable footprints. Over the years, as the timbers appear dry and "thirsty," more finish can be applied as needed to keep the timbers in the best possible condition for generations to come.

Reprinted from Mike Baugh's website: www.landarkwoodfinish.com

Photo by Pat Woodland of Woodland Boatworks, Cobble Hill, BC. 250-743-1810. woodlandboatworks@gmail.com. Used with permission.