sealing birch bark

[joev Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close joev]

I have some white birch that I would like to use to mount some bird carvings. Everything I tried to use to seal the bark so that it doesn't peal turns it yellow. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Guest Close AlArchie]

Re: sealing birch bark

Joe, part of the problem with birch yellowing when you seal it is with the birch bark itself, not the sealer. The white outer layer of paper birch is just, that, paper thin. Below that are progressively darker layers util you get to the brown inner layers. When you put a sealer on, it soaks into the white upper layer, and it kinda works like a wet T-shirt.....ya get to see whatever is underneath! You might try using very light sprays of a fast drying perfectly clear lacquer, such as Deft. Try not to wet the surface, but apply many very light coats. I've used this and it works pretty well. Actually once you have a very light mist on and it dries, subsequent coats can be applied a little heavier as they will not penetrate the first coat.

Hope this helps.

Al