Done Varnishing the Khana

After inhaling a bunch of fumes, I finally finished varnishing all 85 pieces of khana which will make up the three sections of the lattice yurt wall. Since I had so many pieces and not much space in the garage for them to dry, I built a small functional drying rack. The weather here has been playing games with me. The weather report said it was going to rain for the whole past week, so I felt hesitant to start varnishing with all of the possible humidity. But then I said, what the heck!? I will just varnish in the garage and if it takes longer for the khana to dry, so be it, at least I will get it started.



About 2/5ths of all of the khana pieces drying on the rack I built.

It turned out to be nice, sunny, and warm during most of the days this week. It only rained at night. I varnished with spar varnish, normally used for marine or boat applications. I applied one thick coat. I didn't want to put more on it, since the khana will be slightly bent when the yurt is standing. I figured if I layered it on any thicker, the varnish might crack under the stress.



Me varnishing in the garage. It looks like the baja is looking at my butt and smiling!

The next step now, after the last batch of khana pieces are dry, is to join them all together into the lattice sections. I think I will do this two days from now. I also forgot about making a door frame! I will do that tomorrow, I think, while the last batch of khana dry.