Finishing Wood, Doors and Stuff

Shameless plug: Before I get started I have to mention this before I forget. The best resource I ran across for learning about woodturning has been the YouTube videos of “Turn a wood bowl“. Kent has a lot of videos that cover just about everything from the basics to more advanced topics. He takes the time to actually explain why some things work and others won’t, what mistakes to avoid, etc. He doesn’t just cover turning, he talks about how to sharpen your tools, how to finish them, how to sand them, tips and tricks to make your life a lot easier. I learned more from him than from all the other resources I’ve found put together. Or visit his website https://turnawoodbowl.com/

Many weeks ago we talked with the contractor/builder we’ve worked with for many years now about replacing a bunch of windows and our front door. He warned us that he was booked solid for the entire summer and it would be until mid to late fall before he could get around it. That was fine because we were in no hurry. One of the issues he was dealing with was massive delays in getting just about anything, especially anything that had to be custom made like our windows.

He finally got the door in the other day and came over and installed that, but we’re still waiting for the factory to finish the windows. But it isn’t just delays that he’s dealing with. There has been a massive increase in prices on even basic construction materials like 2×4 studs, OSB and plywood. It’s been a real struggle for him and his customers. His cost for basic materials has literally doubled in the last 10 months.

Anyway, he got the new door installed, which was one of the biggest issues we wanted to get taken care of before the snow flies. We’re hoping the window factory gets our order finished pretty soon here. Most of the windows we’re getting replaced would survive another winter, but one of them is in pretty bad shape. All we can do about that is keep our fingers crossed.

Finishes

I am always learning new stuff all the time. That’s one of the most enjoyable things about all of the stuff I get involved with. Getting involved in woodturning has been a very enjoyable, occasionally frustrating, and quite satisfying experience.

One of the frustrating things has been putting a finish on the bowls, vases and other stuff I’ve been making. When I make furniture I’m working with wood that is of very high quality to begin with, with beautiful grain that already looks beautiful without doing anything to it. With something like white oak or ash I just use a light stain to accent the grain and give it a slightly darker color to match the traditional arts & crafts style I like, and then top it off with a simple paste wax that protects the wood and is easy to repair and renew when necessary.

But with bowls and the other stuff I turn out on the lathe it’s a different story. First I’m often working with scraps of wood left over from other projects that aren’t exactly what you’d call high quality wood to begin with. I have to deal with large amounts of end grain which can be a problem to work with, and other issues.

My go-to finish was a product that was primarily beeswax mixed with tung oil and cedar oil to soften it. It produced a nice, semi-satin sort of glow that looked quite beautiful. But now that I’ve been doing this for a while I’ve noticed that some of the early pieces I did that were finished with that stuff looked downright nasty. The finish was turning dull in spots, no longer reflecting light, looking, oh, muddy, I suppose you could call it. Basically it was a good thing I haven’t been selling these things because whoever bought one and saw that happening would not be happy about it.

So what the heck was going on? Why was the finish deteriorating like that? I took a close look at the pieces on which the finish seemed to be failing and realized I was making a very basic mistake. The finish was being absorbed by the wood fibers, basically being sucked into the wood instead of remaining on the surface. This was most apparent on the endgrain when I took a close look at it. And it is a very basic mistake I should have realized before I tried to finish the bowls. But to be fair I never had to deal with it before, really. With furniture you almost never even see the endgrain and don’t have to deal with it. With a turned object like a bowl, the endgrain can’t be hidden and has to be dealt with.

So I’m experimenting with different materials and techniques to deal with the situation. I’ve started making my own shellac finish now, using a thin cut to make a sanding sealer that will seal the pores of the wood so it can’t absorb the final finish. That has the added benefit of helping to fill in small imperfections in the wood so they aren’t so obvious when the final finish is applied. And I’ve switched from the beeswax product to carnauba wax.

The results are pretty good so far. It’s a bit more work. It adds a few additional steps to the whole process, light sanding between coats of shellac, and considerable buffing with the wax. But the early experiments looked so good that I’m taking some of the pieces with the deteriorating surface, re-sanding them and refinishing them with the new technique.

The frustrating thing is that I already knew all of this about wood absorbing the finish and looking nasty. I never had to deal with it before but I still should have remembered. But I’ve learned my lesson now. The new process takes longer, requires more sanding, but so far it seems like the end result is going to be worth it.

This is also an entirely food-safe process. I’m making my own shellac. The only ingredients in that are shellac, which is food safe (and sometimes actually an ingredient in food) mixed with alcohol. The alcohol is just a carrier for the shellac and evaporates. And the wax is pure carnauba which is also a food safe wax. No weird, toxic chemicals involved at all. If this does a good job and proves to be stable, this is probably going to become the standard way I finish wood projects.