Good overall finish?

[Joe Shinall]

I know there's a lot of options and opinions. And I'm not going for showroom, never touched quality. I am looking for a good finish for bowls that I turn. Most of them are given to people as potpourri dishes or to store change or keys, stuff like that.

I know GF salad bowl finisher is good for bowls used for food.

But what is just an all out easy and good finish to apply to others?

[David E Keller]

I like tung oil. It's not too shiny for my tastes, and I like the warmth that oil adds to most woods. It's dead easy to apply as well. I usually put a coat of thin shellac down first and then a few coats of oil.

[Bernie Weishapl]

For decorative bowls (potpourri pots, change bowls, etc) I use wipe on poly or waterlox. For food bowls I use Mahoney's walnut oil.

[David Gilbert]

I like Minwax Antique Oil Finish or Minwax Antique Protective Oil Finish (they are the same thing). It drys quickly, hardens up nicely and gives a nice satin sheen. I've used lots of Watco for my flatwork but find it is too slow in drying for my bowls.

Cheers,
David

[Michael James]

Joe, Im new to turning and there's all sorts of stuff out there for turners, friction polish etc. 1st of all, I believe that what's under the finish is the most important issue in a good finish. I most often use a thin cut of shellac or 2 or a clear sanding sealer if I dont want the amber tint inherent with shellac. Shellac dries fast!
Once you get that sanded down "flat" again, then you can put anything you want on top. Im with david and dont esp care for a really high gloss plastic looking finish but I will use CA on a pen if I need to keep a burl together, or some reason. I havent tamed the spray can for small projects but if I was going to use a hi gloss lacquer, I would rub that down with 0000 steel wool when dry, then wax and buff. That finish will have some depth and bring out the natural beauty of the wood and seems more "in" the wood, than "on" the wood. Just my opinion and there's at least 1000 different ones being used around here. good luck.
Michael

[Steve Schlumpf]

Joe - I still vary what I use for finishes but have used wipe-on poly a lot over the last few years - with good results. Goes on easy and dries quickly - when the product is new! The poly does offer some protection to the wood - more so than a softer oil type finish - IMO.

[William Hutchinson]

For me the simplest method to hand apply a finish, that can be "showroom" quality, is with GF Seal-a-Cell followed by Arm-R-Seal. This procedure is fool proof, consistent and produces a durable top coat with a choice of sheens. This is an oil based product and thus departs a slight yellowish hue that highlight the natural tones and makes the wood come alive. Please note, wiping finishes are thinned as the consequent applied coats. Be patient, let each coat dry and build your finish to the desired level. You may knock down any nibs with a gentle high grit scruff between applications. Don't stop until you have at least four or more coats. In my location, I generally can apply two and sometimes three coats per day. As with any finish, the first step is making absolutely sure your wood surface is defect free.

Another aside: this is a contentious issue, but IMHO, sanding much beyond 220g is counter-productive with woods to be top coated. The goal of sanding to to remove tool marks, if desired, and to reduce previous grit scratches to a very fine pattern. I didn't believe this either until I prepared a hard maple board divided with tape. I sanded 'A' side to 220 and 'B' to 1200. B looked burnished and definitely felt smoother. The tape was removed and the entire board was finished to completion along with a high grit leveling and buffing after curing. I could not detect a difference even knowing the B side. It makes sense, cause your seeing and touching the finish not the wood. Save your high grits to finish the finish not the wood. I do use higher grits to close off pores-- specially when using dyes or with end-grain.

[Joe Herrmann]

Hi:

I've been using a simple finish for years that works well, although I have altered it a bit lately. I've been wet sanding with oil and like it a lot--I never used to do that.

After sanding, slop on a heavy coat of some sort of lacquer. I like Deft but it's getting harder to find in my area for some reason. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then wipe it off with a paper towel. "Viva" seems to be the best shop towel I've found. I usually let it sit for several hours and then lightly steel wool it with 4/0 if there is any raised grain. Then apply some sort of oil. I used to use BLO but lately have been using Watco. I usually use one coat but sometimes apply another just before it goes out the door.

Hope this helps.

Joe

[David DeCristoforo]

I'm kinda with David K. and Joe H. Wet sanded oil with tung oil being my preferred brew. I progressively wet sand with 400, 600, 1000 and 1500 grits and follow up with wax and polishing. I usually don't like "surface" finishes like poly or lacquer because I like the wood to have a "natural" feel when you touch it. After the above treatment, some woods will have a high polish and some will be more in the "satin" range. I do use some lacquer here and there but mostly its oil and wax.

[David Woodruff]

I sand bare wood to about 1200 because I work only with Burl or Beautifully grained woods. Takes about the same time to turn a piece from Burl as plain wood. So why bother with plain. Try stopping at 200 grit with walnut, Rose Wood, other darker woods and determine if one should stop at 200, 600, or even 800. The total finishing concept, at least for me, is to provide the best possible surface to begin sealing and finishing. A well sanded bare wood surface will provide the depth and chatoyance that many of us like. Light dispersion is not my friend in a finished piece. With that said, at the end of the day the only person I must satisfy is me

[Michael Mills]

I do use some oils from time to time but my most used finish is shellac. I thin it for a sealing coat or two.
Then like Joe H. and his lacquer, I just slop it on. When almost dry I wet a paper towel with DNA and hand rub it with the lathe off to remove the major excess and brush marks. Then with a clean towel (just damp, not dripping) rub it again with the lathe on.
It now has a very low luster, to bring it up a little burnish with steel wool, or to bring it up quite a bit apply an oil. To bring it way up, apply something like Mylands Friction Polish.
I do agree the surface preparation, regardless of finish, is the most critical.
Mike

[Harvey Schneider]

I use a Tung Oil Finish product which is a wiping varnish. I like it for the simplicity of it. The gloss of the finish can be controlled by the number of coats applied. If I overshoot and get too glossy a finish I can easily cut it down with abrasive and apply a new final coat.
My process is to sand to either 320 or 400 and then apply a saturating coat of the Tung Oil Finish with a blue paper shop towel that has been soaked in the finish. The next day I sand down the raised fibers with either 600 paper or a non-woven abrasive pad equal to 0000 steel wool. Additional coats go on one per day after very light sanding with a non-woven abrasive as above. A coat is wiped on, allowed to air dry for about five minutes and then is gently wiped down with clean dry blue paper shop towels. If the finish is too dry to wipe down, a towel moistened with mineral spirits or some more finish.
A low luster finish would be about two to three coats. A high gloss finish would be six or seven coats. The actual time to apply each coat is just over the five minute waiting time.
When fully cured and when all the odor of the oil has disappeared, the finish is food safe. This finish is extremely durable and water resistant. In these areas I believe that it outperforms Poly. A red oak kitchen table that I finished with it 11 years ago still looks like new.

A word of caution regarding all polymerizing finishes including but not limited to BLO, Tung Oil Finish, Antique Oil, and other oils. The wet rag can spontaneously combust if not properly disposed of. Homes have been burned down and people have died from rags saturated with BLO being thrown in the trash.

[Joe Shinall]

Thanks for all of the replies guys. I was hoping to get a good bit of different methods so I can try these out. I have used spray shellac from the can (Zinnser) and I have used Teak Oil. Haven't used poly, tung, or walnut oil like most. Looks like some good options to try. Thanks again.

[Matt Newton]

Sorry to come late to the discussion, but my go to finish is boiled linseed oil and then beall buffed. Easy and quick. That said, I think i am going to try some of the other finishes mentioned just because I love the work of their authors.

[Jim Podsedly]

I have had great success using O.B.'s shine juice.
This is part of an article explaining the shine juice:



O.B.’s Shine Juice
By Capt. Eddie Castelin



Several years ago I attended a demonstration where the turner was making a little bottle stopper project called the “hidden pill” stopper. He turned a piece of cocobolo and then sanded it using wax as a lubricant. I hadn’t seen this method before and I had created some nice work with cocobolo and just didn’t get the right finish. I thought it was the secret to a great finish until he pulled out this little squeeze bottle of finish and proceeded to put a glass finish on it.

The turner was O.B. Lacoste of Lafayette and he soon became one of my mentors. The product he used was a mixture of shellac, boiled linseed oil and alcohol. We came to call this concoction “O.B.’s Shine Juice”.

Ingredients:
3 ounces of plain, uncolored shellac. (Zinsser’s Bulls Eye Shellac, Clear)
3 ounces of Boiled Linseed Oil. (Do not boil plain linseed oil)
3 ounces of Denatured Alcohol (do not use any other alcohol product)
I use a pint sized Mason jar for mixing and long term storage of the materials. Pour exact amounts into the Mason jar and mix thoroughly. Do not over agitate.

Pour a day’s use into a small squeeze bottle (Harbor Freight # 94392-OVGA) for use.

Note: The alcohol will evaporate from open containers and the squeeze bottle. Return what you don’t use to the Mason jar for a pure finish.

To use:

With the lathe stopped, using a paper towel, rub in a good coat, covering all the surfaces of the piece. Rub it in well and wait a minute, repeat the process. Now, with the lathe running at 500-1000 RPM, add some finish to the paper towel and apply it slowly to the surface.

Keep the towel moving and the finish spreading. As the shellac adheres, the oil will begin to catalyze and the alcohol will evaporate. All three steps are necessary for a good finish.

The coating will begin to build as you apply. At some point you will treat the finish as complete and stop adding material and polish the surface. If it begins to attract the towel or get gummy, stop lapping and allow it to set for a minute. Start again when it sets up. A coat of wax makes a finished product with great results.

As O.B. Lacoste put it one time, “If it was any easier, I’d have to come over to your house and do it for you.”