Salad Bowl Finishing

[John Immel]

I find myself getting a bit frustrated searching for just the right finish for my bowls. I am primarily turning oak and like the option of a very dark finish as well as natural. In both cases I am after a "food safe" finish when completed. At the moment I am using Pure Tung Oil alone for the "natural" look. I like the ease, consistency and warm color, but find the slow drying time a bit frustrating as I like to do several coats. I "cut" the "Tung Oil" with Mineral Spirits or Turpentine as suggested on the label. When going for the very dark finish I have been using a dark walnut stain followed by a Trans Tint dye "cut" with alcohol. I realize that each of these individually is not classic "food safe" but have done enough reading to convince me that after a bit of drying time, the result is "food safe". I then put on the several layers of Tung Oil to finish the bowl prior to a final polish with the Beal Buffing System and their Carnuba wax. ADVICE PLEASE for alternate ideas and finishing techniques. Arriving at a very dark color for some of my bowls is a must. Thanks in advance for your good thoughts.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

John, If you are using colorants on your bowls, whether they are dyes or pigments, you need to seal them under a protective finish to assure longevity of your color. Salad bowls get knocked around with use and the inside is subject to scraping with wooden or metal serving spoons and forks. Tung oil is a wonderful finish but without the addition of something to speed up the hardening, it takes forever to cure and is more "in" the wood than "on" the wood. There are lots of finishes that are tung oil based, food safe and will dry harder and build on the wood. General Salad Bowl Finish comes to mind as does Original Woodlox. Both are tung oil based and both have stood the test of time. You will still be doing a tung oil varnish finish but you can achieve better build in much less time.
faust

[John Immel]

Thanks so much for your input. Did you by any chance mean "Original Waterlox" instead of Woodlox? I am reqading some very interesting things about Waterlox on the web.

[Brian Libby]

Another good product is Watco Danish oil. It comes in clear and various tints

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

OOps John. I did mean Waterlox. Sorry :)

[Prashun Patel]

Add a little varnish to your tung oil to creAte an oilvarnish blend. It goes on like pure oil, but seals better.

also dont thin tung oil. That does nothing. If u want better mobility, heat the tung before applying.

[John Immel]

Thanks---have done some very interesting reading on the product---think I'll give it a try.

[John Immel]

Thanks for the advice on the varnish and tung oil mixture---and especially the "don't thin" comment. And...coul'd you tell me what you mean by "mobility"?---I am not familiar with the term in this regard. Thanks

[Jim Burr]

The USDA has dozens of studies in this area...and this thread has been discussed at least that many time here. The study found that any finish is safe once cured. The area of concern is the evaporation of VOC's in the finish. VOC's are used as carriers for the primary finish. Once these no longer omit an odor, the finish is cured.

[robert baccus]

Your thread about cutting tung oil with mineral spirits is the proper way to use the stuff--it will harden. There may be other methods but this does work. It does make a very tough nonbrittle finish like few others. Used the stuff on boats a lot--the main ingredent in marine varnishes.

[Richard Coers]

If you are working with oak, use a rusty steel wool/vinegar mix to ebonize it. You will have a basically black finish. It's a chemical reaction, but don't know about wear. I buy cheap steel wool at Harbor Freight, then wash in lacquer thinner to make sure any oil is gone. Then put a little water in a plastic container, shred up the wool, and let it soak for a week. Drain off the water, then pour on the vinegar. Let that soak for a few days and run it through a filter. It's easy after that.

[Rodney Walker]

Richard already mentioned the vinegar and iron way to ebonize wood. This method works with any wood with a reasonably high tannin content. I experimented with it on some scrap mahogany and it turned it black. Another traditional method to darken oak is fuming in ammonia. There's plenty of info on fuming out there. IIRC you want a strong ammonia solution and you place the piece to be fumed in an enclosed area with a bowl of the ammonia. Wait until the piece is the color you want then remove it. Ammonia is dangerous stuff and this method needs to be done somewhere with good ventilation like outdoors. I'm not sure how deeply either method penetrates but both would be food safe and are chemical reactions of the wood itself as opposed to pigment or dye stains.
Rodney

[Robert Henrickson]

I've been able to get reasonable results in fuming oak (bowls and plates) simply using household ammonia. It's slow, but works.

[Prashun Patel]

Cutting tung oil with MS does not make it dry harder. It only makes it thinner. It might make it dry FASTER, but certainly not harder.

The reason to thin it is to make it easier to apply. You can make it more mobile (i.e., less viscous, i.e., act like it's thinner) by heating it before applying. People do these things because they think it makes it penetrate more. However, oil finishes don't protect any better by penetrating deep.

I've applied tung oil thinned with MS, heated, and straight out of the Woodcraft bottle. In the end, I conclude it's simplest to just wipe it on pure, let it soak into the soaky areas and then wipe off completely. Then repeat when it feels dry. I do prefer to add varnish to the mix. It just gets you to the same end point much quicker - say in 4 coats instead of 6-10.