Finish Question for a Cup

[Lee Koepke]

I have a friend ask me for a few wooden cups for him and his friends to enjoy nice bourbons in a custom made wooden cup. I have never turned a cup before, but my question is....what kind of finish (if any) should I use on the interior? Part of me says none, since bourbons are aged in wood barrels anyway, but I am not certain.

I am using some maple for the cups. I'd love an opinion from the collective, as I havent found alot of previous threads in my attempted search.

Thanks for any help.

[Steve Vaughan]

Afraid I'm not gonna be a lot of help. But, aren't the bourbons aged in white oak barrels? It'd be really cool if you could glue together staves and turn that, the staves would give it that 'barrel' appearance. Regardless of what you use, I'd think you'd definitely have to seal the end grain at the very least. Maple? Not so sure that would be a good choice for liquid.

[Bruce Pratt]

Two comments:

First, wood barrels are made from riven staves, so there is virtually no exposed endgrain through which the liquid could easily soak. If you turn a cup from a single piece of wood, regardless of orientation, you will have exposed endgrain somewhere in the unfinished cup. Even if you do glued staves, any curve in the side wall of the cup will expose some amout of endgrain. If they drink fast, maybe it wouldn't matter (just don't use red oak).

Second, short of an epoxy resin type finish, you will have trouble finding a finish which will have long term resistance to the high percentage alcohol found in bourbon and other spirits. In my experience, most finishes will not even stand up to the alcohol in wine. After some experimentation I have found that Behlens high nitrocellulose top coat holds up pretty well to wine, but I wouldn't trust it for higher proofs. If you google wooden beer mugs, you may be able to find info on which resin finishes have been successfully used.

[Greg Just]

I'm interested in what people have to say as I have someone that wants a goblet for wine.

[Lee Koepke]

Here is the prototype for the cup. I did not finish the inside (yet) and doubt I will, if he intends to use it for bourbon. Trying to talk him into a "glass" at the top and a turned stem/base.

258794

[Thom Sturgill]

That's probably the best solution, with marine epoxy a fair second. My research showed that medieval wooden mugs were lined with pitch, but I doubt that improved the taste.

[Dale Winburn]

You may consider tung oil. Tung oil is one of the most moisture resistance oils available.

[Royce Meritt]

I turned some shot glasses a while back and finished the inside this way...

Mix up a small amount of 2-part epoxy and thin to a fairly thin consistancy with lacquer thinner and brush on.
Allow to cure and then sand to bare wood.
Re-apply more thinned epoxy, allow to cure and sand again to bare wood.
Continued for several more coats of thinned epoxy.
After the last coat of thinned epoxy was sanded to bare wood, finished inside and out with walnut oil.

The thinned epoxy soaked into the pores and after several coats seemed to seal the pores well.

Of course, these were shot glasses where the liquid was never in the glass very long.