Finish on textured wood turned piece

[Stefano Bastianelli]

I just wanted to ask about what kind of finish you apply on textured wood with chattering tools, texturing wheels, etc. What finish do you apply to reach a shiny result?
For my little experience, it seems really hard (probably not even possible) to give a shiny finish and that obviously will constrain you to give the same finish to the rest of the piece.
Waxes are not suitable because they will pack in the texture's recesses and once dry, they will give to the textured area a whitish finish. I think it is the same for any kind of friction polish.
The only finishes that come in my mind are varnish and lacquer and then using buffing wheels to try to reach the recesses of the texture.

[Bob Bouis]

If you're going to go full on film finish, you can just fill the textured area completely and level it with the rest of the surface.

[John Keeton]

I texture the bottoms of many of my pieces and simply apply shellac as a sealer followed by WOP or satin lacquer or satin Krylon acrylic.
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I don't attempt to buff deep into the texturing. I also do not care for a high gloss finish on textured pieces, as a rule.
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For my tastes, "filling" the texturing kind of defeats the purpose, but others may differ.

[Mike Peace]

I use MinWax Antique oil for just about everything including textured work. It takes several coats but you can build up a good shine after buffing. Readily available at Ace Hardware. I prefer it to Watco which may be more readily available.

[Stefano Bastianelli]

Thank you guys!
Not looking for high gloss, but just that look of "clean smooth wood".
John, do you sand between lacquer coats?

[John Keeton]

I should clarify my comments on finish. If I use lacquer, it is usually brush on lacquer applied as a wipe on finish, rubbed out with 0000. This provides a nice, natural looking finish. I don't wipe lacquer over shellac as that doesn't usually work well.

The shellac/WOP works very well and I use Minwax Satin WOP. The textured lid in the pic is dyed with black and the WOP is applied without an undercoat of shellac. If you apply shellac, it will need to be spray as the alcohol in the shellac will pick up the dye.

You can spray Krylon acrylic over either shellac or lacquer, and I will sometimes rub it out with 0000 as well. Depends on the quality of the finish achieved with the spray and that depends on temp, humidity, etc.

[John K Jordan]

I just wanted to ask about what kind of finish you apply on textured wood with chattering tools, texturing wheels, etc. What finish do you apply to reach a shiny result? For my little experience, it seems really hard (probably not even possible) to give a shiny finish and that obviously will constrain you to give the same finish to the rest of the piece. Waxes are not suitable because they will pack in the texture's recesses and once dry, they will give to the textured area a whitish finish. I think it is the same for any kind of friction polish. The only finishes that come in my mind are varnish and lacquer and then using buffing wheels to try to reach the recesses of the texture.

What kind of wood? I think what looks best in a particular case depends on a lot of things. What I would suggest (and what I do) is make some sample pieces in the wood I'm using and try different finishing techniques.

I use a variety of finishes. I usually don't care if the finish on the textured part looks the same (as shiny) as the rest of the object, as long as the texture is in contrast. With a star texture wheel on light colored wood I like to fill in the texture with a dark grain filler than apply a finish over. For example, on these tool handles notice how the bottom one (with a knurling tool) is hard to see while the others have a dark walnut grain filler rubbed in:

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For textures made made by carving with a rotary carver or hand carving chisels, I sometimes also use a contrasting filler, such as the top wand in the picture made of holly, the dark filler applied in the grooves with a stiff brush then rubbed with a cloth. The walnut one has only a friction polish rubbed into the texture by hand with a soft cloth. Those textured by "distressing" with a sharp pointed tool simply have oil applied since that looked fine to me.

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For this dimpled textured band in bradford pear I simply applied multiple coats of "danish" oil (let dry between coats), rubbed with 0000 steel wool, and buffed with a soft cloth. This gave a soft sheen on both the bowl and the textured band.

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JKJ

[Stefano Bastianelli]

Usually maple, but also I stain and dye most of the time.