American Chestnut

[joe marra]

Someone asked me to turn a piece of America Chestnut, that came from a 200 year old log cabin that burned down. After getting down past the char I managed a NE bowl. Wondering what would be a good choice for the finish, never turned this type of wood before. Wood is highly figured. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Bruce Pratt]

Wipe on polyurethane - easy to apply, can be obtained in gloss to satin - will darken and add amber tones to the wood
Wipe on polyacrylic (water based) - easy to apply, can be obtained in gloss to satin - will not darken wood, I personally prefer it for lighter wood, e.g. maple, ash, holly.
Both will pop grain nicely.
Utility bowl - beeswax + mineral oil mix (ratio to suit personal preference)

[Doug Ladendorf]

I recently turned a NE chestnut bowl for my BIL and used General Finishes salad bowl finish burnished with 4O steel wool. It gave a nice natural satin finish. The chestnut did have some very interesting grain.

[Prashun Patel]

If you are making a heavily used utility bowl, I like WOP.

If you are building the finish thick, then Waterlox OSF is a better choice if you don't mind a darker finish. It won't yellow as much as WOP, and will look like glass not plastic. It also buffs and rubs out better than WOP. IMHO Turners only use WOP because it's easy to get and you can overcome some of it's limitations by buffing - not because it's the best aesthetic choice. It's hard to appreciate how much the optical clarity of Waterlox is a

If you are making a decorative or display piece, IMHO, it's hard to beat the look of shellac applied to a burnished surface.

[Dale Gillaspy]

Finishes are very personal in nature. What i mean by that is if 100 people respond to this thread, you will get 100 different answers, with a little overlap. All of the above answers are valid. I am of the Danish Oil school. About 4 or 5 coats, then buff. If you have any scrap at all, my advice would be to finish some test squares with different finishes to see which one is going to suit your likes and needs.