Finishing the unseen parts...

[Dave Mills]

I'm starting to finish a fairly large bookcase, using Osmo hard was oil. Typically, my OCD brain has me completely applying finish to things like bottoms of drawers, back of cabinets, etc, but this bookcase is large enough that I'm debating what, if any, value that provides.

So I'm wondering what you folks typically do for those areas?

[Jamie Buxton]

I generally don't finish or sand areas which will never be seen in use. But you're making furniture because you love it. If you would feel better if you finish the unseen parts, go for it!

[Robert Hazelwood]

Shellac is nice for these areas. Dries fast and no lingering smell.

[glenn bradley]

Shellac is nice for these areas. Dries fast and no lingering smell.

This is what I do. Most no-see areas have a coat of shellac. There are long and heated discussions of whether failing to finish one side of a panel will result in undesired movement issues; let's not go there. Even if you do not have a spray rig a cheap Preval setup will let you quickly spray shellac on surfaces. I have left interiors and drawers unfinished. Even with careful sanding there always seems to be something waiting to catch the owner's most precious clothing item. A light shellac finish and a quick touch with some 320 grit solves this before it happens. I confess to having made pieces that I treat as art as much as furniture (small wall cabinets, jewelry boxes and such) where I finish every area as if it is front and center.

[John TenEyck]

I'm in the if you can't see it there's no need to finish it camp. The exception to that personal rule is table tops. I always finish the bottom but with less regard to it being pretty. And I have occassionally sprayed unseen areas of cabinets (except drawer bottoms) with a a coat of dewaxed shellac, but more often I don't. Drawers for me almost always get finished one way or the other. Shellac if it's light duty, waterborne if it's going to need more protection.

John

[Prashun Patel]

I'm casually in the 'finish every surface' camp.

It doesn't take long, and is cheap insurance. Especially on drawer bottoms and insides - where I can use all the help possible to keep things flat, and on cabinet backs, which are so easy to finish, why be lazy about it?

You can even get a rattle can of shellac or poly and spray those parts if you wish. Harder than the actual finishing is rubbing down those parts after dry so that they are smooth to the touch.

[Dave Mills]

Thanks very much, guys!