Finishing Woodturnings
How to finish your turned masterpiece is the subject for a volume but here you just get my conclusions.
1. Medium to dark coloured timbers.
Danish Oil is my finish of choice. On some timbers like Australian Blackwood it can ‘pop’ the figure to a remarkable degree. It can increase the contrast in the figure nicely. It typically finishes with a medium lustre, and there’s no point in working nicely figured timber to have it obscured by reflections in a high gloss finish.
DO however can mean pretty much any proprietary finish that has some oil and a solvent/drier in it. I’ve used several formulations but keep coming back to the one made by Rustins, a UK firm. If you follow the instructions you will get a medium lustre silky-smooth finish. You can lift the lustre by buffing after it’s dried and/or by applying and buffing a final coat of wax.
Rustins isn’t a particularly durable finish however. You can improve the wear qualities by applying wax as a last coat. Or if it acquires marks you can cut it back and apply another coat. Unlike plastic finishes that sit on the wood surface, oil finishes are repairable.
For a more durable surface with some kind of DO then I turn to Feast Watson Scandinavian Oil. This dries to a higher lustre and probably has more resins in it than Rustins.
If you have a porous timber that sucks up the oil like a lizard drinking, you can save some time and expense by putting on a sanding sealer of weak shellac. Just take care to apply it quickly and try to avoid overlaps as the shellac also adds a bit of colour. (Of course you can use dilute blonde shellac). After this has dried, cut the surface back with 320 grit abrasive.
Danish oil finish is sticky after a day? It may be going off. It has a shelf life and exposure to air shortens it.
2. Light coloured timbers
DO darkens timber. So does UV light in many species. And you don’t want to end up with a piece that’s barely recognisable as the timber you started with.
So my 2nd choice of finish is nitrocellulose sanding sealer with a buffed wax coat over the top.
The n/c sealer can be got from big paint shops. But it must be cut with general purpose thinners at a rate of 1:1 and sometimes more. You want it to soak in when applied.
You apply it stationary, spin and wipe off the excess quickly and cut back with 0000 steel wool. Obviously this excludes its use with natural edge bowls or works with voids.
You could also use dilute blonde or bleached shellac and then wax.
3. What wax?
Again, there are many products out there but over time I’ve settled on a couple.
Readily available is Ubeaut’s Traditional Wax. This is easy to apply and buffs up well. An alternative is Gilly Stephenson’s Cabinet Makers Wax. Made in WA, this is a somewhat harder wax which takes a bit more effort to apply.
A specialist wax is Ubeaut’s Shithot Waxstik. (Yep, that’s what it’s called.) This is a hard wax ideal for open-pored timbers like English Elm or the various oaks (English, Silky etc). No other finish is needed: you rub the wax on the spinning workpiece and buff hard with a soft cloth to melt and spread it. This worked spectacularly well on a large bowl of English Elm.
4. Other finishes
There are many other products out there. Some turners use wipe-on poly and I’ll give that a go some time.
Friction polishes are popular as they’re quick and easy. I use Ubeaut Shellawax on my occasional spindle turning for that reason but some timbers it doesn’t go too well on. The Ubeaut website has a Shellawax problem solving page that should be read by users.
5. Links
Rustins DO
Ubeaut products
Gilly Stephenson’s Cabinet Makers Wax