What kind of finish should I use

My daughter saw my first square bowl and said she wanted one, allways having to do something new, I made this today. It is 7 inchs square and about 2 inchs tall. Having never done this before, what finish would you recommed?

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nappen

Registered: November 2004
Location: Richmond Hill, Ga
Posts: 483

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Date: Sun November 28, 2004
Views: 1,581
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Keywords: what kind of finish should i use

Comments

Philip Peak

I want to see the bottom of this one. As for finish, if your looking for quick and easy and don't want to darken or yellow the wood, try a polycrylic (a water based finish. It is quick dry and easy clean up. 3 coats sand with 400 grit between coats.

#1 Mon November 29, 2004 4:11am

Chris Wright

Judging from the photo it looks like there is some nice fiddleback figure in there Ned. I would use a penetrating oil like Antique, Danish or Tung to seep in there and make the figure jump out. All will darken the color to more of a honey color, but the figure in this piece deserves to be drawn out.

#2 Mon November 29, 2004 8:14am

nappen

Thanks, I completely forgot about danish oil...I haven't used it for a while, but have some and really like it. I think that will be the way to go. I have one other question. Do you see the concentric circles in the interior of the bowl? The were not there until I started sanding. You can't feel them and they wouldn't sand out. I have never worked with fiddleback maple before, is that bruising from over agressive tool use or just somthing inherent the wood?
Philip, I will try to snap a shot of the bottom for you.

#3 Tue November 30, 2004 12:49pm

Chris Wright

Could be a couple of things Ned...it could be bruising from the bevel rubbing too hard or it could be light tear out. The tear out would have sanded away eventually though. Bruising is a bit harder to take care of. It also could be the figure. Normally the figure in fiddleback runs against the grain and if you happened to align the piece just right, you can sometimes get circular figure patterns from it if the figure goes all the way through. An easy way to tell is when you move the piece around in the light, the figure will show up and disappear as you move the piece, this is a charateristic of the chatoyance. If it is bruising, you'll be able to see it consistantly as you turn the piece.

#4 Tue November 30, 2004 5:29pm

nappen

I will check it when I go out to put another coat of danish oil. The oil really brings out the pattern.

(later in the day) Okay, I went and checked. I am going to have to vote for the bruising. It just doens't have the "tear out" appearance. And while some of the middle circles do seem to disappear with movment the top and bottom two (that happen to be just above the greatest curve changes) do not. I think I probably used the bevel with a fulcrum like action at those points.

#5 Tue November 30, 2004 8:12pm

turnenman

Very nice looking bowl nappen!! I really have to try this for my self because it looks like fun to make and look great.

#6 Mon January 17, 2005 9:22pm

nappen

It is, the only hard part is sanding under the wing. I ended up doing it all by hand.

#7 Mon January 17, 2005 9:36pm