I’m finishing up a side table made from quartersawn white oak and I wanted to know what folks might recommend for a safe finish in as much as I’ll be breathing it in for awhile in my 600 square foot apartment. I’ve used tung oil and shellac in the past but I’ve heard tung oil doesn’t look so good on an open grain wood like oak because it doesn’t fill in the “divets”. (OK, that is not the right word but you get the idea). I’m willing to use shellac but thought I might branch out into something else. Is there a “natural” varnish or anthing like that? Any recommendations and comments appreciated.
thanks!
shawn
Replies
On Oak, I prefer 1/3rd each BLO, Mineral Spirits and Varnish, mixed well and applied, leave for 10 minutes, wipe off and repeat the next and the next and the next day. I love the fragrance of BLO!!!
Edited 2/4/2009 6:24 pm ET by sinsin
While you can fill the pores with shellac, it's a very long and tedious job, since shellac in cuts with enough solids content to make the job go quicker are also trickier to apply evenly. Of course, since you would be sanding it off even application isn't that essential. The process is easier if you use a commercial pore filler. You can then coat that with shellac as a top coat for a minimum of "outgasing" since the shellac doesn't outgas, the solvent just evaporates. And the solvent alcohol in shellac evaporates very quickly so you wouldn't have a lingering odor problem.
The other alternative would be to use a waterborne acyrlic finish. Most people find the odor to be relatively low.
Yes, there is some natural varnish, but natural doesn't really buy you anything. Natural does NOT carry any implication of safety. To boot, we are talking VERY expensive--a liter of rosin/turpentine varnish is $61. Both main ingredients are "natural", but as a solvent turpentine is more toxic than mineral spirits. For less toxicity you can even buy an Amber/Linseed Oil or Amber/Walnut oil varnish but for 60 ml (yes milliliters) you would pay $261. You can work out the cost for a liter. There are even some finishes market as being very green that use a citrus solvent, d limonene but it is not at all clear that this is safer than mineral spirits--most likely it is less safe.
shellac is the best natural finish out there.. shellac itself comes from the lac bug in India so it's renewable and safe (you've been eating shellac all of your life on pills and candy)
True they "thin" shellac with denatured alcohol but that's 98% alcohol like you find in beer wine and drinks. and 2% of something to denature it so high school kids don't start using the hardware store as a source for a cheap drunk..
IN addition shellac dries really quickly in the thinner cuts so your exposure to the 2% of denaturing agent is really brief.. (open a window if you are really sensitive)
I hope you aren't mixing your own from flakes..
I just priced shellac flakes at my local wood worker store and they wanted $19.00 a 1/2 pound.. that's $38.00 a pound and for about $30.00 tou can buy Zinnser Bulls eye which is a 2# cut which by those prices would cost you $95.00
White oak is an 'open-grained' hardwood. For that reason, many would select it if they wanted the porous look. 'Closed-grained' hardwoods are typically used for the smooth finish look.
I know there are alot of opinions here--and none of them are wrong--but to fill those pores you run the risk of the final product looking 'plasticky'
I'll be breathing it in for awhile in my 600 square foot apartment.
Open the windows and a really good fan and other safety stuff!
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