Hi All,
I’m new to the forum. It does look like a great place to talk to other woodworkers. May father and I have a woodworking business where we primarily make church furniture although we do take an ocacsional job from thje local area. One such project that we are about to complete is a workbench which is made from Douglas fir with red oak drawer fronts and accents.
We were planning to rub on boiled linseed oil as a final finish. Is there something else that might be a better choice?
Any ideas would be appreciated as 99% of our projects just get a clear lacquer finish so our experience with different finishes is limited.
-Joshua, Artisan’s Touch
Replies
For my bench I used shellac after reading Frenchy's posts and it is holding up well. Great finish for speed and can be fixed just as quickly. Earlier work tables I used tung oil, but found it too slow to cure. The tung oil is holding up well also, but I fear it will be less likely that I will repair the damages as the tung oil curing will hold up work.
there are many great threads of late discussing finishes at length. take a look at the "i hate finishing thread" and the "some shellac questions" There is much debate between very experienced finishers in these.
If you have to have a finish, Howard has laid the options out very well. I would agree with the oil/varnish over straight oil.
I do know a lot of very good woodworkers who eschew finish entirely on a workbench. If it is too pretty it inhibits really using it to do real work, or to pull out a plane to flatten to top when it gets a small amount out of flat.
you have the benefit of experience so I am in no position to argue. The main reason I opted for shellac, was its finish time. I needed my bench and was not patient enough to wait. The shellac has been holding up well thus far, but I am more cautious with this bench because of the time and effort to build.
IMO, a film finish (lacquer, shellac, varnish, poly varnish) is not the way to go. A workbench is going to get dinged and film finishes will crack or craze or be otherwise damaged. Once a film finish is penetrated, it looses its effectiveness and adjacent areas begin to fail. I much favor a "in the wood finish". Here are two that lots of folks find effective.
First, is an boiled linseed oil and wax finish. Sand the surface to 180 grit. Mix paraffin or bees wax into heated boiled linseed oil. USE A DOUBLE BOILER TO HEAT THE OIL. The ratio is not critical but about 4-5 parts of boiled linseed oil in a double boiler with one part paraffin or beeswax shaved in. Take it off the stove. Thin this mixture about 50/50 with mineral spirits to make a heavy cream like liquid. Apply this mixture to the benchtop liberally and allow to set overnight. Do it again the next day and again the following day if the top continues to absorb it. After a final overnight, lightly scrape off any excess wax and buff. This finish will minimize the absorption of any water and you can use a damp rag to wipe up any glue excess. Dried glue will pop right off the surface. Renewal or repair is easy. Just use a scraper to remove and hardened stuff, wipe down with mineral spirits using a 3/0 steel wool pad, wipe off the gunk and apply another coat of mineral oil/wax mixture.
My personal preference is for an oil/varnish mixture treatment. Either use Minwax Tung Oil Finish, Minwax Antique oil or a homebrew of equal parts of boiled linseed oil, your favorite varnish or poly varnish and mineral spirits. Sand the benchtop up to 180 grit. Apply the mixture heavily and keep it wet for 15-30 minutes. Wipe off any excess completely. Let it dry overnight and the next day, apply another coat using 4/0 steel wool. Let it set and then wipe off any excess. Let this dry 48-72 hours. Apply a coat of furniture paste wax and you're done. This treatment is somewhat more protective than the wax and mineral oil as the varnish component adds some protection from not only water both some other chemicals also. The waxing makes the surface a little more impervious to water so you can wipe up any liquid adhesive. It also allows hardened wax to be scraped off. Repair and renewal is easy. Just go through the same scraping, wiping down with mineral spirits and reapplication of the BLO/varnish/mineral spirits mixture and an application of paste wax.
Both of the above treatments are quite protective but are easy to maintain and renew. They do not fail when the surface takes a ding.
Thanks very much for your suggestions and comments. I will try the tung oil idea.FG
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled