Finish options for bowls?

[Trent Mason]

Right now I'm practicing bowl turning with pine blanks that I glued up. Pretty soon though, I'll probably glue up some blanks from scrap cherry and ash and will be looking into other types of hardwood/exotics.

When I was at Dave's shop, he used boiled linseed oil and then some type of wax by Minwax to finish. I had planned on using those, but what other options have you all had success with? Also, for the pine bowls what should I use? I have some poly, but didn't want to use that because I just want to finish them once and not have to sand/refinish.


Thanks so much for the help. :notworthy:

 

[jlwest]

I like Tung oil which is food safe.

Jeff

 

[woodArtz]

Hey Trent... It's great to hear that the dark side has you fully in its grasp :wink_smil. I use a number of different finishes for my bowls. For bowls with food safe applications, I use either "salad bowl finish" or walnut oil/beeswax. Although most other finishes are food safe when cured, I sometimes have trouble convincing the galleries of that. For non-food applications, I might use BLO, Danish Oil, rattle can lacquer, and Mylands friction polish. There may be others I have used over the years, but these are my standards.

 

[Woodman2k]

A wipe on Urethane or oil/urethane mix looks good also.Put on a coat,let it dry,0000steel wool and put on another coat etc etc etc.Satin,gloss whatever hooks your fancy works.Mylands,tung oil,lacquer,it all works ,it all depends what you want to see.
Greg

 

[Trent Mason]

Hey Trent... It's great to hear that the dark side has you fully in its grasp :wink_smil.

Bob, fully in its grasp? I ride down the road looking for trees/branches that have fallen down. I've even considered dumpster diving at the local hardwoods store. Yep, I'd say I'm fully in its grasp. :help: :rotflm::rotflm::rotflm:

Thanks to those who have responded so far. I had a feeling that the possibilities are endless, but just wanted to know what some of your favorite finishes/etc are. :icon_thum

 

[FuzzWuzz16]

Trent,

No matter what finish I use, I always end with a couple of coats of some type wax. I rub it in using synthetic steel wool - the plastic kind - for a couple of coats. Then I put on a final and buff out with very soft cloth or wool. This gives the piece a very nice feel so that when people touch it they immendiately want to handle it because it feels so nice.

I've used most of the finishes mentioned and tend to select the finish based on the end use of the turning.

Jim

 

[WoodWrangler]

Beeswax is simple and cheap and seems to work well. Other times an oil, like tung oil or some type of seed oil. All the above work well for a quick finish. But my preferred finish so far is the buffing wheels. Soft, nice, shiny finish and little effort. Do it right on the lathe with a three-part buffing system.

 

[JRD]

Trent,

In the past I've relied on BLO, clear acrylic, poly, etc.

Just finished a Bradford Pear bowl from a tree my brother cut at his home and tried Danish Oil and nothing else. Now I did sand down to 800 grit, but the Danish oil after two coats looks far better than anything else that I've tried.

It may have been the sanding because I usually stop at 320 on bowls, but I plan to try a lot more with Danish Oil and deep sanding.

Jim

 

[DaveO]

Your first choice will be the intended useage of the bowl. Functional or decorative. If you're gonna eat out of it or store food in it, a mineral wax (plus or minus bees wax) is great as are the "salad bowl" finishes, or nothing and let the food give it a patina.
If it's going to be decorative, you've seen my favorite finish, but I also like rattle can shellac and lacquer.

Dave