First bowl - finishing advice please

[OldWood]

I didn't realise when I started this 'lump' of oak that it was burry - catspaw? - so the bowl has interesting marks and small gaps through the wall. Its shallow - 130m dia by 60dp.

What does the collective advise for polishing please ? And is anyone aware of a tutorial somewhere on the net on polishing as it's an area I'm struggling with a bit at the moment.

Thanks
Rob

 

[Jonzjob]

A fotigraph would be 'andy Rob? It sounds very interesting.

One of my favorites is a Liberon wax stick. I believe that it has a lot of canuba wax in it.. When I first started to use it I thought that it would mark the wood because it's so hard, but it doesn't and it brings out the grain nicely and gives a good finish.

This may help too? I think that I have just found an Aladins cave in the main site for here http://benchmark.20m.com/articles/Finis ... shing.html

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turnin ... icles.html

A bit of bedtime reading peut-êtra?

 

[CHJ]

A picture would help, will give an indication of surface porosity etc.

A sanding sealer followed by a soft wax such as woodwax22 will look fine, the only caveat is that you will need to use a stiff brush to brush out any wax that gets trapped in the pores because it will dry as whitish spots.

I personally like shellac sanding sealer on Oak because it tends to fill the pores somewhat and gives a surface I like, but that of course is just a personal preference thing.

 

[OldWood]

Hi JJ - it is of course very interesting - did you not spot the ooops! "130m dia" - quite some bowl for a beginner. It should of course be 130mm !!

A photo is possible though I haven't discovered how to do it here yet - but it is just a shallow bowl in oak that looks rather cracked. ...... I've now been down to take a photo and discovered just how hard it is to get a photo (a) on a lathe and (b) of the inside of a well sanded bowl.

Rob

 

[CHJ]

....A photo is possible though I haven't discovered how to do it here yet - .....

There is a how-to guide in the Sticky at the top of this forum on how to use a hosting service for your pictures.

 

[Jonzjob]

I just read it as mm, so not a very Poirot eh?

I use photobucket.com for my photos and I find it very good. They have updated now and it is slightly confusing, but still easy to use.

Photo on the lathe. You can see the rear bed bar through the spinning hole!

And to photo the inside just unscrew the bowl still on the chuck

That was a lump of very Sunday elm and it was quite tricky to finish, but I got there in the end. Not very good as a soup bowl, but it was a gift to a good friend when he got his new house and it looks good with fruit in it!

 

[OldWood]

But the grapes would fall through the hole, John !

I'll read Chas' sticky and see what to do. If you can get a finish on that bowl then I'm just being a woose !! That's impressive. I know of a long fallen elm with magnificent burrs - it's just getting them !

Rob

 

[Richard Findley]

Hi Rob,

I always think that Oak goes well with an oil finish. Chestnut Finishing oil is as good as any:

Oil has the advantage of being dead simple to apply and use, just slap it on and wipe it off again!!

If the oak is burr with hole I wolud avoid any type of wax finish as the wax will get in the holes and spoil the look. If it is a more solid burr then add a coat of wax over 3 or 4 coats of oil to get a really nice sheen. I usually sand to 400 girt on my nice bowls.

HTH

Richard

 

[Jonzjob]

Rob, almost all of the grapes we have are in bottles marked Minervois, Cabardes or Corbier and they don't go in the bowl mate!!

Don't forget those pikkies!

 

[OldWood]

JJ - you don't by chance know a bunch of Brits down your way that sell seeds (B & T World Seeds) - near Aigues-Vives. Seems you've been having a bit of winter down there !

Rob

 

[Jonzjob]

Not off hand Rob. They are about 100 miles East of us. Even here, that's a long way to a pair of retireez.

We have nearly!! got rid of the foot of snow we had last Sunday/Monday, BUT there is a rumour that there just may be some more to come as early as tomorrow! We didn't move all the way down here for the bloody freezing cold! There is an uoside though beacuse when it starts to warm it does so big time! And I love it!!

Back on subject and sorry for the mini hijack!

I am a great fan of what I first had when I bought my first Record lathe. It was Coronete Speed an Eez, now it's Record Speed an Eez and I find it a really good friction polish and so easy to use on or off the lathe. I have been keeping the small bit I have thinking that it probably isn't available any more, but I have found it again and am about to order some.

 

[OldWood]

Hi Richard

"I always think that Oak goes well with an oil finish. Chestnut Finishing oil is as good as any: "

I've ordered up some Finishing Oil - couple of queries

1 Do I sanding seal first - cellulose or shellac ?

2 How do I apply the oil - cloth/brush? with the work piece running ? leave how long ? polish? ... etc.!!

many thanks
Rob

 

[CHJ]

Sorry to butt in but in case Richard is not about, you can use a brush or cloth, don't use a sealer, you want the oil to soak in. Note warnings about oil soaked cloths and combustion.

See the product data info from the chestnut site. (More..)

http://www.chestnutproducts.co.uk/results.php?cat=Oils

 

[Richard Findley]

Hi Rob,

Chas is (as usual :roll: :wink: ) correct, no need to seal before oiling as you want the oil to soak in so it feeds the wood. I usually just rub the oil in with either a bit of white paper towel (and leave laid out flat until crispy) or a bit of Nyweb abrasive pad works really well for applying oil and wax for that matter. It is a very fine abrasive, something in the realms of 1000 + grit (although I honestly don't know the exact grit!!??) These can be cut up and washed out and re-used so very useful thing to have. Finshing with a fine abrasive pad kind of cuts back as you're applying and IME works a treat.

HTH

Richard

 

[Duiker]

Hi Rob, I often mix brass or copper fillings with resin or hard setting glue to fill these gaps. You can then sand it and it looks awesome when polished. The advantage here is it is totally smooth and allows any number of higher gloss finishes.

 

[OldWood]

Hi Duiker
I didn't say this is only my second bowl! Give us a chance on the learning curve and then I'll have a go with the brass, etc.

Thanks for the idea
Rob

 

[Weasel Howlett]

At the rick of hijacking the thread. What glue would be good for doing the copper/brass filings hole filling thing??

 

[OldWood]

A perfectly reasonable highjack - as I would like to know the answer to that too! I do actually have a source of brass filings too.

Rob

 

[CHJ]

I use CA or Epoxy, dependant upon size of defect I'm filling.

If large filling involved then sanding dust can be used to fill bulk with just a surface fill of required finish.

Very small pores/defects can be filled by applying sealer or oil finish with fine abrasive, the resultant slurry fills the small voids.

 

[Bodrighy]

I tend to use epoxy as it gives me more time to get the filling in the hole. If you are using brass dust your finish will look like solid brass, filings however give a sort of textured look about them. If you are getting them form a key cutter run a magnet over them before using as they often have steel dust in them which will go all discoloured in time in the wood.

pete