It applies with a cloth and, after the excess is wiped off , dries on the surface in about 20 to 30 minutes. Bumblechutes recommends that the paste be reapplied every two to four weeks. It can be used as a stand-alone finish or to improve the moisture resistance of surfaces treated with Woodworker’s Oil.

Both products have a pleasant, lemony smell when first applied. Rockler sells Woodworker’s Oil in 8.45 oz bottles. All-In-One Wood Conditioner comes in 4 oz glass jars.

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Other benefits include milk paint’s versatility and visual appeal. It can be applied over absorbent surfaces such as wood, concrete, plaster or brick without the need for primer. It is UV fade-resistant and will accept all topcoats and finishes, which can alter the sheen or add even more durability. Milk paint dries quickly without residual odor and cleans up with water. Waste paint is worry-free, too — just pour it down the drain, flush it or compost it.

The Real Milk Paint Co. Milk Paint, now available in an assortment of colors from Rockler, is made from natural ingredients: casein, lime, pigments and a plant-based filler. The paint is simple to prepare for use by mixing it 50/50 with tap water. Each can includes 11⁄4 cups of paint powder and a handy glass mixing marble. Pour the amount of dry paint and water you need into the plastic can, drop the marble in, snap on the lid and shake the can vigorously for 5 minutes.

Once mixed, the paint is workable for up to two weeks if kept refrigerated. In powdered form, it’s shelf stable and will last for years. The dry contents of the can forms one pint of liquid paint, which covers about 35 sq. ft.

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Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish can alleviate any niggling concerns you may have, because its ingredients couldn’t be simpler: beeswax and food-safe mineral oil. That’s it! It contains no harmful chemicals or additives.

Unscrewing the lid and taking a deep breath of the contents will confirm the beeswax immediately — it’s subtle and the only discernible smell this product has. Clapham’s has formulated the wax emulsion to be firm enough to be solid but not so stiff as to prevent it from loading easily onto an applicator. Rubbing it over bare wood, the wax immediately liquefies and penetrates into the grain, darkening it without imparting a shine. Once it dries, the wood takes on a flat appearance again, as though the surface is damp but entirely dry to the touch.

Aside from being food-safe, the other upside to a natural blended-wax finish is that it couldn’t be simpler to apply: wipe it on liberally, give it a few minutes to soak in and wipe off the excess. The downside, however, is that it will need to be reapplied often and off ers only slight water resistance and protection.

Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish is suitable for wooden bowls, spoons and butcher blocks and can also be used as a cutting board wax or as a food-safe countertop finish. It comes in a 7 oz jar and sells for $19.99.

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The company claims 0 percent VOCs with no solvents, which is desirable for many woodworkers.

One Coat?

The hardwax oil does go on with one application, but there are caveats. First off, after sanding to 150-grit, you need to get rid of the sawdust. After vacuuming the swarf away, Rubio suggests using their Raw Wood Cleaner to remove the tiniest dust particles. Some woodworkers use mineral spirits as an alternative.

If you believe in raising the grain with water before finishing, now is the time to do it. When the wood dries, whisk off the raised grain with a synthetic pad.

You can apply Rubio Monocoat without using the hardener, but it will take about three weeks or more to fully cure (much like tung oil). Or, add one part hardener to two parts oil and mix them together well. Choose a section of your project that you can complete in about 10 to 15 minutes. Pour the oil onto the wood surface and use a plastic spreader, synthetic scratchy pad or a rag to spread out the finish. A little oil will go a long way. Allow the oil to sit for about five minutes and then buff the oil into the wood. When that’s done, remove any extra oil with a soft, clean, lint-free cloth.

Rubio Monocoat dries to a very low-luster finish that feels smooth and silky. It’s formulated in 50 different colors, including one that’s basically a clear coat.

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More than 20 years ago Nordy Rockler partnered with Maloof to develop a signature wood finish that not only would meet Sam’s expectations but also provide an easy-to-apply solution for woodworkers of all skills levels. Rockler’s Sam Maloof Poly/Oil Finish is the result. It’s a custom blend of polyurethane varnish and other natural oils, including raw tung oil and linseed oil, that can simply be wiped onto bare wood and dries to a satiny “close to the wood” sheen.

This moderately thick liquid has an amber tone that deepens wood color and grain patterns while offering protection against spills and normal wear and tear. Use it on interior furniture, cabinetry, millwork and accent projects that won’t be exposed to heat or excessive moisture. When the wood looks dry, the finish can be reapplied as needed without sanding or stripping the project first.

Sam Maloof Poly/Oil Finish is suitable for bare or stained wood of most species, provided the stain is fully cured. For optimal results, sand the wood up through the grits to 400 or even higher, then burnish the surfaces with 0000 steel wool. Apply the finish liberally and wipe off the excess completely to prevent excess finish from becoming tacky. After the finish dries for 24 hours, subsequent coats can be applied. Allow each coat to dry for 24 hours. Four coats are recommended.

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Made in the USA, it is FDA-approved for food contact surfaces such as cutting boards, butcher blocks and wooden countertops, does not solidify under normal conditions, is highly shelf-stable and has virtually no scent.

This wood finish goes on smooth — not too thick and not too thin — and it won’t impart a strange taste to food. It will leave your cutting board with a silky smooth finish, rich color and a little shine while it helps protect the wood from food stains and keeps it looking new. Rub on two coats for even more depth and color.

Walrus Oil Cutting Board Oil is available in an 8 oz squeeze bottle from Rockler. Or you can purchase quart-sized or even larger containers directly from the manufacturer by visiting walrusoil.com.

Walrus Oil Cutting Board Oil is just one option among a growing family of wood care products. A denser formulation — Wood Wax For Cutting Boards also available from Rockler — is made of the same ingredients as the oil but comes in a 3 oz tin. Apply it as you would other furniture or car waxes, let the wax dry for 15 minutes and buff it with a rag. It can be used over Cutting Board Oil for added protection or applied as a stand-alone wood preservative.

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– Stain Finish for Highly Figured Hardwoods
– Natural Finish on Close Grained Hardwood
– Natural Finish on Softwoods
– Paint Finish for Wood
– Stained Finish on Closed Grain Hardwood
– Stain Finish on Open Grained Hardwood

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Shellac

Shellac is a splendid traditional finish for spindle turnings, bowls and boxes. Any finish will stick to shellac and vice versa. It also dries incredibly quickly and is food safe.

While you can buy premixed liquid shellac at a hardware store, I prefer to use dry shellac flakes that have to be dissolved in denatured alcohol. This “old school” shellac will give much better results at the lathe. I mix a small amount of dewaxed shellac flakes with enough denatured alcohol to cover them. I cap the container and let the flakes dissolve over a period of 12 to 24 hours. You can accelerate the process slightly by placing the bottle in a sunny window or outside on warm summer days. This will yield a super-saturated solution — what finishers call an “8-lb. cut,” which equates to 8 pounds of shellac dissolved in one gallon of alcohol.

A full-strength solution like this is far too viscous for our needs and must be diluted by mixing one part full-strength shellac to three parts alcohol. This reduces it to a 2-lb. cut, which is about right for a simple padding application on the lathe.

With the turning mounted in the lathe and stationary, I brush on the shellac. When the wood is completely saturated, start the lathe and burnish the finish with either shavings from the floor or a small piece of paper towel. You need quite a bit of speed for this process to work. I use 1,800 rpm for any spindle between 1/2″ and 2″ in diameter. I increase the speed for parts thinner than 1/2″, and I decrease the speed for turnings over 2″. Let common sense be your guide here.

The friction of the shavings or paper causes the alcohol to evaporate, and the shellac melts into a smooth finish. A second coat followed by burnishing and even a third is good measure. Much depends on the strength of the shellac and the wood you are finishing. Open-grain woods will take more coats than close-grained varieties.

Be sure to insulate your hands with sufficient shavings or paper towel to prevent burns, and remove the toolrest to avoid pinches.

If the finish doesn’t seem to build well, your shellac mixture is too thin; add some full-strength liquid shellac to it. If you are getting streaks with chips sticking to the work, the solution is too thick. Add more alcohol.

Carnauba Wax

Pure carnauba wax is a fine finish in its own right. It’s a quick finish I use by itself for handles, boxes and turnings. Carnauba is the hardest of waxes and comes from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree. It is so hard that it cannot be applied in its natural form. It’s an ingredient in many automotive waxes, furniture waxes and friction polishes for turning. These all have various forms of mineral spirits as a vehicle to apply the polish. Once the spirits evaporate, the wax can be buffed out.

At the lathe, pure carnauba in solid form is a friction polish par excellence, but you must use sufficient speed (per the speeds for shellac, above) to apply it. Hold the wax against the turning to coat the wood, then use chips or paper towel to melt it into a smooth, glossy coating.

Blended Oil Finishes

Like shellac, traditional oil finishes have been around for a long time. You can make your own by mixing equal parts of an oil-based varnish, a drying oil such as tung or boiled linseed and mineral spirits. While I’ve tried this homemade brew, I feel premixed commercial examples work just as well and save you the labor.

My favorite commercial oil finish these days is Waterlox Original Sealer Finish — a tung oil-based coating made in Cleveland. Other oil finishes that work well are Minwax Antique Oil (a linseed-based oil finish) and the widely available Watco Danish Oil.

Oil/varnish blends like this polymerize into a hard, durable coating within 24 hours. They have a healthy appetite for oxygen, which is what is needed for them to polymerize. Therefore, a can of oil finish either has to be decanted into smaller containers or used within a day or two to prevent the mixture from beginning to cure. Heat is released in the polymerization process, making this finish potentially flammable if rags are wadded up tightly after use. So, take great care to spread them out flat until the finish dries, and be just as cautious about throwing away brushes and wood shavings saturated with the wet finish. A fireproof metal trash can is a sensible safety measure to add to your shop if you plan to work with a lot of blended oil finishes.

Oil/varnish finish is a great coating for bowls. It can be applied to a bowl that has been turned from unseasoned (green) or dry wood. Since it will inhibit water loss from the end grain, a rough-turned green bowl will dry more evenly, and less checking will occur.

I use blended oil finish for most of my bowls. Once I have sanded a green or dry bowl up to 180-grit, I wipe on the first coat of finish. Then I sand the bowl with 180-grit again. Wet finish actually makes the sanding process more efficient, because the mixture of wood dust and oil fills the wood pores and then hardens into an ideal wood filler that perfectly matches the wood. Burnishing the applied and sanded finish with wood shavings enhances the pore-filling process.

I sand subsequent coats of finish into the wood at 24-hour intervals with progressively finer sandpaper. I use 220-grit for the second coat and 320 for all subsequent coats. Depending on the intended use and the wood the bowl is turned from, I apply anywhere from three to five coats of finish.

It’s handy to keep the bowl on the faceplate for the entire finishing process, which works better for dry wood bowls that aren’t inclined to warp. This doesn’t work as well with green bowls that will continue to distort in the hours following turning.

In terms of food safety issues, be sure to check the safety data sheets for whichever finish you choose. Waterlox’s data sheet, for instance, says that the finish is food safe after 30 days of drying subsequent to the last coat applied.

Walnut Oil

If you want an absolutely food-safe finish, it’s hard to beat walnut oil. You can find it at most grocery stores. In fact, I use my leftover walnut oil as a salad dressing — that’s how safe it is.

Walnut oil is my go-to finish for treenware and bowls that are intended to be used. Application is child’s play too: just pour some on the object to be finished and rub it in with your hands, then wipe off the excess. Although the object can be used immediately, it’s better to wait three or more days for the oil to soak in and begin to dry. Walnut oil will dry eventually, but it is slow to polymerize and does not form a very durable coating. However, you can recoat any time you wish to good effect, whenever the wood begins to look dry.

No Finish at All

That’s right, no finish at all is often a great option for turned objects. Bowls and treenware were seldom finished in antiquity.

Cooking oil and washing by hand will soon build an attractive patina that will enhance the character of your turned projects permanently.

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