Replies

1. 
   Paul_Snyder | Dec 10, 2003 02:09am | #1

   Tom,

   You're right about mineral oil; it's not a drying oil like tung or linseed. Works great on cutting boards or to lube a spray gun, but not as a finish.

   There are a few ways to pop the curl on birch (or maple) besides the oil. You can just use blonde shellac if you don't want much color at all; just apply enough coats to build a decent film so the shellac will act as a "lense" over the wood. To add some color, you can use a different grade of shellac, or you can dye the wood. You can also add alcohol soluable dye to blonde shellac and use that for a custom color instead of using orange, garnet, buttonlac, etc. You can topcoat the colored shellac or dye with super blonde shellac to provide the lense that will bring the figure to life.

   Dave Haas posted some curly birch cabinets he made and finished on Jeff Jewitt's forum. You can take a look at the cabinets at this link - Curly Birch Cabinets. I asked Dave if I could share his work because I think it's a fine example of a very nice finish on birch. Dave has the finish schedule at this link - Dave's Post (you have to log into the forum to see the picture with the post).

   Paul

1. 
   ron61 | Dec 10, 2003 03:53am | #2

   Paul

   You are right he did a nice job really looks good. I have Jeffs books and love to use BLO and Shellac it really shows off the grain easy to use also. 

   Ron

2. 
   Tomasaur | Dec 10, 2003 07:34am | #3

   Thanks for the info. Glad to realize that I actually have a clue about drying oils! It didn't occur to me to simply build up a shellac film, and I agree that putting a little boiled linseed oil on first would be great.

   Thanks,

   Tom