In 2016 I built myself a Roubo style workbench out of Ash. I never got around to applying a finish to the bench and it hasn’t seemed to make a difference – that I can tell. At this point I’m of the opinion a finish is unnecessary.
Is there something I should be concerned with that I may be missing? I like the ‘grippiness’ the bench top currently provides.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Replies
glue drops pop off a finished surface easily.
Wax. I just scrape off any glue drips and put a little wax on it occasionally. As suggested above the glue pops off super easy if it's waxed. And don't spend time buffing your bench. It's a tool not furniture. Level the wax with #0000 steel wool and call it good. 30 minutes with drying time tops.
You’ve had it this way for 8 years and are happy with it. As such, I’d leave it as is. Glue ups are the biggest offender and if they haven’t been an issue, I’d leave well enough alone.
Thank you all for your comments. For glue up's I use my assembly table, rarely my bench.
I put a single light coat of satin Arm-R-Seal on my red oak bench to ease removal of occasional glue blobs and other stuff that invariably happens in a garage shop shared with a car, bicycles and other things that aren’t supposed to end up on the woodworking bench but unfailing do anyway. Still adequately grippy and much easier to clean as needed, especially on an open pored wood.
I built my Roubo bench in 2019 out of ash also. I left the top unfinished and the only reason I finished the rest of it was for aesthetics, primarily to highlight the chop, sliding deadman, and classic condor-tail endcap which I fashioned from a beautiful load of sipo which I just happened to stumble on. I used Tried and True varnish oil. But honestly, it would have been perfectly fine and beautiful with no finish. I get the point others make about glue spots, but I do not use my workbench for anything other than handtool work. My project table is my large tablesaw outfeed table surfaced with laminate. Different strokes.....
I use on my bench an equal amount of boiled linseed oil, varnish and paint thinner. Put 1 or 2 thin coats on will help with the glue and any stain that might get on the bench. Works great.
I built a nice large workbench with all the vises and hold downs about 35 years ago. Over those years it has seen countless drips of stain, paint, varnish, poly, shellac, lacquer, etc from the hundreds of projects that it has helped me build. I consider it self finishing. It's not as pretty as it once was, but after all it is a WORKbench....not a piece of art too be drooled over.