Curly Maple Bowl

Nice shape to this bowl Gary. Also nice finish and a nice photo to show it off. I haven't had much luck with BLO and have been using tung oil. How long did you let the BLO finish before applying the lacquer? Did you spray the lacquer via compressor?

Hi Jeff. I've only used the BLO/mineral spirit mix (50/50) a couple of times. I think it makes the figure pop more, and dosn't darken as much as tung oil. I brushjed it on liberaly and after it stoped soaking in I wiped off any excess. Lacquer was applied two days later. Lately, I've been using Deff spray satin lacquer. It has a nice fan shaped spray nozzle, and does almost as nice a job as my compressor powered spray gun, with a lot less clean-up.

Thanks Gary. That is one gripe I have about tung oil - is that it darkens some wood quite a bit. I like the grain pop that it gives. Maybe I'll get a fresh can of BLO and try your technique on a couple of pieces. Thanks for the info.