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Buffing and oil finish?

C

Charlie Harley

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Jun 20, 2006
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Cincinnati, OH
Buffing an oil finish?

I like using oil on salad bowls, and I like the Beall buff system on decorative objects. I know wax won't hold up to use on a salad bowl, but has anyone ever tried using just the Tripoli and White Diamond to get a shiny oil surface?

What about using an empty hard buffing wheel on the oil surface?

I'm going to experiment some with this but thought I'd ask in case someone had experience from which to begin.
 
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Sorry to tell you, Charlie, but any non-polymerizing oil can't be buffed with any success. What you'll end up with is a somewhat ruined buffing wheel and a murky/scummy surface. The liquid nature of the oil prevents a solid surface from forming, which is what gives you the shine/polish. It will also hold dirt and dust, so I'd assume the buffing would worsen rather than improve the finish. Will be interested in your results.

Dietrich 🙁
 
Salad Bowl Finish

For the bowls I keep around the house for general use I do almost exactly what you are suggesting. The finishes don't last past a dozen uses, but they are easy to refresh by wiping with oil followed by an optional rebuffing. Every couple of months when I feel like doing something in the shop, but I don't have the inclination to turn anything, I grab a cardboard box full of bowls and spend an hour cleaning them up. You never get the scratches from use out of the piece, but I think these little nicks and scratches add character.

I use several variations of the plain oil/wax finish for utility pieces. All start with sanding the piece to around 400 grit. I sand on slow speed so as not to burnish the wood and inhibit the finish from penetrating. Most of the time I make four or five coats of pure tung oil over a week or so. Then wait for the bowl to be dry to the touch, then go through the buffing process.

I finish with a very light buffing of the carnuba wax. I do not have the expectation that the wax will offer any long term protection, I do it just so it looks nice when it comes upstairs. By light buffing I mean I buff without adding additional wax to the wheel, whatever is left on the wheel from previous uses seems to be enough to give a little bit of shine. After a month or so most of the carnuba wax seems to be either gone or disappeared into the wood. If the wax is really gone you can do a very light coat of tung oil, let dry, and then rewax. There is also absolutely nothing wrong with leaving off the carnuba wax entirely, the tung oil offers excellent protection and turns into a really nice looking finish the longer you give it. The tung/carnuba finish seems to work pretty well for me on porous woods.

My next most used variation is skipping the tung oil and using a non-drying oil like mineral oil or a walnut oil based product. When I use a non-drying oil I typically skip the carnuba wax. The non-drying oil finish is really easy to refresh, I have a little bottle with oil in it on the window sill over the sink, after a rinse with warm soapy water I dry the piece and wipe with the oil, that is all it takes.

Jeff
 
Hey Jeff,

Just need to stick in that Tung oil is a polymerizing oil, which means it dries to a hard surface and can be buffed well at that point.

I've been assuming that Charlie was talking about buffing with a non-polymerizing oil like mineral oil, lemon oil, vegetable oil, etc.

Do you ever buff when you use mineral oil?

Dietrich
 
No, it is a polymerizing oil that dries hard that I use. The notion of leaving a "moist" surface just doesn't sit right with me.

Thank you all for your thoughts.
 
Buffing with non-drying oil

I do buff with the non-drying oil, but I don't do the wax step, and I apply oil after I buff. I should have been clear on that point, sorry. The non-drying (non-polymerizing) oils would certainly leave something behind on the buffing wheels. Do it enough and I could imagine a big round spinning wheel of goo that used to be your buffing wheel.

IMHO, the non-drying oil finish is certainly worth at least experimenting with. If you have ever seen/used real butcher block, from before the invention of poly-urethanes, I believe that many of these were treated with non-drying oils, specifically mineral oil. These blocks lasted for many years under tuff use, and also remained safe from a bacteria standpoint, and of course the vintage blocks still look good enough that today they can be expensive to buy.

I also remember that on a trip to Alaska talking with a naturalist about some wood pieces that we had seen in one of the local collections. The bowls and spoons were carved from local timber and treated with the oil extracted from fishing activities. The items were from before the turn of the century and clearly used daily by their owners. Still in very good shape. I was surprised that they didn't go rancid, but there was something in the wood species that didn't allow this to happen. I wish I had the presence of mind to take pictures of the items.

Both methods seem to work well, and I am sure there are other great methods and products. So (like just about everything else in wood turning) it comes down to what you like to look at, feel and maintain.

Jeff
 
I use a method of buffing similar to what you are asking about Charlie. Only I usually use it with poly.

I finish a piece and sand to 600 on the lathe, slow speed by hand. I then wipe on a coat of you guessed it Wipe-On-Poly. I let it sit for about 15 minutes. I then re-coat it and let sit for another 15 minutes. I then wipe it off as best as I can using clean cotton rags. I let dry overnight. I then scuff the surface with steel wool by hand and blow off. I then repeat the process 2 or 3 times depending on what shine I want. Once all of that is dry. Usually around a week later, I buff it using 3" bowl buffs. I only use the tripoli and white diamond buffs. I don't use the wax buff. I don't like the way wax gets muddy after a few months. I use this on closed grain woods alot. It works really well on maple and walnut. The finish I get is well protected, smooth as a babys bottom, and feels sily to the touch. Also it is not so shiny as fingerprints mess it up.

I just tried this same method after finishing 2 pieces with Mahoney's walnut oil. I had mixed results. 1 bowl was honey locust and it came out real well. The other was ornamental cherry. The oil didn't seem to cure all the way before I tried to buff. I will give at a few weeks in the living room daylight(not direct sun) and then re-buff to see if it does better.

Good Luck,
---Nailer---
 
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